Loaf Warden
(no party affiliation)
Okay, the thread on fasting reminded me of something I've been wondering about awhile on that other great mandatory waste of time: sleep.
Back in high school, someone told me that if a person stays awake for 96 consecutive hours, they will die. He told me he tried it once to see if it was true; he called it the '96-Hour Death Marathon'. Naturally, my first question was, "What if it *did* turn out to be true, and you had died?" His response was that he figured he'd be able to recognize the signs of death early enough to cancel the marathon and go to bed.
Well, apparently his death marathon was a failure, because he told me he eventually gave up anyway; he just got too tired to keep it up. I don't remember how long he lasted, but from what he told me, his thoughts got more and more random, and while it seemed like a fascinating experiment, I never quite got up the nerve (boredom?) to try it myself.
Anyway, the point of this thread is to ask: Is there any truth to the basic premise of his 96-Hour Death Marathon? Is 96 hours about the amount of time a human can live without sleep? Is it even possible to make it that long, or will the body instinctively and involuntarily force the issue and fall asleep against your will, in the same way that it is impossible to kill yourself by simply holding your breath? Is there any record of someone living significantly longer than that without any sleep at all? Can permanent brain damage be caused by staying awake too long?
These questions are more to satisfy an idle curiosity than anything else. I no longer have any notions about attempting my own death marathon, and probably never really intended to even when I was young and dumb enough to consider it.
Still, if anybody knows the real answers to any of these questions, I would appreciate the addition to my knowledge.
Back in high school, someone told me that if a person stays awake for 96 consecutive hours, they will die. He told me he tried it once to see if it was true; he called it the '96-Hour Death Marathon'. Naturally, my first question was, "What if it *did* turn out to be true, and you had died?" His response was that he figured he'd be able to recognize the signs of death early enough to cancel the marathon and go to bed.
Well, apparently his death marathon was a failure, because he told me he eventually gave up anyway; he just got too tired to keep it up. I don't remember how long he lasted, but from what he told me, his thoughts got more and more random, and while it seemed like a fascinating experiment, I never quite got up the nerve (boredom?) to try it myself.
Anyway, the point of this thread is to ask: Is there any truth to the basic premise of his 96-Hour Death Marathon? Is 96 hours about the amount of time a human can live without sleep? Is it even possible to make it that long, or will the body instinctively and involuntarily force the issue and fall asleep against your will, in the same way that it is impossible to kill yourself by simply holding your breath? Is there any record of someone living significantly longer than that without any sleep at all? Can permanent brain damage be caused by staying awake too long?
These questions are more to satisfy an idle curiosity than anything else. I no longer have any notions about attempting my own death marathon, and probably never really intended to even when I was young and dumb enough to consider it.
Still, if anybody knows the real answers to any of these questions, I would appreciate the addition to my knowledge.
Eventually we took *ahem* action to cure this but otherwise there were no bad side effects.
)
).
