Share With Me Your Sleep Deprivation Experiences

[oyster]

Yes this is The Pod's self destructive behavior thread series.

Personally I've got an ironically powerful will for a fella so prone to ridiculous excess and indulgence.

But enough about me, share your knowledge on the topic and I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

[mcbpete]

I once almost stayed up for an entire day. But then I went to sleep.

I live life on the edge .....

[Guest Adjective]

3 days without drug assistance, 5 days with. neither enjoyable

 

oh and for experiences: lots of aural and visual hallucinations, far off voices saying my name, loops in my head of phrases that repeat over and over until i begin to hear a voice saying it. "shadow people" in my peripheral vision. tons of emotions, mostly negative. lots of crying, paranoia and chest pains.

[awepittance]

3 days without drug assistance, 5 days with. neither enjoyable

 

oh and for experiences: lots of aural and visual hallucinations, far off voices saying my name, loops in my head of phrases that repeat over and over until i begin to hear a voice saying it. "shadow people" in my peripheral vision. tons of emotions, mostly negative. lots of crying, paranoia and chest pains.

 

jealous! not really but when i was 19 i tried to do this a bunch of times without success. The farthest i got was 2 1/2 days and the only really cool thing that happened was mickey mouse on TV started talking about ritalin, as soon as i realized it was a hallucination it stopped. I would imagine that high doses of dramamine or datura would have similar effects to 3-5 days of sleep deprivation.

 

when i first read in depth about the subject i found out about a radio DJ in the 60s who tried to break the record of 212 hours, i never saw anything this detailed about it before searching again today

 

The first 3 days produced no significant behavioral changes. Impressed with the novelty of the experience, W. A. enthusi- astically played records and accepted con- tributions for muscular dystrophy while eagerly watching the newspaper for articles about his endeavor. The early hours of the morning, however, were agonizing as he struggled to keep his eyes open. His at- tendants walked him in the cold air and placed him under a needle shower. Irrita- bility was prominent after 72 hours and, on one occasion, he impulsively grabbed an observer who had squeezed his nose in order to keep him awake. At this time, he became very angry and put his coat on while screaming, "You're all trying to make a fool out of me, and I'm quitting." This

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rage soon subsided and he continued with the wakeathon. After 100 hours, his mood and motor activity suddenly changed. He became expansive, hyperactive, and grandi- ose. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that he could complete 220 hours and he proclaimed, "Now you'll see the real W. A. I'm giving up all that artificial stuff and just behave like myself. I'm not worried about it any more. I'm sure of it now." He attributed his new-found con- fidence to refusal to eat a bowl of fatty soup prepared for him by a woman whom he then accused of attempting to over-pro- tect and coddle him. He became very hostile toward women, expressing feelings of independence and self-nurturance. Final- ly he ate a huge dinner in the evening. In his euphoria, he threw out a challenge to all the disk jockeys in the country. He would compete with them in a gigantic wakeathon to be staged in the window of a large Detroit department store. The bene- fits would go to muscular dystrophy. Grad- ually his expansiveness and hyperactivity ebbed, and by the one hundred sixtieth hour his brow was constantly furrowed and he seemed utterly weary. Disturbance in bodily sensation occurred, described as a feeling of tightness and dryness in all his joints, associated with great heaviness of his extremities. From that time until the end of the wakeathon there were frequent visual hallucinations and hypnagogic states. In the morning, he observed a "grey mist hanging over the pool table like a spider web." Most startling was a "blue flame or luminescence" which seemed to surround a young woman who had just entered the room to serve him some coffee. This flame also "spurted from the wall," causing him to leave the room in terror. His irascibility was also prominent. While playing pool he suddenly threw down his cue and tried to choke his partner, complaining again that he was being made a fool of. His paranoid behavior also manifested itself in his great concern about the examiner's disclosing any information about him to friends or family, and he refused to allow the ex-

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EFFECTS OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION

aminer to talk alone with them. Of inter- est was his sensitivity to peripheral stimuli. He had difficulty attending to whatever simple task he was doing, and was constant- ly distracted by music and voices which came from other rooms. During the last 3 days he alternated between sullen with- drawal and labored attempts to be polite and courteous.

The hypnagogic states were comparable to waking dreams. At the one hundred eightieth hour he felt a tight band around his head which gradually slipped down over his eyes, obstructing his vision. Then, although walking with his eyes open, he felt as though he were on a black cloud, weightlessly floating among a group of ballet dancers whose forms he could bare- ly perceive. "Blackout" periods also oc- curred in which he would automatically continue certain behavior such as playing records, yet suddenly "awaken" with no memory of what he had done moments be- fore. During one interview, when asked about his dismissal from a radio station, his voice drifted away until his name was called. He then reported feeling as though he were actually broadcasting an on-the- spot account of a fire. At the same time he was aware that he was with the examiner.

Finally, when the two hundred twentieth hour was reached, he could barely speak and had to be supported when he walked. He collapsed in the lobby of the clinic and was admitted to the hospital for 48 hours. He then slept for 14 hours, went to church, and was seemingly functioning at his pre- morbid level again.

[Guest Etch]

Two days without, two hours sleep, three more day without.

 

Temporary loss of vision in left eye.

Loss of balance.

Hallucinations (paranoia)

Collapse.

Hospitalized.

[oyster]

If you want to experience sleep deprivation, deprive yourself of sleep...if you want to experience drug intoxication, take drugs...

[Ego]

I went a little over 72 hours once, but never again. No drug hangover has made me feel as horrible as I did then. No worthwile hallucinations either.

