Sleep is the most important physiological process, without which the human body will not be able to regain strength and function normally. However, not everyone manages to devote the required 8 hours to it; dynamic life flies forward, and in order to manage everything, proper rest often has to be sacrificed. There are also people who decided on a bold experiment, managed to test their capabilities and set a world record for a person without sleep. We invite you to get acquainted with them, as well as learn about the consequences of prolonged insomnia.
Randy Gardner
The official world record for insomnia belongs to a 17-year-old student from California, Randy Gardner. In 1965, a guy was able to stay awake for 264 hours and 12 minutes - that's 11 whole days. Throughout this time, Randy had two of his friends with him: Bruce McAllister and Joe Marciano. They alternately distracted him, not letting him fall asleep, and tested his condition. Initially, they were going to present the results of the experiment to a science fair. But Stanford University researcher William K. Dement learned about the experiment. He flew in to observe the experiment with his own eyes.
Randy Gardner during an experiment.
Every day it became more and more difficult, it was especially difficult not to close my eyes at night. There were even moments when Gardner lost interest in the experiment and was about to end it. On the 4-5th day the guy became irritable and began to hallucinate. After enduring insomnia for 11 days, Randy Gardner fell asleep in a sleep research laboratory for 14 hours and 40 minutes and woke up practically healthy. It turns out that, having lost about 90 hours of sleep, Randy slept only 7 hours longer than usual.
Despite the successful outcome, Randy’s mental abilities at the time of the record were significantly deteriorating, although physical activity remained. William K. Dement notes that on the 10th day without sleep, Gardner could easily beat him at paintball. However, the creators of the Guinness Book of Records decided to remove this category from the competition so that people do not harm their health.
World record for man without sleep
Some people think that a person can go without sleep for only 3-5 days, after which irreversible processes will begin, health problems will begin, the brain will be severely damaged, and death may even occur.
However, there are many scientifically proven cases where people did not sleep for much more than 5 days, and did not feel much discomfort. So what is the record without sleep set by man? Rand Gardner broke the world record when he went without sleep for 264 hours and 30 minutes, which is 11 days. This time was 4 hours 13 minutes more than the previous man's record, Tom Rounds. When Rand Gardner went 11 days without sleep, he did not drink any stimulants, such as coffee, to achieve this Guinness World Record without sleep.
After this experiment was conducted by Rand Gardner, the Guinness Book of Records stated that it would no longer register such records; its representatives argued that such experiments, when a person does not sleep for a very long time, can have a detrimental effect on health, and can even threaten a person’s life.
During these 11 days, while Gardner set the world record without sleep, his health was monitored by Professor William K. Dement, who studied the nature of sleep at Stanford University. Together with this professor, the record holder was also observed by John J. Ross, who is a lieutenant colonel in the American Army, and he monitored Gardner’s vital signs.
Every stage of this experiment was controlled, it attracted the attention of many researchers, these 11 days became unique in history, and even today they are studied in detail by students of different universities and many scientists from all over the world. And other researchers analyze the nature of sleep and try to find an interpretation of dreams, drawing parallels between dreams and real life. Therefore, for many specialists, what happens to people during a night's rest is a mystery and a subject for conducting various experiments and studies.
Many are confident that these 11 days, when Gardner was constantly awake, perfectly illustrate the absence of irreparable damage to human health. Some believe that if you don’t sleep for 2-3 days, it will not negatively affect a person, and will be tantamount to ordinary fatigue or a bad mood. This idea was confirmed by close observations of the record holder, who after 10 days without sleep felt normal, without feeling much discomfort.
However, Lieutenant Colonel John Ross, who also monitored Gardner's condition, disagreed with this idea. He kept a detailed report on the experiment, and wrote down that on the fourth day the record holder began to have strong hallucinations, for example, he could greet a road sign, thinking that it was an acquaintance. Based on the report, Gardner's short-term memory had almost completely ceased to function, and he also developed paranoia. On the 11th day, the record holder was given a not very difficult mathematical task: subtract from one hundred and seven until he reaches the minimum number. Gardner got to 65 and stopped, spending a few minutes on it. He was asked why he did not continue subtracting, and he replied: “I forgot what I was doing.”
