Shattered

What's this all about then?

I heard about it a little while back. Seemed like a play on the whole David Blaine in the box thing. Big brother but with no sleep. Was channel hopping earlier and noticed it. What's going on here then I thought...... they were having their sleep allowence! What a load of b@ll@x! If they're gonna do it, do it right!!!

 

They were awake for about 50 hours without any sleep then they were allowed 2 hours sleep for health reasons. After this they will be allowed just 1 hour a day.

I know I couldn't stay awake that long, the longest I have been awake is about 36 hours. That was bad enough.

When I found out about the sleep though I did think that was not what they told us last night! Lying TV executives!

 

There are ways of staying awake for longer... But I doubt you could use those on telly

I managed from 1030 New years eve -> 0130 2/1/04 but I felt pretty crap by the end of it... I think that's my personal best, though I stayed up for 38 hours in 1988 when we were travelling back from Amsterdam (I was 13, with my parents, before you ask!).

My mate managed to stay awake throughout the whole of VooV 2002 - but that's pushing it if you ask me. How another mate stayed up for 3 days on the trot at Glasters is equally beyond me - even with illicit substances your brain'll still start shutting down pretty quick I'd imagine...

Sleep deprivation can kill within a week apparently...

 

ok, so at least they're being allowed a little sleep here and there. Otherwise it would be very dangerous. Complete sleep deprivation for more than 48 hours or so can cause irreversible brain damage and personality disorders. And, as dom pointed out, very prolonged periods can kill

Michael.

 

About 50hrs for me, not a pleasant experiance at all.
Hallucinations, from euphoria to sick feeling at the drop of a hat. Apparently i was talking to myself aswell. Also couldnt stomach food at all.

 

I dont think I've ever managed more than two nights without sleep, and I believe the day after the 2nd night, I was asleep all day... that might have been one of my binges

 

try working in computer games, i've done nearly 60 hours without sleep and then what sleep i did get after that was knackered by a 10 hour flight to chicago and the most amazing case of jet lag ever, the hallucinations were fun though. also i've gone for 3 months on less than 3 hours sleep a day, most of this was fueled excluseively by marathons (snickers as they are now), pro- plus and coffee with a bacon and egg sarnie from the sandwich shop when i got up (my bedroom was over the top of the shop so i woke up to the smell of frying bacon mmmmmm). needless to say when i left this job i was severely screwed up and have now vowed to sleep at least 6 hours a night and no longer drink coffee.
cheers


julian

 

What were the hallucinations like? I've seen things move that shouldn't etc, but then again I wasn't sober at the time...

Pro-Plus are evil - my mate used them one night when cramming for a uni exam and ended up being admitted to hospital with caffeine poisoning...

Apparently Maggie Thatcher only had a maximum of 4 hours a night sleep - no wander she f***ed the country up as bad as she did... IMHO of course...

 

I would think that the hallucinations produced by sleep deprivation are a bit like those caused by lack of oxygen (slurred speech, lack of concentration and lack of will) encountered when moving a bit too fast for too long at high altitude in the Alps and Dolomites. I to have sometimes spent too much time coding and often wonder at the quality of work produced during the last few hours when compared to that produced at the start of the session.

Auric

 

I know that feeling well. I was up till late last night coding a system where I can write an article, stick it in a database then people can make comments on it. I going mad trying to get it too work and not understand it. I came back to it this morning wide awake and discovered it was very simple. I missed out a speech mark in objrs response.write objRS("subject") this. I couldn't believe I could miss somthing so basic. There is no way I would have even made that mistake if I wasn't tired.

 

dom,
sitting on the back seat of the wakefield to heathrow coach, that stopped at every single hamlet along the way, i had a marvelous one involving red and green sparks having a war.
cheers


julian

 

Hmm - so maybe my mate on new year's day was right then on a theory he had.... (not going into it here but it'd explain a lot about the early hours of September 21st 2002...)

AT - I had the same - during my first really big AI project in uni, we had to emulate "Eliza" - an AI program written in the 70s (IIRC). It was all linked lists and a real pain in the arse. I stayed up to 3am the last night trying to get it to work then gave up. When I quickly checked over it after breakfast that morning, I discovered a flipped call between two pointers in the lists, and then it all worked flawlessly. Fresh eyes always help in these things

 

I once managed to stay awake 12 hours, I never snoozed or dozed of once. A feat in it's self .