Whats your record for going without sleep?

[gravenewworld]

So here I am, It is Thurs. morning 1:30 am. I haven't slept since Mon. night, when I got 6 hrs. of sleep. I am just getting hammered with rediculous amounts of school work, I don't think I will be able to sleep at all tonight either. I'm am kind of scared for my health. Today at work I was basically falling asleep while standing up, my legs would just give out really quick because I would fall asleep for a split second and then wake up. I work in a chemistry lab, and when I was trying to label this bottle with the name of the compound in it, I basically fell half asleep for a second or two. Then when I fully woke up again I looked at the bottle and somehow I had written "I don't like this" instead of the compound's name on the bottle LOL. If I go tomorrow by 9pm I will have beaten my record for # of hrs without sleep which should be extremely easy since I have class and work at the library from 8:30am straight until 8:45pm.

 

[Astronuc]

Sleep deprivation is not good and can be dangerous if one falls asleep while operating a motor vehicle or other equipment.

Mental acuity is affected as you found out in the lab.

My record is about 128 hrs (Sun 10:00 to Fri 18:00 (6pm)) [Warning: do not try this - I was very lucky].

Thursday night/Friday morning I was nearly hallucinating, and when I finally crashed on Friday evening, I was literally unconcious. My roommate had a party in our room with 2 speakers blaring Rock n' Roll at about 80 W per channel. I did not wake up, even when several people tried to wake me.

I woke up the next morning on Saturday at about 0700, had breakfast, and returned to my room and slept another 4 hrs.

 

[Moonbear]

Get some sleep!

If you are better rested, the homework will go more quickly because you'll be able to think clearer about what you are doing. Half hour or hour cat naps can do wonders when you can't take time for a full 8 hour night.

 

[check]

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=419599
I guess it's 264 hours.

The longest I've ever done was 50ish hours, but some friends and I want to try to beat 100 this summer, and record it. Should be fun. :)

 

[tribdog]

you are worthless at work when you've been up that long. And no matter how good you think you're doing your school work you're wrong. If you worked for me I would rather have you not show up than not sleep. It's better to have something not get done than to get done wrong. Are you sure you aren't a tweeker? I stayed up for days at a time back when I did drugs, but since I quit a few years ago I don't think I've gone 24hrs without sleep. Although lately I've been getting by with 4-6 hours a night and I'm wiped out right now. I think I'll take my own advice and go to bed right now. Good night.

 

[meteor]

I can pass a long time without sleeping. In fact, my mean of sleeping hours is 4 hours/day. :zzz:

 

[gravenewworld]

Its not like I don't want to go to sleep, I am dying too. But I just can't not do work. I could just go to sleep right now and not study for my exam that I haven't study for at all yet and fail, or I could study and not sleep and most likely do better on it. I also have 3 research papers due later today that had to be done. There is just not enough time in a day for me to complete all my work and sleep since I work 20 hrs/week on top of taking 20 credits at school.

 

[gravenewworld]

I definitely won't be driving to school though because I am too afraid of falling asleep at the wheel. I will be taking the train.

 

[tribdog]

lol, nobody's feeling sorry for you and your tough schedule. Remember, we've all done it. We've had the test the next day and the term papers due. We also know that no matter how much we thought we had no time to do anything but work and study the truth is we had a good time and the only reason we were always behind is because we screwed around a lot. Just like you do now, spending time in PF General Discussion isn't good for anything other than the enjoyment. It's okay, I'm not saying you need to change. Just don't expect us to believe you are being worked to death. You know you could get a few hours sleep without ruining your grades. Whether you do or not is entirely up to you.

 

[Leaping antalope]

Wow, is this the life in universities/colleges? I am currently a 12-grader and have never slept less than 5 hours per night except on weekends(although my workload is relatively high, I think. But maybe the workload now is nothing compare to that of universities...). I am quite worried about me life in the next four years... Is the life going to be that horrible? Or we can actually avoid this? Because I just can't imagine not sleeping for days...Don't scare me...

 

[PerennialII]

Wow, is this the life in universities/colleges? I am currently a 12-grader and have never slept less than 5 hours per night except on weekends(although my workload is relatively high, I think. But maybe the workload now is nothing compare to that of universities...). I am quite worried about me life in the next four years... Is the life going to be that horrible? Or we can actually avoid this? Because I just can't imagine not sleeping for days...Don't scare me...

It's just the occational extreme. Life when getting your higher education is a kind of harmonic motion, which every here and there resonates. Keeping a constant workload avoids most of the rought spots, and other than that, I think it's mostly refreshing. Best physics is done at night .

