[hinkley]

Even before I went to college I knew that Race Across America winners would sleep only a couple hours a night, timed to wake at sunrise to trick their brains into thinking they’d gotten more sleep. They’d be hallucinating by the end, which did not sound like fun.

I think the longest I ever made it was 70 hours. Maybe 80. I had two finals on consecutive days so I stayed up to cram for the second. Fibbed to my parents about when I was available to come home for the holidays, so I went to the computer lab to binge games with a couple friends, never made it to sleep that night.

I went to bed when the blue background on the computer terminal started to swim. That’s enough internet for me today.

The older you get the more dangerous it is to do this. You can start dying sometime between 70 and 120 hours. And the quality of whatever you’re doing is declining rapidly after 30 or so. Go to bed.