[TwiddleBot]

Two and a half days once as well when in college finishing a project. No hallucinations, but I certainly wasn't all there by the end. I think the last conversation I had before going to bed was with my energetic middle-aged landlord who kinda reminded me of John Cage (tall, big grin and always building random shit) and he was talking with me about aliens on mars/cydonia pyramids or something. Perfect surreal end to the experience.

 

If you're looking for ways to alter your consciousness that don't involve ingesting substances, there are much, much better (and healthier) ways.

[oyster]

He was probably speaking along the lines of transcendental meditation and mystical magical things like working with Chi energy and what not. Actually the Castaneda series is full of a lot of shit, that's true, but a lot of the techniques described in the books really do produce fascinating perceptual changes...

[TwiddleBot]

at first I was like "yeah!" then realised I can't think of any good ones. what would you have suggested? (please don't say something like "holding the hand of that special girl")

 

hahah.. (although i gotta say the first time i fell for someone hard.. it was like being on a LOT of heavy drugs lol)

 

on my list, nothing trademarked like TM.

 

sensory deprivation, any sort of trance/meditation experience where you just repeat some kind of loop till your brain trances out.. playing with hypnagogia (half-awake states) like mr edison did I believe.. or just keep a good old-fashioned dream journal.

 

-edit-

 

or join a cult.

[oyster]

and holding the hand of your special girl! making love in the gravy!

[oyster]

at first I was like "yeah!" then realised I can't think of any good ones. what would you have suggested? (please don't say something like "holding the hand of that special girl")

 

(although i gotta say the first time i fell for someone hard.. it was like being on a LOT of heavy drugs lol)

 

 

 

oh yeah... and the withdrawals are the motherfucking worst

[TwiddleBot]

oh yeah... and the withdrawals are the motherfucking worst

 

Indeed, the comedown is a bitch and it goes on for a long time

[Silent Member]

28 hours, I experienced tiredness and then I fell asleep.

[QBLA]

back in 94 i went on a road trip from norfok, va to los angeles making detours and stops in between (atlanta, ga... orlando, fl... jackson, ms). one night while driving in MS, i didn't sleep for probably 48 hrs. the trees looked as if they were falling on the fwy in front of me. one point i saw something that i thought was a baby... the dude that went with me was like "pull over dude!"

 

at this point i haven't touched a drug of anykind in about 2 years... and i never touched any at all from there either.

[Guest Ricky Downtown]

30 hours, most of which were spent walking.

[J3FF3R00]

I once didn't sleep for 4 or 5 days straight in college and had visual and auditory hallucinations. I was hearing voices and remember being in the dining hall, looking at my cheese fries and they were all wobbling.

[chassis]

30 hours, most of which were spent wanking.

[sneaksta303]

Here comes the part where I feel obligated to tell you all I had 22 days awake when withdrawing cold turkey from methadone and no one believes me, or says I had "micro-sleeps", whatever the fuck that is.

[ghOsty]

4-5 days is my personal best, in all honesty it sucked though. By the third day I was having minor audio and visual hallucinations. Trails, shadows etc, hearing people call my name all that shit. Aside from the hallucinations my mind was somewhere else even after day 2, making weird associations, getting stuck on odd thoughts, extreme apathy. Seems 5 days is the farthest I can go, because on the 5th day I was walking to my kitchen, and didn't quite make it. I'm told by my friend who witnessed it I just collapsed mid-step and I kinda went limp, I hit my head on the doorframe as I fell and I was out cold even before I hit the ground. I slept for like 30 hours after that.

[chassis]

I dont do sleep deprivation. I do awake deprivation. Every few weeks I have a sleeping session thats usually 24+ hours, once it was like 48 hours.

[oyster]

I dont do sleep deprivation. I do awake deprivation. Every few weeks I have a sleeping session thats usually 24+ hours, once it was like 48 hours.

How do you manage?

[TwiddleBot]

Here comes the part where I feel obligated to tell you all I had 22 days awake when withdrawing cold turkey from methadone and no one believes me, or says I had "micro-sleeps", whatever the fuck that is.

 

Well a micro-sleep isn't the same as sleeping so they're b.s.ing you.. it's kind of like blanking out for a fraction of a second.. Pretty much anyone microsleeps if they stay up even for like a day. If you feel yourself suddenly tripped out a bit, you've probably just had a microsleep. Wikipedia it if you like.

 

A friend of mine ended up in the ditch once after working 16 hours at an oil refinery. He had been up probably 20 hours at that point. He doesn't even remember going off the road, he probably lost lucidity for not even a second. From his perspective he was on the road one second, the next second he was ass backwards in a ditch and covered in a cloud of ash from the ashtray that had popped open. He was doing about 70mph.. He's very fortunate to be alive.

[YEK]

one particular time it wasn't that i stayed up the longest but i stayed up all night and then realized i had an appointment in the morning so i only got 30 minutes of sleep. the dream that occurred during those 30 minutes was the most amazing realistic lucid thing, i was on top somewhere looking down at trees and shit, there was a loud humming noise and colors drifting around the sky moving with sounds. one of my top dreams.

[chassis]

I dont do sleep deprivation. I do awake deprivation. Every few weeks I have a sleeping session thats usually 24+ hours, once it was like 48 hours.

How do you manage?

 

I'm a student with very little else to do. At one point I have tests done for Diabetes because I was so tired nearly all of the time and would just come home at about 5pm and sleep till I had to get up the next day. I was doing this like 3 or 4 days a week. But it turned out I was just lazy.