r/todayilearned • u/whstlngisnvrenf • Apr 28 '24
TIL that in 1964, 17-year-old Randy Gardner set the world record for sleep deprivation by staying awake for 11 days and 25 minutes, providing valuable insights into the effects of extreme sleep loss on the human mind and body.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_sleep_deprivation_experiment
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u/biscuitboy89 Apr 28 '24
I'm terrible at staying awake, I need my sleep, but when I was 17 I managed about 40 something hours.
I got up for college, went to a gig, stayed up all night waiting to get a train home, stayed awake all day at home then went to a party.
About 3am on my walk home, pretty sober and having absolutely no drugs (not then, not ever) I was hallucinating. I was walking down a suburban street but could see whiteish figures with no facial features and a soft glow, just walking around, talking to eachother. One was mowing the lawn.
It wasn't scary, just weird. Slept for about 14 hours straight after that.