 

[Moonbear]

If you avoid procrastinating on stuff at the beginning of a term, you won't find yourself struggling to keep up at the end. If you still do, then you really need to rethink how many credits you're taking. Like I said, you'd have time if you took some sleep. And as tribdog pointed out, the time you're spending posting on PF is time when you could be getting other work done or taking that much needed nap. When you're not finding enough time to sleep, you need to rethink your priorities. During the upcoming semester break, find someone who can help you tune up your study skills. Seriously. If you don't have enough time to study, you're probably not studying smart. At this point, you're probably reading stuff without any of it sinking in or having to read it over 6 times to understand it or remember it, rather than once or twice. I've seen it time and again. If you're up all night cramming, and exhausted for the exam, how well do you think you're going to do if you're writing "I don't like this" on chemical labels?

Call up your lab supervisor and tell them you need a week off to get more studying done with exams coming up. If you're making mistakes like that and falling asleep standing up, you're an accident waiting to happen. I've had students come into my lab dead tired like that, or hungover, and I send them home. They aren't any use like that, and end up making so many mistakes, it just costs me more money when they have to do everything twice and waste a lot of reagents in the process.

It's also not wise trying to hold down a 20 h a week job while balancing a 20 credit course load. If you need the job to pay for school, then cut back on your credit load, even if it means you're going to have to take a couple of classes in the summer or taking an extra year to complete your degree.

 

[gravenewworld]

Well I finally did get all my work done, I am just getting ready to go to my 8:30 am class. Taking 20 credits and working 20h a week probably isn't smart on my part at all, but its something I just have to do. Since my school has no housing for seniors we have to live off campus. If I don't work there is no way in hell I can afford to live in my house, food, and paying for bills. Honestly, I don't think there has ever been a week this entire semester where I haven't pulled an all nighter, yet my grades seem to be fine. I already am going to have to take extra classes in the summer and fall in order to graduate. LOL over thanksgiving break I slept an average of almost 15 hours everyday, no joke. I woke up at 3:30-4pm almost everyday over break. I know life sucks right now, but I am going to get through it.

 

[Moonbear]

Sounds like time you found more roommates to help pay the rent! Usually, when you split rent with a couple of people, it isn't much more expensive than paying for dorms. Why is it usually the most expensive schools that don't have enough housing for their students? When I was in college, they always found room for everyone who needed a room, even if they had to put bunk beds into the lounges and turn them into bedrooms (sort of army barracks style). But, when I was up at U Mich, they only had housing for freshmen, and then the slumlords in town totally took advantage of this. No idea why they couldn't build a few more dorms with all the money they had.

 

[BoulderHead]

Whats your record for going without sleep?

About 3 posts, 5 at most. Oh no, here it comes again...

:zzz: :zzz: :zzz:

 

[tribdog]

yeah, that's about as many of your posts as I can handle as well.

 

[Smurf]

I'm almost at my 500 post mark without sleeping... must.. keep.. up.. just.. few.. more...

 

[gravenewworld]

Sounds like time you found more roommates to help pay the rent! Usually, when you split rent with a couple of people, it isn't much more expensive than paying for dorms. Why is it usually the most expensive schools that don't have enough housing for their students? When I was in college, they always found room for everyone who needed a room, even if they had to put bunk beds into the lounges and turn them into bedrooms (sort of army barracks style). But, when I was up at U Mich, they only had housing for freshmen, and then the slumlords in town totally took advantage of this. No idea why they couldn't build a few more dorms with all the money they had.

That is a good question, I pay almost 37 grand to go to this damn school a year, you'd think they would make enough to build some dorms to hold all the students, or accpet less students. I do have 3 other roomates and living off campus is definitely cheaper than living in the dorms, but I usually had financial aid paying to live in the dorm at school. I don't get any financial aid to live off campus.

 

[jimmy p]

I've not slept for 4 days before. I was on an exercise with the Army Cadets and couldn't afford to sleep. I lived on adrenaline. When I got home I slept for a full day.

 

[gravenewworld]

BOOOO YAH !1 I aced the test that I was studying for at 4am this morning. I definitely would have failed it, if I just went to sleep. Now just its time to just get through 1 more class and then I can sleep.

 

[check]

Wow, is this the life in universities/colleges? I am currently a 12-grader and have never slept less than 5 hours per night except on weekends(although my workload is relatively high, I think. But maybe the workload now is nothing compare to that of universities...). I am quite worried about me life in the next four years... Is the life going to be that horrible? Or we can actually avoid this? Because I just can't imagine not sleeping for days...Don't scare me...

