How long can you go without sleep for?

[King]

I think somewhere around 60 hours is my personal record. It's definitely not normal for me. I can go up to two days without sleep normally, if I have a lot of stuff to do, without risking many problems.

[Sel Nar]

Including godawfully-huge amounts of energy drinks (aka, natural toxins in canned form), I can last for upwards of 80 hours, but by the end-point of that I'm slightly less mentally capable than your basic rock.

Also, I find that too much caffine causes.... well, digestive issues after some time. Not fun.

[Desan]

I know this is the opposite answer to the question asked  but


I just slept a good 14 hours o.O

[Defiance]

I used to go about 36-45 hours of wakefulness all the time at my old job. Wake up, go to work, stay because there were things to do and staff I enjoyed working with and customers I enjoyed seeing, get nothing done,  work through the night, sun comes up, "Oh wow, how convenient that I open the store today." then just keep on working till my shift ended around 6-8 that day.

Tim Horton's, nicotine, and a reason to be a wake.

's all I need.

I don't think I've ever gone over 45-48.

After a while, I just sorta get pissed off, decide "Fuck this." and go to bed.

[Serephino]

I can usually go about 20 hrs, then I'm pretty useless.

[Nimmy]

My tested limit is about 30 hours. I get to about 24 without sleep and everything's funny... or just doesn't make any sense and is funny for that reason. Typically this is pulled from 7 AM on one day to 1 PM on the next, and with lots of sugar involved (and various animated films). No ill effects, I just need to nap until about 4 or 5, get up for a few hours, and go to bed around 10 and my internal clock resets itself.

Never gone beyond that, but then again, I've never really had a reason to. "No-Sleep overs" (as my dad liked to call them) were the reason for the 30 hours without sleep, but once I hit college I realized "hey... sleep is really nice" *took a nap per week on average over the year, when she had never been interested in napping before college, even when she was under the age of 6 and naptime was expected*

[Lithos]

Also, seems that ability to stay up starts decreasing as one gets older. I cannot do crazy stuff that I could at my student / army days anymore :(

That might be a good thing though >.>

[Indigo]

Ack...I actually enjoy sleep...lots of deep, -fan on providing cool air- over me sleep.  I can't stay up anymore unless it's an emergency, ( emotional or physical )

I like to sleep..fully deeply, uninterrupted.

So...seriously? 24's max now, before I become a raging wildwoman, demanding someplace to nest.

>:)

[CWand]

my personal record is about 276 hours or so.  I got kinda....weird near the end.it wasn't pretty.

[Oniya]

11 days?!  :o

[CWand]

yeah, almost twelve, and it began to show near the end, I started having minor hallucinations and such.  It was back when i was like twelve.  Haven't done it since.

[BaronS]

53 hours.

A full day of high school exams followed by a dusk-til-dawn laser skirmish (was too young for paintball) session.  Usually at the end of those Id come home, shower, take 3 headache tablets and sleep all day but one of my overseas friends had left me an email saying she was going to kill herself.
Cue me unable to sleep all day waiting for her to get online then trying to call every hour and pacing around my room, then my house and finally having to go for a walk around my town because I was that damn anxious.  Finally at around 10AM she comes online...her first words to me "I hope I didnt worry you."

I dont remember going from the computer to my bed but I woke up at around 10PM thinking it was early morning.  Yeah - dont want to repeat it anytime soon.

[Banderas]

I think my personal record is almost 72 hours.  January 1991.  US Army Command Post Exercise in southeastern Arizona, Ft. Huachuca.  I tried to get some sleep somewhere in the middle of the exercise, but just laid there for an hour with my boots on, staring at the interior wall of an Armored Personnel Carrier.  I slept 2 days straight when the exercise was over, which is my other, opposite record.

[kylie]

Also, seems that ability to stay up starts decreasing as one gets older. I cannot do crazy stuff that I could at my student / army days anymore :(

That might be a good thing though >.>

Ssssssssh.  Some of us are still in our student days...  And getting older!
Zzzzzzzzz.    ???  Oops.

