MovieChat Forums > Insomnia (2002) Discussion > What's the longest you've gone without s...

What's the longest you've gone without sleep?

posted 12 years ago by Burning_Sosobra
56 replies | jump to latest

I'm curious to know how long some of you have gone with little to no sleep, and how it affected you. Me personally, I've gone 4 days straight without any sleep. I would lie down and rest my eyes for a little bit, which does help, but I never entered a true state of unconciousness. In my own experience, after the first couple of days without sleep, I started to feel kind of out of it, like my brain was on autopilot. I could function farely normally, but I felt a little detatched somehow. It's hard to explain. I've never suffered from insomnia, but there have been times where I've been deprived of sleep for one reason or another. Anyways, just curious to know what others' experiences are with going days on no sleep and how it affected you mentally and physically.

They burned Sosobra, God of bad luck!

[–] joker5832 12 years ago

Three days straight for me, but then I only slept 7 hours, but then everything became normal. It was a fun experience.

Ron Paul 2012!

[–] Burning_Sosobra 12 years ago

Thanks for sharing, mjandrade. Fun experience, eh? That's funny, I've never heard anyone classify sleep deprivation as a "fun experience", but right on. I've heard/read somewhere that if you go a certain length of time without any sleep, your mind starts to hallucinate and your brain basically shuts down. I wonder if there's any truth to that, and if anyone has personally had such an experience they could share.

They burned Sosobra, God of bad luck!

[–] joker5832 12 years ago

No problem, it was about a year ago when I was moving out of state. Being sleep deprived isn't a problem for me. Thanks for the nice comment.

Ron Paul 2012!

[–] The_Dougster 10 years ago

Being sleep deprived isn't a problem for me.

Lucky you. Like most people, I find that severe sleep deprivation is pretty brutal. I take medication to help me sleep but it doesn't always work. My body develops a tolerance and then I have to go on a different medication. Everybody and his uncle has given me a million different tips to use so that I won't have to take sleeping pills. It seldom works. The thing is, I unusually sleep fine when there's no pressure to go to sleep. But if it's a work night, without the pill(s), forget about it. I'll toss and turn all night. That can be extremely frustrating.

[–] bigbluecheese 10 years ago

8 days, I think I went mental - for real

Goodnight, good luck and may your God go with you

[–] The_Dougster 10 years ago

8 days, I think I went mental - for real

That's harsh. I hope you're not still going through that.

[–] bigbluecheese 10 years ago

Ah Bless you. Thank you for that. Im fine now. Im actually watching Insomnia now so its bringing it all back!

It was just after my baby was born and I was really poorly. I ended up in hospital for 3 weeks (and lost 30lbs in one week because I couldn't eat either!)

the main thing is she is perfectly healthy and happy and so am I now, thanks to an amazing husband and doctors. But it really made me understand how sleep deprivation can be used as torture! Anyone going through it has my heartfelt sympathy

Goodnight, good luck and may your God go with you

[–] astat-2 12 years ago

36 hours or even less than that, I'm not sure. I just could not function without sleep.

[–] Gabriel_but_call_me_Gabe 12 years ago

Ten years.

You know...for kids.

[–] vampyregirl86 12 years ago

a little over 36 hours. im having issues now even when ambien doesnt make me go to sleep. hope all of us get some answers and people willing to listen to us.

"And once you had love, you simply can't settle for less." -SG&TNG
WAA #57, t #20

[–] The_Dougster 8 years ago

I have trouble sleeping myself. I tried Ambien but it was a disaster. It made me dizzy (once I actually got out of bed, knocked over a lamp and had broken glass all over the floor), and gave me weird thoughts. I currently take Clonazepam. It doesn't always work. Your body gets resistant to sleep medications after a while which really sucks. I HATE it when I'm tired and still don't get a good night's sleep! It can be extremely frustrating.

[–] xlos_crudosx 11 years ago

After quitting my medication. I had insomnia for a few days . At most I slept 2 hours a night . But it wasn't real comforting sleep. I went with out sleeping for 4-5 nights probably . And an additional 4 nights with crap sleep. Maybe longer .. I felt like I was going crazy .

[–] David-K-West 11 years ago

I went almost exactly 72 hours once. The second day I was really tired, but by the third day I was in a weird zone where I wasn't really tired, I just felt very hollow and distant. Almost like I was perpetually half asleep. Like when people would talk to me it felt like there was a canyon between us. It was pretty trippy, but I never quite got to the point of hallucinations or anything like that.

[–] mysprouts-740-813856 11 years ago

I had 12 hours sleep in an 8 day period as a family member lay dying. It took me almost a month to recover physically and mentally longer than that because well, someone died.

[–] diablozoll 11 years ago

two nights without sleep, something over 60 hours. I had no problems, no headache, it was kinda fun ride :) But the best thing was the loooong sleep after