How long can a person live without sleep?
140038
A good book to read about this is Sleep Thieves by Stanley Coren. He tells a few stories of people who tried to sustain wakefulness. \n\nOne famous case is the disc jockey Peter Tripp who in 1959 stayed up for more than eight days as a promotional stunt. After a few days, he began to hallucinate, seeing kittens, mice, and cobwebs. He also became paranoid, insisting that an electrician had dropped a hot electrode into his shoe. \n\nIn 1964 high school student Randy Gardner (17) attempted to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest time awake -- 260 hours. And after 11 days without sleep he suffered no hallucinations or paranoia and no psychotic symptoms. But Coren challenges this often repeated fact in his book. Coren describes the day-by-day impact on Randy, as documented by John Ross of the US Navy Medical europsychiatric Research Unit in San Diego. Randy had trouble focusing his eyes on day 2, hallucinations on day 4, and slurred speech and a short attention span by the last day. \n\nCertainly there are drugs such as caffeine, cocaine and amphetamines that keep you awake, but these cannot sustain you for very long.
556867
That will depend entirely on what your thesis research involves.  If you are limited by library hours, or laboratory hours and experimental growth delays, it makes a big difference.\n\nIf you've got enough caffeine and enough limited access to your facilities it is possible to remain awake for 5 to 6 days without sleep, but I don't recommend it.
451344
The brain can relatively live for about an hour without oxygen before it completely shuts off, thats why many EMP's and emergency response people talk aobut the "golden hour", that a person who gets to the hospital within an hour is more likely to live.
460878
Yes, the brain never sleeps. There have been many studies of Rapid Eye Movement. It makes no differance what your physical handicaps are as long as your not on life support and listed as "Brain Dead".
6850
The record for the longest period without sleep is around 19 days.
298325
sleep DOES effect your daily life. you need at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night to be fully rested. a bad nights sleep, or no sleep, can put off your whole day. go long enough without sleep, and your brain will shut down and sleep, whenever it wants to.\n\ni go to sleep about 11pm and get up anywhere between 7am and 9am.
104414
Cruel experiments on mice were done decades ago where the mice were kept awake and died after 23 days. The muscles just can't take it, the heart cannot keep up. In sleep the heart slows and less stress on the diaphram. In humans severe mental illness can be caused by no sleep. In fact, there have been cases of people having halucinations due to severe sleep deprivation. But it is not believed that a person would die like mice from no sleep. Ordinarily a person would just sleep where they stand if it came down to it, or collapse on the floor, wherever they are.
902765
I once heard you can live 3 weeks with no food, but with water.\nBut only 3 days without any water.\nMind you people have been known to fast for a month on only water, so I suppose it depends on all the circumstances.
896109
There will be times in your life when you will need 12 hours and it's no big thing.  Your body tells you when you need sleep, and if it's at all possible (like not at work or driving, etc.) then listen to your body.  When you sleep your body rebuilds itself.  Just don't over-do it night after night with that much sleep.  Normal needed is about 8 hours a night.  But you can play catch-up sometimes.
11905
Although it depends to some extent on age, scientists say just about eight hours per night is the minimum to remain healthy and alert. The effects of sleep depravation include short term memory loss and impaired reflexes and motor skills, so heads up for that if you go  on living at five per night. \n\nI'm a college student, so I feel you on that one. :p
862971
it depends on the person, i mean there are people who have really low blood sugar and can absolutely not miss more then 2 meals, but then look at anorexic people that go like 8 hours, and then only eat like a carrot...\n\nif you mean eating entirely-humans can only last 3 weeks without any food.
1009394
I know that people are not going to believe this...however I went almost 5 days without sleeping. One year in college I was studying for finals and working and could not sleep even when I tried. After all that was over the next 3 nights I slept for 12 hours each night. I would NEVER do that again!
583927
A person can live without food for quite some time, usually for many weeks. \nThe body will use its fat and protein stores (muscles) to help it survive. \nIf a person has a lot of fat stores (is very heavy), they will live longer than a \nperson who has very little fat (very thin), so how long a person can survive \ndepends a lot of the person. Of course, if you go without food for a few weeks, \nyou will be very weak since you have been using your own muscles for energy. \n\nWater is a different story. A person will die within 3-4 days without water. The \nsize of the person really doesn't make much difference.
1026898
In the Army me and a buddy snapped the chin straps of our helmets together so if one did fall the other would wake up.\nYou get tired enough you can sleep with your eyes open standing up.\nBeen there done that.\nAwake once for 117 hours no drugs even caffine just sugar and fear.
1088076
8 hours is recommended, but it really depends on each person. Some people can function properly with 5-6 hours and some can not. You should try sleeping less than 8 hours and see how much sleep you need.
8406
A person can live without food for quite some time, usually for many weeks. The body will use its fat and protein stores (muscles) to help it survive. If a person has a lot of fat stores (is very heavy), they will live longer than a person who has very little fat (very thin), so how long a person can survive depends a lot of the person. Of course, if you go without food for a few weeks, you will be very weak since you have been using your own muscles for energy. \n\nWater is a different story. A person will die within 3-4 days without water. The size of the person really doesn't make much difference.
559207
I think if you go too long (~4 or 5 days) your immune system will begin to break down and though lack of sleep itself won't kill you, a nasty bug getting through your weakened defenses could.\n\nWill have to check on that, though.