However, immediately after these 11 days, the young man went to a press conference, where journalists asked him various questions, and to the surprise of many, he answered these questions without hesitation. Some of those present said that they did not notice any negative changes in his condition. And if they had not been told that he had not slept for 11 days, they would not have guessed about it.
Rand Gardner was only 19 years old when he decided to set this record. This was back in 1965, a lot of time has passed since then, and there have been many other attempts to break this record. In addition, science is constantly evolving, and many studies have been conducted on how long-term insomnia affects the body.
Scientists report that if you don’t sleep for two days, the hormonal levels in the body change, the psyche is suppressed, and the disruption of neural connections in the brain begins. After 3-5 days without sleep, brain cells are destroyed, and the load on many human organs, including the heart, increases significantly. All the processes that occur next are most often irreversible, and if you don’t sleep even longer, then negative changes accumulate, and as a result lead to a shortening of a person’s life.
For many scientists and researchers, the need for a person to rest at night is still the subject of much debate. Maybe one day these researchers will know for sure how important it is for people to sleep, and what the maximum record of a person without sleep is.
Source
Peter Tripp and Tom Rounds
These disc jockeys independently spent several days without sleep in 1959 as part of a marathon to raise money for medical research. Peter Tripp stayed up for 201 hours delivering information from a glass booth in New York's Time Square. After going 100 hours without sleep, Peter was on edge. He imagined flames escaping from the drawers of the table, and instead of a corduroy suit, the doctor was wearing hairy caterpillars.
Peter Tripp.
After a sleepless frenzy, Peter slept for 13 hours. At the same time, the deep sleep phase doubled, and the fast sleep phase tripled.
The second experimenter, Tom Rounds from Honolulu, did not sleep for 260 hours. Like Tripp, he suffered from paranoia and hallucinations, and was plagued by nightmares and memory loss. It was Tom Rounds' record that Randy Gardner, mentioned above, set out to break.
Scientific experiments
Experts have repeatedly tried to figure out how long a person can spend without sleep. One of the most cruel experiments is considered to be the experience of Soviet scientists, carried out in the 40s of the last century.
The subjects were political prisoners, who were guaranteed freedom if they could stay awake for a month. They were locked in a room filled with a special gas that prevented them from falling asleep. The first two days there were no signs of trouble, but already on the fifth day of the experiment, all participants began to develop symptoms of psychological disorders.
Margaret Thatcher
The “Iron Lady”, being Prime Minister, consciously slept 4 hours a day. People who worked with her note that on weekdays Margaret could write another article until 3 a.m., and at 5 a.m. she could already be listening to the radio. But thanks to prolonged wakefulness, Margaret was aware of all events.
Sometimes her husband had to literally force her to go to bed. Thatcher accustomed all those who worked with her to this schedule. Because of this, it was difficult for her successor, John Major, to keep up with the pace of work set by the fragile woman.
The dangers of insomnia
A person can live without sleep for 1-2 days without serious harm to health. Further lack of rest causes disorders of all organs and systems:
- Mental functions suffer - memory and attention deteriorate. A person cannot work or learn new information. In this condition, the risk of car accidents and other disasters increases. Irritability, depression, and depression appear. With prolonged insomnia, the picture of dementia and hallucinations increases.
- The risk of cancer increases. First of all, the large intestine and mammary gland are affected.
- Since the body does not have time to recover overnight, the condition of the skin worsens.
- Blood pressure increases, and the risk of developing cardiovascular complications - heart attacks, strokes - is high. In people who sleep 4 hours or less per day, the heart rate is 2 times higher than normal.
- The body's resistance to infections weakens. Those suffering from insomnia are 3 times more likely to catch a cold. They have an increased concentration of C-reactive protein in their blood, an indicator of inflammatory processes. There has been a decrease in the effectiveness of vaccinations in people who sleep little.