Suppose it really depends what you have to do in the surrounding days, and while you're not sleeping... 
I haven't tested it precisely recently...  I think I can just walk around town, and say something short and minimally coherent after around 30 hours. 

It probably helps that those are usually situations where I just turn something in and limp away.  I wouldn't do very well if I had to work with others in some office the whole morning.  Although I have trudged through that with very little sleep occasionally.

Also, the difference between "absolutely no sleep" and "automatic, short naps I can barely notice" is very fuzzy for me.  I'm not sure quite how to measure it.

[Jadyn]

Around 30 hours or so. I'll wake up in the morning, go through the day, work though the entire night, go through the morning and early afternoon of the day after, and then crash into bed in the early evening.

I'm not a fan of shooting my circadian rhythm in the head. Everytime I end up pulling one of these routines (which fortunately only happens around once or twice a year), my appetite disappears and I get dry eyes that last until I get a full night's sleep again.

Sometimes, depending on the work, I will purposely leave a portion of things undone and get a few hour's sleep in first before waking up extra early to finish it off. Certainly not ideal, but at least this way I can go through the next day with acceptable functionality.

[Callie Del Noire]

My personal best (or worst if you like) is something like 50 hours. I DO NOT suggest you try this. I was working on my first deployment cruise and by the time we were done with pack up, staging and offload I had not slept for the best part of 2 1/2 days.

At the end I nearly had to get help to walk off the boat and when my buds collected me I slept nearly 30 hours straight.

It is NOT fun.

[SilverGhost]

Far away and long ago, I once did 96 hours without any sleep but a few winks here and there. Believe me when I tell you it was not fun, but it was required for a special project at work. Three of us passed the hours working hard with the aid of strong coffee and this was in the time before Starbucks. Normally, I can get by with 4 hours sleep each day.

[Jag]

I start to nod off uncontrollably around 50-55 hours. People can tell when I'm over tired cause I get really big bags under my eyes when I'm sleepy. I can go longer than the 50-55 hour limit if I push it, but I'm useless.

I used to have to stay up long hours when I was in training at the call center because of how my transportation was. I only slept about two hours a night during the month long training class. I still don't know where that last screw went from the desktop pc that we had to take apart and put back together...whereever it went, it was not needed cause the system booted up fine and worked. Did that around hour 40 of no sleep during that time. I'm nearly useless around that point.

[Kirei]

I get tired to a point. After the point I don't get more tired, my consentration weakens and all, but I don't feel more tired. I have stayed up for 78 hours straight (I think.)

But really, I believe I could go on easily until I dropped dead. I always go to sleep because of time, not because I felt all that tired.

[Raven41174]

Longest I've gone was 2 1/2 weeks while in Desert Storm

[Beguile's Mistress]

84 hours

[Destiny Ascension]

Somewhere between 180 hours and 200 hours my first tour in Afghanistan.

[Saerrael]

I can't do this anymore, probably the age factor, even if I'm only 30. But, with a circle of an hour meditation (alpha/ beta/ tetra) every 8 hours and every 4 hours when your mind goes funny, no caffeine, light digestables and a stress free environment, I once could 'stay awake' for as long as I pleased. Granted, those meditations go very deep, though.
The only things that really went wrong after a few days were my body not being happy with the change in diet and my creativity dying due to lack of dreams.

[Gunny1]

Well, when I was younger - early to mid 20's - I could do 50-hour stints without much problem, as long as I could get a good eight hours sleep (at a minimum) between them. These days...? I usually 'hit the wall' somewhere in the 30-40 hour range - though still technically 'awake', about the only thing I can do 'well' is a heck of a Zombie impersonation. (Just substitute the word 'coffee' for 'brains' in any Romero flick, and you've got it... *Grin*)

[Le Immortelle]

72 hours or so is max i've ever gone. My head started aching quite a bit near the end of it. After that I well, slept for a long time lol.