How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired?

[Aldo]

I'm not suggesting that if you stay up long enough you'll magically feel awake. But I have heard it suggested that some insomniacs who stay up for days at a time after a while stop feeling tired and just get really sluggish.

I only ask this because (through no fault of my own) I've been up for going on 28 hours now. Now I would jump into bed right now if I didn't work tomorrow, but I work a five am shift and don't want to go to sleep too early where I'll be up too early.

 

[SchwEnt]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

My experience has been getting over the first 24 hours.

Once I get past that point and overcome the extreme sleepiness, it doesn't much matter. It all becomes a blur of sluggishness, as you mention. A fog of awakeness, the pressing urge to sleep successfully overcome. Once I get past 24 hours and defeat the physical need to sleep, I can keep going quite a bit more. It's easier.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Usually once I've been up for around 28-30 hours I'm fine for a while until absolutely crushing fatigue sets in and I must sleep.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Never.

 

[RoJoHen]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

It really depends on what I've been doing during those waking hours.

 

[STR]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Yeah, the hours 20-28 are the toughest. after that, it's kind of a second wind, though you're still ~3/4 your normal level of awareness. My personal record is 48 hours of straight consciousness. My awareness was pretty consistent during that time, but I'd imagine it declines linearly until you're walking dead. Other times, such as ~30-36 hour marathons, things declined more quickly.

I wish it was something cool like army training that prompted me to stay up for 2 days, but really it's just occasional bouts of extreme insomnia. On the plus side, it's really cool (at least to me) that after being up that long, the moment you lay down and decide to sleep, you're out.

 

[bigdaddy]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I worked night and was up 26-27 hours without being tired, loads of black coffee. I got to lay on my bed to force myself asleep and just passed out.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Sometime between the first and second week, things get different. After that, it's gravy.

 

[Caliburn24]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Your body has a natural sleep-rhythm that pretty much everyone on a conventional sleep schedule follows. The lowpoints, the points where people are the most sleepy are just before dawn, and around 10:00 in the morning.

I've stayed awake for nearly three days, both in college and in the Army(and no it was not fun in either setting) and if you can pass the those morning dead points, usually by doing something physically active, it is far easier to stay awake for the rest of the time. At some point I reached a state where I was able to focus completely on the task at hand. I knew I was exhausted, but it didn't matter, writing papers and maintaining perimeter guard became all there was in the world.

The ability to function without sleep is an acquired skill, the military teaches it deliberately by denying you much sleep during training. College teaches it indirectly by putting all the due dates for term papers and final exams around the same time, and if you procrastinate as I did, you are forced to cram for a few days.

 

[Rincewiend]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

It helps if you have a little fruit every couple of hours, or so i've heard...

 

[Admiral_Young]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Well my record for being up is four consecutive days. I'd say though that I didn't get tired until around hour 30 of those four days. That's just a guess though. I really couldn't tell now. Normally I'd get tired around ten or twelve hours without sleep when I'm on a normal sleep cycle. If that makes sense.

 

[thestrangequark]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I went 7 days without sleep once, and was never tired. They put me on powerful sedatives the 7th day, though, so I don't know how long I would've lasted without medication. I wouldn't recommend it though!

 

[C.E. Evans]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I think the hardest part comes when you might have a long period of time with nothing to actively engage you and boredom starts in. At that point, you're fighting both that and fatigue...

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I hope you guys don't have jobs where you could kill people.

 

[indranee]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I'm not suggesting that if you stay up long enough you'll magically feel awake. But I have heard it suggested that some insomniacs who stay up for days at a time after a while stop feeling tired and just get really sluggish.

I only ask this because (through no fault of my own) I've been up for going on 28 hours now. Now I would jump into bed right now if I didn't work tomorrow, but I work a five am shift and don't want to go to sleep too early where I'll be up too early.

I've gone roughly 70 hours back in college and then I slept for 13 hours straight.

I can't do that anymore. hah.

Now, I can go about 35-36 hours and I'll keep going for another four or so. I don't do those much. I'm trying to sleep every day.

 

[Kelthaz]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Never.

That about sums it up.

I once stayed up for about 30 hours due to an early morning shift, but it didn't get any easier after the 24 hours. It's not something I ever want to repeat.

 

[Holdfast]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I did some really crazy shifts when I was a very junior doc. Dangerously crazy, to the point of almost making clinical errors when massively sleep deprived. Technically, I wasn't totally absent of sleep, but grabbing forty winks on a couch here and there for several days running is effectively equal to not sleeping for the same period. Things have changed a lot in terms of junior staff hours in this country since my day though! It's like a holiday camp in terms of hours now. And half the time they're working, they're now doing random pointless paperwork these days anyway.

(those living in some other parts of the world are still treated by massively sleep-deprived junior medics, however. The least able, with the least available back-up, with the least sleep, and your life in their hands. Pleasant thought, huh? )

These days, I usually sleep a minimum of 8 hours per day, often a bit more, though I naturally tend to get these between 2am-10am rather than a more typical sleep/wake cycle. If I don't get those hours, I am very grouchy indeed...

 

[Aldo]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

Well I went to sleep around 8 last night and woke up at 4 am to get off to work. Slept like a baby.

Like I said, I didn't do it purposely, but knowing that I can is interesting.

 

[auntiehill]

Re: How long can you go without sleeping before you stop feeling tired

I am always tired---24 hours a day. So, technically, I can't ever say I STOP feeling tired.

The only times I had to pull all-nighters were when I was traveling, once when I was writing, and once when I was a retail manager. That's it. I never had to pull an all-nighter in college because I always planned ahead. But I don't think I ever went more than 24 hours without sleep in my entire life.