When you haven't actually slept for 24 hours or even 48, what happens to you physically or mentally?

I do it a lot of the time and usually i’m just all happy and kind of out of it, i’m not a very grumpy person unless you wake me up in a rude way though…

i find fluther can do this to me. it is an addiction.

i aint mad atchya fluther though!

For me, everything starts feeling kind of surreal after about 30 hours. The longest I’ve gone was 42 hours, at which point my friends begged me to go to bed.

@aidje: why did you stay up so long?

I have not had to do this for many years. It is awful.

I just had to do this recently. I was awake for 24 hours and it was horrible. And I had to drive a bit at the end of it all. I was pretty slow and somewhat out of it. I wanted to sleep more than anything….
I don’t remember much, except that everything I did seemed slower.

It’s not something I want to do again.

I think I did it once and it was terrible. I felt so dizzy and crappy. Never doing that again.
I get at least 8 hours of sleep every night, with a few exceptions of course.
But I try not to take sleep for granted.

To finish a serious semester in college, I had to stay up for just under two days. During a late night in a mineralogy lab, I was finishing up some work. I had been looking down a microscope tube for three hours. I’m sitting there sketching out what I was seeing when all of sudden, everything I was looking at started to move around. Mind you, I was looking at ROCKS! After enjoying this drug-free hallucination, I decided it was time to go to bed. Slept for almost an entire day and narrowly missed turning in my lab.

Sleep deprivation
Extremely well-documented; Summary; a bad idea.

i get cold.

As a teenager with Graves disease (hyper-thyroidism) I often stayed awake for 2 and 3 days at a time, feeling no real ill effects. However, when I experienced “thyroid storm” I was up for nearly a week, and just about lost my ever-lovin’ mind. I think I probably fit the clinical description of insanity there for a while. It is what finally convinced my mother to take me to the doctor.

I had to do it alot (for work reasons). It is miserable. You feel a little bit drunk. Funtional but not at peak perfomance, so to speak. I ususally would offset the sleepiness w/ caffeine which helps a bit in the short term but makes the whole ride a bit worse.

The most disturbing thing I can ever recall doing sleep deprived after one of these stints was while driving. All of the sudden I was in a totally different part of town from where I had been going…..and I had no idea how I had gotten there…..a little scary.

Ive done it before for over 48 hours… because of work. I felt light headed and I started to loose focus when asked simple questions. My speech was even affected I was on slow motion. Had to take 2 days off work to rest.

When we went to washingto DC I stayed up for 36 hours and then went on a plane which I took Dramamine and everything felt like a dream. Everything was quiet and bright and lofty. I don’t no what it’s like but I’m guessing it felt like someone that was drunk or stoned. I couldn’t go to sleep because I was so excited but I was tired…

(know, know, know – my little chickadee.)

I used to go to after hours clubs in NYC back in ‘97—‘99. I worked construction at the time and would get up for work at like 5am on a friday. I would work all day and run errands after work. We would go out friday nite on long island till about 2–3am. From that club we would drive straight into the city to the after hours spot and party till about 9am. I would then head back to long island where i had a part time job at a cell phone store and would work there till about 6:30pm. After there i would go home and shower and then head over to a friends house. We would then head back to the city about 2am and party till anywheres from 11am sunday morning and on. Sometimes we would leave and go to Jones Beach all sunday. The crash was long and hard!! I went out a year ago to one of those clubs and cant fathom how i used to do that on a weekly basis. (there were definately some mind altering things goin on though)

I’ve spent many a sleepness night during residency (and beyond). I know that I am like a stupid drunk by the following afternoon, and apparently, there are studies that support my own personal experiences.

You get crappy and become a hemorrhoid to everyone around you!

@charliecompany34
Occasionally, I’ll stay up all night for a LAN party. I usually end up taking a nap the following day, though. Most of the times that I’ve stayed up ridiculously long have been for school work. The 42 hours happened during finals week (or perhaps right before it, when lots of large papers were due) my first semester of college. I didn’t have the college thing down yet.

It happened to me last night. I haven’t slept in 24 hours and counting. I have no idea why. It’s as if I just tried going to sleep one night (last night) and nothing. I couldn’t. I was laughing till tears were running down my face at 4:30AM last night. And I couldn’t stop. I feel fine right now. I feel normal. My head feels kinda heavy. It’s just weird for me cause I usually got to bed at 10 and wake up at like 11 or 12. Even when it’s late and I’m studying, by like 2AM (3 at the most) I automatically shut down. It’s just so weird. I’m kind of waiting to pass out in the middle of kitchen floor.

I have personally experienced sleep deprivation many times in my life. Like others have said before me, experiencing sleep deprivation is terrible. There have been times when I’ve slept too little because of my dedication to academics and/or insomnia. There have been other times that I haven’t really slept at all from waking up to seizures.
Of course, now, I have been going back and forth between insomnia and getting too much sleep.. When I sleep too little, I don’t hear the alarm clock go off, which is awful. When I sleep too much, I’ll wake up seven to ten times, trying to get out of bed every time and failing. Just yesterday, I slept for 21 hours.
If you ever feel weakness or nausea upon waking up, don’t move too quickly. Take some time to eat crackers and slowly drink water.
Yoga and Meditation can help greatly for sleeping, especially if it is done twice a day. If you are willing to meditate, start with about 10 minutes with controlled breathing from the diaphragm, then increase the length as time goes on. Listening to peaceful music can be helpful with meditation and there are many ways to meditate. Taking some deep breaths throughout the day can be helpful for relaxation as well. Searching online for meditation methods may help you to relax more throughout the day and at night. You could search online for food that can help to relieve stress. Herbal tea can help with headaches. If you ever need more energy, bananas can help solve this problem as well as soothe an upset stomach. Tomatoes can help to increase blood circulation. Blueberries and avacados are great for the brain.
It has been said that regular stretching and exercise as well as a healthy diet can help to balance energy levels. Try to get about 7–8 hours of sleep at night to avoid exhaustion from too little or too much sleep-either are bad for the heart, brain, and…in general, the entire body. Avoid caffeine and excessive sugar. Eat wisely. Even healthy food like fruit has sugar. Drink plenty of water for clear thinking and a healthier body. How much a clear mind can help a person sleep is truly amazing.
I hope that what I’ve said can help. I’m sorry about the length of this comment.
I hope that you’ll have a nice day. (/^_))

I often don’t sleep (Hence my name). It’s important to get sleep, if not you feel slow. I’m use to it now, but as I’m writing this I haven’t slept in over 24 hours. It makes me hyper-active for some odd reason. I mostly stay awake because I’m a teenager, I have a job, also my friends don’t leave me alone.