What if you stopped sleeping for a week;-
Overview;-
Learning objective;- After reading this article, Readers will know;-
- Highest world record of sleeplessness
- Haunting Effects of sleep deprivation
- Conclusion from my experience
Introduction;-
Before moving forward to our topic, I want to ask from you that how many days you had spent without sleeping?
Sleeping is a fundamental part of our existence. Also for me sleeping is a necessary luxury but we wouldn't die if we stop sleeping fo a week. On the other hand, there is a very rare fatal disease known as Fatal familial insomnia. On an average, we sleep around 26 years of our lifetime. That’s somewhere between a third and a fourth of your lifespan!
During our goodnight time, our body regenerate essential functions while going on stand-by. Our brain, muscles, and heartbeat work part-time in order to allow a full recovery of the body before starting into the next day.
Randy Gardner Experiment;-
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| (Picture of Randy Gardner) |
So what would happen if you stopped sleeping as an experiment? Say for one week, is that even possible?
And how would your body react?
Now try to switch on a full concentration mode, because here’s what would happen if you stopped sleeping! Fancy sleep much?
There was one young man who had asked himself the same question as we did in this scenario. His name is Randy Gardner. In 1963, at the age of 17, Randy set the world record for the longest time a human has gone without sleep by staying awake for 11 days and 25 minutes.
In total, he managed to stay up for 264.4hours, that’s 4.4 hours more than the previous record held by Tom Rounds. During the experiment, he was closely monitored by health professionals and researchers. After all, an experiment of this magnitude can help scientists discover more about the effects of sleeplessness on various parts of our body.
Funny enough, when asked why Randy had stopped the test after 11 days, he replied that he’d forgotten what he was doing. Understandably for someone who can stay up so long if you ask me! You might think, well how did he manage to stay up that long, I could never do that!
That’s the same thing Gardner asked himself, and even though all odds were against him, he was still able to beat the researcher – WilliamDement – at pinball on the tenth day.
What would happen if you stopped sleeping for a week?
The experiment had proven several things that do appear to inhibit a person’s ability as a consequence of long-term non-recovery of the body. John Ross, who was recording his health during the experiment, concluded the serious cognitive and behavioral changes.
- These included moodiness
- problems with concentration and short-term memory
- paranoia as well as hallucination.
- Going without sleep for such a long time puts your brain on a very different path.
- It will literally force you to take a nap as the body knows better than the mind when and if a goodnight sleep is necessary.
- This is why you will experience extreme fuzziness and headaches.
- Your body is telling you that it's long overdue to go on stand-by for at least a couple of hours so that some of the consequences of sleeplessness can be mitigated.
- Your eyelids will feel like heavy cement trying to shut the doors so that your brain can recover from constantly monitoring the environment.
- It is also reported that sudden muscle contractions and shaking of your body will occur.
- As harsh as going without sleep for longer than a week may sound, there were no long-term psychological or physical effects observed in Randy Gardner’s case.
- Further studies show that there is a negative impact on the heart in case of both sleeping less than 5 hours per night and sleeping long(more than 9 hours per night)
- According to the AASM’s sleep statement, sleep deprivation can cause higher rates of breast cancer and prostate cancer. So simply the risk of cancer increases.
- Even missing one night without sleep can affect your thinking capability. It can affect thinking ability, alertness, consciousness, decision making things.
- Sleep deprivation has an impact on learning and memory.
- In a study it had been found that lack of sleep can make you obese i.e, you can gain weight.
- As many shift workers, drivers, etc are prone to accident as in case they are not getting enough sleep. Studies tell us that a person is three times more prone to road accidents.
- The last one will motivate you to take proper rest, because it's about your looks!! Sleep deprivation also affects our skin, as it causes loosened skin, wrinkles, etc.
You should read this also;- https://learningandliving28.blogspot.com/2020/06/loneliness-silent-killer.html
Highest Record of sleep deprivation;-
After setting the world record, he slept for14 hours and 40 minutes and awoke naturally around 8:40pm. Gardner appeared to have fully recovered from his loss of sleep, with follow up sleep recording taken one, six, and ten weeks after the fact showing no significant differences. As amazing as the Gardner case sounds, the record has been broken a number of times in the following years. The Australian National Sleep Research Project states the record for sleep deprivation is 18 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes. That’s a whopping 1 week longer than Gardner!
Conclusion;-
Researches say that sleep deprivation can cause severe health issues as mentioned above and even death. From my personal experience after 3 days without sleeping makes me irritated and frustrated also it compromise your decision-making ability and also gives you hallucination effects. There is a lack of energy, that needs not to be mentioned. They are recognized by experience and can't be ignored.
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