Sleep Deprivation

[enderwiggin]

When I was in Explorer Scouts, we had an annual design competition. Large-scale event, Co-ed, lasted 4 days.

We ran the event with the help of a couple adult advisors, and stayed awake all night, every night.

Then the next day was spent herding high school kids to and from auditoriums, listening to long presentation speeches, and trying to stay awake out in the hall.

By day 3, everyone was always WAY out of it. Half of us were nodding off on our feet. I remember having some pretty weird hallucinations. Nothing super vivid, just seeing trailing lines behind cars, or repeatedly seeing movement or dark shapes out of the corner of my eye that just weren't there. Sometimes it would look like the room was moving around me. I also started to get really jumpy, probably because I was close to falling asleep constantly.


The best way I can think to describe sleep deprivation is:

You know that feeling, where you're just about to fall asleep, and for whatever reason, something makes you JOLT right as you were about to drift off? Then you look around confused, not sure where you are for a second, before you can lay back down and go to sleep?

It's almost like an extended ordeal with that happening over and over again, but in a much more mild fashion. Your attention starts to wander, and you're constantly fighting to keep from drifting into a dream state.

 

[pict]

It is good to know what your limits are and what to expect. Rational thougth seems to go out the window fairly quickly.

I once went to a conference in Rio De Janeiro. A co-worker and I were staying at his nephew's apartment to save money. It was a small apartment with lots of other people.
We got into Rio at about 10PM and lots of old friends were showing up so we did the natural Brazilian thing and went out to eat huge portions of meat until well past midnight.

The apartment was 98 degrees F at 2 AM, no fan no AC, no air movement whatsoever through the open balcony door. I was "sleeping" on bare oriental carpet. By the time I got to the conference I had been up for 24 hours fighting the heat. The conference was air conditioned and wasn't teaching me anything new (if you read the book you saw the conference, I hate that.) There is nothing sweeter than lecture sleep. Mac

 

[ROCK6]

Sleep deprivation really affects your fine motor skills, reasoning and judgment. I've done several stints of 48-72 hours when conducting field exercises and I've learned that 48 hours is about my maximum in order to make good decisions and not get you or somebody else hurt. It helps a little when people are getting killed...fear can be a great motivator I would add that when you're doing physical exertion, lack of sleep really takes a toll on your body. The only way I can combat sleep deprivation is high calorie food and coffee I've gone for several weeks with just a few hours of sleep a day...I can't tell you how good even a catnap will help you. Good sleep is critical for any stressful situations...more than once I have been ordered and have had to order Soldiers to bed down and get some sleep

ROCK6

 

[dipbait]

I went fine days and nights. Crushed my heel and the pain was excruciating. Hurt to much to sleep. I didnt hallucinate but my mind was shot.

 

[desmobob]

I do a 48-hour stint every year when I go on a fly fishing vacation. I work all day, get home, load the car, drive to another town to pick up my buddy after he finishes his afternoon work shift (11pm), then drive all night to our destination.

We get there at dawn, then fish all day, heading into town to check into our motel and crash.

A couple of very brief (15min.) combat naps during the second day make all the difference in the world.

Stay sharp,
desmobob

 

[richard j]

i have fibromyalgia which messes with me bad. i dont sleep but i do rest. i spend a lot of time at night sitting in my chair trying to keep my legs and feet from cramping. i could probably set a record for most hours awake easily.

 

[j williams]

I can go 72hrs with almost no ill affects. After that, visual disturbances etc start up. Fine motor skill suffers, and decision making is slow to none. Ive stayeed up for 5 days without sleep one time. Long recovery time.

I now only get around 3-4hrs of sleep every night, however I take a nap mid day if time alots. I imagine I could fare well with several catnaps throughout the day and no solid sleep. For months, maybe indefinatly.

I had a friend that went 23 days w/o sleep, but he was on meth runnin from the cops for various things. The cops finally caught him after he went into a strangers house and made a pizza and fell asleep on the couch. He said he thought it was his house. He had stole a new suburban from the chevy dealership, and it was in the driveway when the home owners came home. He looked like a dead man in the mugshot. Nothing like the guy I knew. Hard drugs do bad stuff to people. Especially meth.