The key is: NAPS!
I was never a big napper until I started university this year. Now I take a 2 hr nap almost every day. (I just had a 3 hr one not too long ago). So when you have a couple of hours in between classes, go find a comfortable place to nap. My spot is on a couch under a stairwell in the campus community centre. It's dark, and comfortable, but a bit loud. But I find that the noise is good for 2 reasons:

1) The ambient noise really makes you dream like mad and
2) Every hour when classes get out the noise level raises so you automatically wake up in time to get to your next class. I haven't over slept once!

 

[Moonbear]

Dims the lights and closes the door

Shhhh...I think graveneworld is finally sleeping.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

That is a good question, I pay almost 37 grand to go to this damn school a year, you'd think they would make enough to build some dorms to hold all the students, or accpet less students. I do have 3 other roomates and living off campus is definitely cheaper than living in the dorms, but I usually had financial aid paying to live in the dorm at school. I don't get any financial aid to live off campus.

Is this by any chance a great books program? I went to one and had similar hours, tons of reading and papers, yet there was a party almost everynight. Study hard = party hard

 

[Shahil]

Had to put in my two cents worth

Our end of year exams have just ended (wooppee! I'm in 3rd year at last now!) and ourr exams were spread over 3 weeks (7 subjects...) Now, my friends so our workload was pretty hectic (electronic engineering...)

Anyway - every nite before each paper, we left campus between 3am and 5am and wrote at 9am. On average, we had 1-4 hours sleep with 5 hours per nite max (before the easy paper we wrote ). Before one paper, I had 20 minutes sleep with couple of my friends not sleeping! On the days we didn't write, we had maybe an hour extra sleep. So basically, the average was 3 hours per night.

Also, for the preceding 2 weeks, we had hectic projects due so i was having MAX 5 hours sleep per night.

If I didn't do those mararthon study sessions,, I would've failed everything undoubtedly!

I'm sure that it was unhealthy but it was the only way to pass. I find that studying a couple days/weeks before a paper DOES NOT help one bit. Maybe you pick up certain concepts but nothing truly goes in. Maybe its the stress or something but for the next 2 years, I'm not going to study otherwise.

 

[gravenewworld]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, good morning everyone! I feel so much better after sleeping 12 hrs.

Is this by any chance a great books program? I went to one and had similar hours, tons of reading and papers, yet there was a party almost everynight. Study hard = party hard

I'm not sure what you mean by a great books program, but my university doesn't have a reputation for being one of the toughtest schools out there. I just got murdered with work because of the course load I'm taking along with all the hours I work off campus. Study hard=party hard. You hit the nail right on the head. I am definitely going to the bars hardcore tonight and tomorrow.

 

[Andromeda321]

I function worse then most people when I don't sleep enough so as a result I make an utmost effort to do so. As a result the longest I've ever gone without sleeping was 26 hours which was done on a day where I got up early on the East Coast/ flew to Arizona/ spent the subsequent night observing on a telescope. The last few hours were kinda bad though, when you are sitting around not moving in a dark location sleep is an incredibly enticing thing to do...

 

[Moonbear]

I function worse then most people when I don't sleep enough so as a result I make an utmost effort to do so. As a result the longest I've ever gone without sleeping was 26 hours which was done on a day where I got up early on the East Coast/ flew to Arizona/ spent the subsequent night observing on a telescope. The last few hours were kinda bad though, when you are sitting around not moving in a dark location sleep is an incredibly enticing thing to do...

Tell me about it! I used to do experiments that required going out and getting blood samples from sheep hourly or every two hours for about 72 hours straight. At night, due to the nature of the experiments, we couldn't turn on lights, so had to do everything in the dark. Sleep is very enticing in the dark. But even with that, I'd grab 15 min naps all night. It gets to the point where you can sleep standing up.

For those who are arguing that studying in advance doesn't help the material "stick" or it doesn't "sink in", what about when you cram last minute like that? How much of that do you still remember a few days after the exam? If this is for your major courses, you really need to work on learning and understanding the material, not just memorizing it. It's no a matter of just doing your homework every night and forgetting what you did the night before, each night review the concepts from a few nights ago and a few weeks ago. See how what you're doing now has built upon that, this understanding can help you solve problems to find your answers without the need to memorize it all.

 

[BoulderHead]

yeah, that's about as many of your posts as I can handle as well.

This post caused immediate sleep paralysis ( :zzz: ) but I resolved myself to congratulate you upon regaining use of my typing hand. :tongue2:

 

[Moses]

Well, this week i was awake for 46 hours, and before i start this "experience" i slept 4 hours in the day before.

The think I never ever taste a drop of alcohol. But i DO really felt how drunk people can make some "statement" with the "full energy" of the mind, while your mind is at log-off mode. I was almost shut down.

Setting a new counter, this is my 28 hour without sleep, but many people do that in the weekends...