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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Will staying up 30+ hours once a week ruin me?

falsifiedhypothesi

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
4,253
Location
Detroit MI
I've gotten into the habit of not sleeping and using either amp or coffee to stay awake. The next day I feel mentally dulled but overall much more stable in terms of emotions, anxiety, and social interactions. I know this probably isn't good for me but realistically what can I expect to happen after a year or a few years of doing this?
 
Yeah it will fuck you up.
im a lifelong insomniac and used to use a lot of speed.
Your brain and your body need sleep.
 
Well, I'm an insomniac as well. I go at least 36 hours without sleep about 3 times per week. I've been doing this from ages 15 to 21 at present.

I've observed no detrimental effects or changes in cognition over this six year interval.

Though I do admit the possibility that cognitive impairments could accumulate at such a slow rate as to go unnoticed, sort of like gaining a pound of body weight a week may be unnoticeable to the daily observer.

Since I have no real knowledge on the science of chronic sleep deprivation, the only real way I could get an idea of the damage this has caused would be to compare myself now to myself 6 years ago at the outset of these every-other-day sleepless nights.

My opinion: it causes irreversible damage to one's cognitive faculties especially, and systemic damage less significantly. But only after a decade or more, I surmise, would these pernicious effects build up to something great enough to, say, attract the attention of a physician during a physical exam.
 
Speaking as someone who typically did 26-35 hour stints 1-3 times a week without sleep for a few months at a time for three years (engineering school is a bitch), you can get away with it for a short period of time but I wouldn't recommend it for a long time. During the tail end of those stints I'd typically have somewhat reduced cognitive abilities, increased reaction time, dulled perception and dulled/somewhat inappropriate emotional responses. You might also find yourself craving a ton of carbohydrates and junk food, which will give you a temporary energy boost but leave you even more tired later, and I wouldn't recommend giving in to those impulses. Pulling occasional (or even semi-regular) all-nighters as a temporary strategy (for a few months to a few years, with periodic rest breaks where you sleep for a few days at a time) to wring the maximum possible amount of productivity out of yourself is not ideal, but not super risky, even with the addition of caffeine or low doses of amphetamine.

That said, regular stimulant-fueled all-nighters are not a good open-ended strategy, especially if things escalate to the point where you're pulling them more than once a week. Over time there's a decent chance that you're going to start developing a tolerance to whatever stim you're using. My freshman year of college, I was all-nightering about once or twice a week; I started September with basically no caffeine tolerance (80-150mg got me moderately wired for 4-6 hours), and by April and May I was consuming something like 7-12 mg/kg in an evening (700mg-1.2g in a 200lb male) to get a half-decent stimulant effect. Assuming amphetamine tolerance follows a similar trajectory to caffeine tolerance, and assuming you do roughly what I did, you'd be getting into cardiotoxic and neurotoxic doses within the first few months of use.

I'm not saying don't do it, but if you do decide to do it use stimulants as sparingly as you can, consider using wakefulness promoting agents like modafinil in conjunction with or in lieu of strong stimulants, and rotate your stims so that you don't develop too severe a tolerance too quickly.
 
dude, it will not RUIN YOU.. and to be honest, you will eventually get back to a regular schedule. its only a matter of time before this ends and you go back to a somewhat "normal" schedule where you will get 4-7hrs of sleep.

back when I was 19-22 I would go to this club in NY called Sound Factory and they would be open 24+ hrs. based on the amount of Crystal Meth, GHB, coke, K and E I did, I would stay up for 3 days straight and party that whole time taking those drugs throughout a weekend of staying up. this went on EVERY WEEKEND for 4yrs until I eventually got arrested and did time.

sure, after a 2-3 day bender, I would be fucking dead to the world come that Monday, but I would rebound come Tuesday and feel fine again. its just based on your overall LIFE schedule; work hours, if you have a wifey/kids and have to be up and get shit done, etc. at the time I had no worries in the world and could sleep life away if needed and even when I got up I had no responsibilities so it was quite easy.

man, I wish I could go back to 2001 and do this all over again.

just the other night I got 2 80's of coke and was up 36hrs w/ this chick and we fucked all night into the morning just talking and listening to tunes. I slept for 3 hours that afternoon and come Sunday I was absolutely fine.
 
It won't ruin you; but eventually you will need sleep and will catch up on it. It's also not a good idea to do this for years or decades but that's probably not going to happen unless you constantly binge on meth or take very high doses of amphetamine daily.

When I was taking classes and working I would stay up for 30 hours at least once a week when I was busy working on projects, and doing research. I did not take any Adderall or Dexedrine then, and only drank high doses of caffeine. I would catch up on sleep during the weekend.
 
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