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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

How long can a person stay awake before they go mad?

Minxy

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
206
I am interested to know because I often pull all-nighters on speed, sometimes staying awake for up to four nights. After the second night awake I start feeling dizzy when I stand up and after three nights im often hallucinating. The visuals and disorientation dont really bother me but I do get a bit worried that I am doing myself some lasting physical/mental damage. Obviously I lose my appetite but I always try to drink plenty of fluids. What do you guys think?
 
The longest I've been up was 5 days and 5 nights. That's around 120 hours. It ended with me going into a meth psychosis (actually I had already been psychotic for a few days - I seem to start hallucinating and getting delusional/paranoid on the third day mark) and spending some time in the psych hospital. But there's not specific amount of time that someone can stay awake before going loopy. It differs from person to person.
 
Usually about the 3 day mark for me but I've done 5 days without psychosis before. Depends on alot of other factors as well like how much cones I'd been smoking also, how potent the gear is, stress plays a huge factor for me.
 
No I havent seen The Machinist, I just looked at the summary on IMDB though, it looks interesting,

Do you think you can feel yourself losing it or would you just go onto auto-pilot?
 
^Interesting perspective on insomnia and going mad from not sleeping... I find if I stay up for 72 hours or more I am not "quite there" so too speak... I have stayed awake 7 days.. Now I try to force myself to sleep atleast 4 hours a night.. but if I am *that* tired once I pass out I am dead to the world until I rise.. lol
 
depends how youre doing it. with drugs especially meth its probably a lot shorter. staying awake on pure will power probably leaves you mostly sane a little longer
 
I thought I heard on an episode of House that the longest you can stay awake ( no REM sleep) before you die is 10 days. umm , it was because your brain needs REM sleep to heal and repair or something, and 10 days without it would cause brain death.

??hmm is it true?
 
There is a genetic disorder called fatal familial insomnia that makes it impossible to sleep.

It is incurable, and leads to death in 100% of cases. These people hold on without sleep for between 7 and 36 months. What a terrible way to go...
 
^^^ Uh ive heard of that fuck that must be pure torture.

Ive stayed awake 4 days while manic (no stimulants where consumned) and 4 days with dextroamphetamine. I was batshit crazy after 4 days with no sleep while manic and i finally had the sense to knock it all out with olanzapine. 4 days with no sleep on dextroamphetamine didnt leave me quite as crazy though the shadow people where paying me plenty of visits :\
 
Ive habitually been awake for several days at a time for the past year now. Even while in hospital and despite being given high doses of tranquilizers I was up without even an hour of sleep for 3 days. During my 3 months there it wasnt uncommon for me to sleep every other night, or less than 2 hours in a night. I should mention that they discontinued my clonazepam cold turkey, and I was on 8-12mg/day for 6 years. I was so anxiety ridden and my OCD was completely out of control which caused me to override the sedating effect of assorted neurolyptics they decided would substitute and i spent most nights in hysterics on my hands and knees trying to scrub the floors in the dark with the linnens id hoarded.

I thought that was going to be the worst of it but now I think Ive really crossed into a whole new realm of sleep deprivation. Ive stopped taking all my medication and use cocaine almost everyday. Ive been awake for more than 6 days and I honestly dont know how I am even slightly cognitive but I am starting to wonder if I will ever sleep without going back on benzos and antipsychotics =/

Anyone care to weigh in?
 
I thought I heard on an episode of House that the longest you can stay awake ( no REM sleep) before you die is 10 days. umm , it was because your brain needs REM sleep to heal and repair or something, and 10 days without it would cause brain death.

??hmm is it true?

Sort of- it depends how you define asleep and awake. Even if you appear to be awake for an extended period of time, its almost impossible to avoid microsleep. They can be fractions of a second to a minute or so and are usually only detected with brain wave monitoring. Im guessing this is whats happening everytime I blink or something cuz I dont know how I am still going!
 
I am interested to know because I often pull all-nighters on speed, sometimes staying awake for up to four nights. After the second night awake I start feeling dizzy when I stand up and after three nights im often hallucinating. The visuals and disorientation dont really bother me but I do get a bit worried that I am doing myself some lasting physical/mental damage. Obviously I lose my appetite but I always try to drink plenty of fluids. What do you guys think?

Yeah if you carry on like that i'm pretty sure you're going to soon start gettin paranoia + stimulant psychosis on those benders. I used to do the same. Loved sleep deprivation at first. Then over time i got more paranoid. Didn't stop. Then i started getting stimulant psychosis at varying degrees pretty much everytime i took speed. Didn't stop. Had a few nasty stimulant psychosis break downs and am now pretty much constantly paranoid to some level. Hurrah!
 
Ive habitually been awake for several days at a time for the past year now. Even while in hospital and despite being given high doses of tranquilizers I was up without even an hour of sleep for 3 days. During my 3 months there it wasnt uncommon for me to sleep every other night, or less than 2 hours in a night. I should mention that they discontinued my clonazepam cold turkey, and I was on 8-12mg/day for 6 years. I was so anxiety ridden and my OCD was completely out of control which caused me to override the sedating effect of assorted neurolyptics they decided would substitute and i spent most nights in hysterics on my hands and knees trying to scrub the floors in the dark with the linnens id hoarded.

I thought that was going to be the worst of it but now I think Ive really crossed into a whole new realm of sleep deprivation. Ive stopped taking all my medication and use cocaine almost everyday. Ive been awake for more than 6 days and I honestly dont know how I am even slightly cognitive but I am starting to wonder if I will ever sleep without going back on benzos and antipsychotics =/

Anyone care to weigh in?

Ask for some "z drugs".. Zoplicone, etc..
 
Jesus Christ .... WOH the longest Ive ever been awake would be 72 hours =3 days for those of you bad at math
 
During opiate withdrawals I was up for around nine to ten days straight without sleep and went around seven without eating. Using drugs to do it makes it a hell of a lot worse though, also insomnia / opiate withdrawals and sleeping pills etc work you over pretty badly.

I would have to say it varies from person to person, I know some people who start getting weird as hell after only being up for two days or so. I also know some people like me who can go insane amounts of time without sleep and be the same.

A bit off topic, but any time I'm up for like four or more days I almost always watch the movie Spun it pretty much perfectly fits my mood after being up for numerous days.
 
While I was withdrawaling from opiates and benzos in an inpatient facility I was up for seven days.

Also used to go on four day crack/IV cocaine binges fairly often. At the end of day two is when the madness starts kicking in for me.
 
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