 

[sk8ermaclean]

As of now, just a couple days. But I'm heading to BUD/s in a month and a half, and I've got a pretty good feeling that I'll be going for a little longer than that

 

[dipbait]

Jwilliams , wait till you retire. It will take months to be able to sleep all night. I woke up at midnight to one every night for a long, long time.

 

[Steel-Junky]

3)"Sparkles" of light in the corners of my eyes

Yeah I get the sparkles too. It's creepy as crap when you start seeing things... you'll be looking straight ahead and swear that some large shadowy figure just darted to your extreme left or right out of the corner of your eye. And when you're sure you saw something... but no sound was made... it will freak you out. The kinds of things you'll hear are like a loud slapping noise... like someone took a large leather belt and smacked it on a hardwood table... it'll sound like it's about 40 feet away. And sometimes you'll here pops... like a camp fire.

I actually go without sleep way more often than I need to. I get about 5 hours a night usually... and on the weekends I'll go about 24 to 30 hours without sleeping. I hate sleeping... I feel like I'm wasting time.

 

[Steel-Junky]

Jwilliams , wait till you retire. It will take months to be able to sleep all night. I woke up at midnight to one every night for a long, long time.

That's interesting... My Father recently passed away... My mother was used to taking care of him as his health was poor his last two years. And now that he's gone... she doesn't sleep well at night either... I thought it was the loss... but it might be that she doesn't have that regular JOB to do of taking care of him anymore. She'll fall asleep around 2am... wake back up at 5am... go back to sleep around 6am and then sleep until 10 or 11.

 

[cmdionne]

Jwilliams , wait till you retire. It will take months to be able to sleep all night. I woke up at midnight to one every night for a long, long time.

Nessmuk talks about this in his book. He would always wake up, stoke the fire, smoke his pipe for a while and go back to sleep.

 

[j williams]

Jwilliams , wait till you retire. It will take months to be able to sleep all night. I woke up at midnight to one every night for a long, long time.

Yeah I can imagine. My body is so acustomed to being woke up and in an ambulance within 3 minutes awake, alert and ready to rock, that Its played hell on my sleep patterns. :grumpy:

 

[udtjim]

I just plain can't do it without pills. If I don't have sleeping pills, it takes at least three days before I can just sit or lay down and dose off. As a kid, my mother would lay down with me to try and get me to take a nap. She would wake up and I would be outside playing.

 

[Sharp_newbie]

Here is a funny story. when i worked as a courtesy clerk (bag boy) i stayed up for 2 full days playing video games on the weekend witha friend. by the third day i was at work and i was stocking a shelf. all i remember was i was really tired and started to talk to the Kool-aid guy on the packages of koolaid, until he started to yell so i yelled "BE QUITE" hahaha people thought i was nuts.

 

[x39]

As of now, just a couple days. But I'm heading to BUD/s in a month and a half, and I've got a pretty good feeling that I'll be going for a little longer than that

Best of luck to you. I hope all goes well, and remember, sleep is a weapon. My worst experience with sleep deprivation was after 72 hours awake. I was driving I-81 at night through southern Virginia in a snow storm. In my peripheral vision I kept seeing a guy in a brown fur coat walking next to my truck. That was enough to get me to pull over and grab some ZZZZs.

 

[cssims]

While recovering from a car accident I know for a fact I did not "sleep", but only rested. The accident left me with ribs 1-8 fractured on my left side and I was unable to lay down. I would sit up in a chair and try to sleep, but they were only naps and they never lasted long. I watched many a dvd and tv. (Especially movies I thought I would never watch..especially at 4am. It was Rambo III. Ugh!) This went on for at least at month. Now every week I'm awake for almost 24 hours straight every Sunday. From Saturday night around 10:30pm I'm up til around 8:30pm - 9pm on Sunday. So far no ill effects other than getting tired of my weird night shift I'm working now.