Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by twobits 3960 days ago
"So ultimately, we learned that you can go for 9 months without sleeping before you die"

My "high score" is 3 days without sleeping. Think young, healthy, pretty physical, 1st year in university, while red alert 1 was hot. And I "kind of liked" red alert.

Outcome:

After that time, I layed on bed about noon, and woke up next day early afternoon. ~24+h later. Btw, I hadn't eaten the previous time. I managed to go to the uni restaurant with a friend, and there I semi collapsed, laying flat on 2 chairs, closed eyes, open mouth, slow breath. I was half a step from being rushed to the hospital, and one and a half steps from some serious life threatening situations. Didn't even have the energy to eat the food in front of me. What "saved" me, was that a concerned manager came, asked what's going on, and I asked for salted olive oils. He brought them in a hurry. I had barely enough energy to scrap the skin of the first one, and taste the juice. The first, took some time. And the second. After the third, I ate around 10 like there was no tomorrow. And then I had the energy to eat the food in front of me.

So, basically, IMHMO, no way you can survive 9 months without sleeping.

2 comments

I would guess dehydration also played a not insignificant part in your symptoms. When it happened to me (dehydration, not sleep deprivation), the extreme fatigue was the weirdest part. Surreal and disturbing how little I could move.
What's a salted olive oil? (Genuinely curious.)
I meant olives, with extra salt on top of them. Salt, to immediately kick you off, (with no real nutritious support), and olives, for their fat and iron, and nutrients to sustain and feed you. In this case they were greek, but I suppose that doesn't really matter.