60 hours awake, is this possible?
Two of my friends have decided to do sixty hours without sleeping. I wasn’t particularly worried about them since they’d done fifty hours before without any major side effects. But this morning I was with them and another friend. He brought up the fact that sixty hours would do major damage to their immune systems and they wouldn’t have the access to vitamin D since it’s now winter and last time they did this was in summer where it was plentiful.
Is sixty hours as much of an impact as my friend says it will compared to fifty hours? How long would it take for them to recover? Any advice?
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I read about a man who stayed awake for eleven days. He then slept for 24 hours. And he was back to normal.
Why would you want to deliberately stay awake that long? The last time that I was up that long, which wasn’t a decision, I felt like complete and utter shit. That’s for someone that is prone to insomnia and frequently goes 24+ hours without sleep.
We need sleep for a reason. Going without proper sleep puts you at risk of weight gain, high blood pressure, among other health issues. Especially if you make a habit of not sleeping. I certainly hope neither of your friends intend to drive a car anytime during this 60 hour experiment, because that could be potentially lethal. Just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean that it’s smart.
It’s not healthy to deprive yourself of sleep for any extended period of time, but since they’re young and (presumably) fairly healthy, they’ll be fine, though their sleep schedules may be messed up for a while. Also, agreed that they definitely shouldn’t drive.
It is possible. During WWI they had units that were in battle for a week at a time, most of the survivors didn’t sleep until they were pulled out of the lines for R&R and to replace the losses.
The Standard towards the end of the war for British Empire troops was one week on the line and 2–3 weeks behind.
Please get them out of that Starbucks! Seriously, yes it is not only possible, most people, especially younger ones could pull that off and more, if they want to.
It’s been found that people actually take kind of forced naps when awake for very long periods of time. Moments of nodding off where the body steals some sleep. This is why people crash their cars when they are tired, the brain shuts down to sleep from exhaustion, even though the thinking brain knows it is suicidal to sleep at that moment. When my husband lived in Bogata they changed the last call for alcohol to 1:00 in the morning, because they decided lack of sleep contributed to car accidents as mich as or more than alcohol. Their accident rate went down, even though the bars were open earlier, and just as full for the same amount of hours.
Anyway, lets say they actually do completely stay awake for 60 hours, it isn’t good for you, but it probably won’t kill them. They will likely sleep at least 15 hours the next day, and then another couple of days of long sleeps to catch up. They will be more prone to catching an illness during the 60 hours and days to follow. They will have impaired judgment, should not use power tools, drive, carry a baby, etc.
The vitamin D thing won’t have a big impact. First, we have no idea if they are dificient. If they get lots of sun in the summer, their D levels are probably still normal in winter. If they protect themselves from the sun all of the time with clothing or suntan lotion, their D levels are probably low all of the time, even in summer, unless they take vitamin D supplements, which would be the same all years. It’s pretty much impossible to get enough D just from food.
During week 4 of training to be a Navy Seal, you go thru Hell Week .
That’s over 100 hours of not sleeping, during which you are training 24 hours a day.
I was awake for far longer than 60 hours straight during my first labor & delivery – and suffered no adverse effects from the sleep loss.
Assuming they are otherwise young & healthy and not overdoing the stimulants (caffeine) I can’t see a major health risk…just a silly experiment that shouldn’t have any long term ill effects for them.
The longest a human has been awake is 11 days.
Don’t let on to them that it really is no big deal!! Air traffic controllers do it all the time!
@Nullo It’s not true. There are very strict laws for air traffic control.
@JLeslie Those strict laws did not keep these recent ATC’s from taking naps and even coordinating naps with co-workers. Even strict laws are open to abuse.
@Cruiser Of course there is no guarantee with these laws. Pilots might be limited to flight time, but if they are up all night with a sick baby, they are not well rested. What ATC? Are you talking about? I have not watched the news in weeks.
There have been at least two instances in the last month of working ATC taking naps while they had planes in the air. In one instance a couple planes were landed without final clearance.
@JLeslie This story covers one of the most recent and notable examples of an ATC asleep on the job.
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