- Body weight increases. Type 2 diabetes mellitus develops. These problems are associated with disruption of natural biorhythms and metabolism. As a result, insulin resistance increases. The body stops properly absorbing glucose.
- Weakening of skeletal muscles up to their complete atrophy. During rest, the body produces growth hormone and muscle fiber proteins. With insomnia, this process is disrupted.
Fedor Konyukhov
Traveler Fyodor Konyukhov also set a record without sleep. During a trip around the world, it was decided to conduct an experiment that would help find out how long athletes could go without sleep without losing concentration. A special sensor with a microchip built into the wristwatch helped track the activity of each participant.
Konyukhov slept for 10-15 minutes every 2 hours. Surprisingly, his yacht was among the first. All athletes slept no more than 5-6 hours a day, but no one surpassed Konyukhov, whose sleep duration reached 3-3.5 hours a day. After the trip, Konyukhov felt great.
Fedor Konyukhov
Scary experiment
Prison staff and scientists took turns observing the awake prisoners through glass. All conditions were created for them: books, comfortable beds, normal food. The only condition was not to sleep! The subjects remained cheerful for two days. On the fifth day they began to experience mental disorders. When the ninth day of the experiment arrived, one of the prisoners fell into a baseless hysteria, uttering a terrible scream. The domino effect began. A few hours later, a riot engulfed all participants in the experiment. Nevertheless, the experiment continued!
Unique unknown
The name of the next ranking participant is unknown. There is only evidence that once a 70-year-old woman came to the sleep laboratory. She claimed that she sleeps no more than 4 hours a day throughout her life.
In the course of research, it was found that a woman’s brain is characterized by increased productivity. He reached stages 3 and 4 of slow-wave sleep faster than usual, and after an hour and a half he entered REM sleep for a short period. After this, slow deep sleep came again, and then fast sleep. Since this woman's brain was quickly jumping through stages 1 and 2, she only needed 4 hours to rest. She was completely healthy.
Farmer D. Jones
At the end of the 19th century, doctors recorded an interesting case of absolute insomnia. Farmer D. Jones turned to specialists because he had problems sleeping, but was not at all upset about it, and was even glad to have the opportunity to work more. So, at the time of his first visit to the doctors, he spent 3 months without sleep, after which everything returned to normal. But a year later there was a new attack. This time Jones did not sleep for 131 days. Subsequent attacks occurred more frequently and insomnia lasted longer. This had no effect on the man’s health and well-being, which surprised the doctors.
If insomnia does not go away as completely for you as it does for some participants in the experiments, urgently start looking for ways to solve the problem! A prolonged condition like this is not normal and can be extremely dangerous. Sleep disturbances arise due to a number of reasons and in order to normalize the situation, they should be eliminated.
Facts about the dangers of lack of sleep
There are some fascinating details about what happens to the body during time spent without sleep. People cannot withstand such experiments for long periods of time without a night's rest without harming their health.
The following events happen to the body during insomnia:
- drowsiness, frequent yawning, fatigue appear (such signs are observed on the second day of wakefulness);
- many organs cease to function normally, activity decreases, metabolic processes slow down;
- the brain freezes, hallucinations appear, reality is not perceived, information is not absorbed;
- long wakefulness pushes a person to reckless and dangerous actions - violence, suicide.
If the body has tolerated prolonged insomnia well, all functions and functioning of organs are restored after full sleep.
The rest lasts about a day, but it happens that a person only needs a regular night’s sleep. More severe consequences are nerve disorders requiring therapy, diseases of the brain, and respiratory organs. Having decided on a dangerous experiment, you should prepare for a subsequent visit to the doctor, who, after examination, will determine the complications or pathologies that have developed due to insomnia.
Lack of sleep will definitely affect your health, even if not immediately. There is no need to strive to break the world record - the consequences are too dangerous. The body knows how much time is needed to fully recuperate, so it is better to let it independently determine the periods of wakefulness and sleep.
