Ask Lemmy

Ohhh, story time from 30ish years ago.

It is summer in the late 90s, living downtown with nothing to do. 4 of us decided to stay awake as long as possible, with the help of LSD and PCP and my locally famous "acid walks". We did an escalating amount of LSD(forget the actual amount started at 2 each then more each following dose) 2 quit after 48 hours, they just dropped asleep to the floor. Myself and a woman friend did another 48 on top of that and added some PCP to the mix. It was a very, umm, interesting and confusing 4 days, I don't know how lucid I was at the end. Don't really remember much more now. plz do not do this I slept the 5th day completely. Don't abuse the power of youth, harness it.

Unrelated, another friend of mine from that era took enough valium at a party that he slept for 4 days straight, best part was when he did finally wake up he asked the host what happened to the party. She was laughing when she told me, as did he.

About 70 hours, at that time in my life it was normal for me to go 24 hours or so without sleep because I was addicted to WoW.

That time I realised I'd hit 30 and decided to see how long I could go without sleep.

At somewhere after 60 hours I began hallucinating and became convinced that there were elephants inside the walls making them deform.
That was the sign I needed to go to sleep, and I slept for almost 20 hours straight.

5 days in 1994, and for no particular reason, just for funsies. Now I get cranky if I get denied my sleep schedule for more than 4 hours.

I used to stay up all night when having fun on occasion. The longest was two nights and then I went to bed at around 8pm on the third day. It's been awhile since I lived that life but I used to wake up feeling great and generally be in a great mood, and it helped me reset my sleep cycle so my insomnia would get less disruptive for awhile afterwards. That said, not sleeping is bad for you. If you're doing it regularly you will have negative health effects, and if you stay up for more than a day you will start hallucinating and probably make bad decisions.

67 hours. After a full day of work, my wife and I hopped an international flight to Europe. There were two layovers, including a 6-hour one in Dubai. I tried to sleep on the longest leg of the flight, but with my restless wife on one side and a restless stranger on the other, I couldn't. Once we landed and reached our AirBnB, I announced I was going to take a desperately needed nap. My wife stood at the bedside staring at me until I gave up and we went for a walk to see Prague.

Dreamed of seeing that city for half my life, but it was a couple of days before I was capable of enjoying it.

About 42 hours. I start getting hallucinatory sparkles at roughly 40 hours and usually go to bed then.

Only done it a few times in my life, but the most memorable one was while in the middle of a 5-day LARP. We were going hard, I was NPCing, and I started seeing shadows in the middle of a fight. I took that as my cue to dip out and crash.

40ish hours. I was in my 20s, a phd student, with time on a one-of-a-kind scientific instrument. Got a lot of data.

About 20 hours. Half it was on a 10 hour flight and no matter how much booze I poured down my throat I just couldn't fall asleep

Close to 72hrs. I work in the entertainment industry and we had a project that was poorly lead. Overpromises were made, not enough time and people. It was two of us working from Friday into Sunday. The issue with the place with worked at (besides the company itself) was that the heat would shut off at night and the weekends. We both worked in a little small office, that used to be a closet. An electric space heater kept us warm while we worked, but once you opened the door into the main office space it was freezing, because it was the dead of winter. I tried to catch a nap a few times, but it was way too cold to actually sleep on the couch. The other issue was the noise being created by the city that was building a park across the street and breaking through the foundation. We eventually finished the project, and when they were thanking the people involved for all the great work, the two of us were not mentioned. Lovely place.

I'm not entirely sure, but it took place over a week long military exercise. We setup SHORAD missile defenses at night too act as OPFOR for the Air Force, and then moved positions during the day. It was my first long distance extended training mission as an NCO so I was making sure I did everything I was instructed to do. Stay in constant radio contact, scan the skies, id targets, shoot move and communicate. My gunner started hallucinating by the 3rd or maybe 4th day. I don't have any memories of sleeping that entire week, but I assume I must have been dozing off constantly. We rarely saw anyone else that week and just spent the days wandering the desert alone in some sort hazy dreamlike state. I should have made sure we slept more. It was a good lesson..."Hey Srgt., did you just see a Puerto Rican woman with a red balloon? Wait, did you just say yes!?"

More than three days. 78-80?

Bad reasons, not my own choice the second time.

I can't sleep on planes. Or trains. Or buses. Or really anywhere there's stuff going by, people all around me, and not enough space to lay flat.

This makes international travel problematic. The last time I went to Europe I was up for about 27 hours straight, from the time I woke up in my house to the time I went to sleep in the hotel.

Something approaching 48 hours, during college, to finish some assignments. It never works.

After a night long drug binge, I stayed awake for five days. It was interspersed with small naps, and by the third day I was getting some healthy sleep again (perhaps 30mn or so at a time), but it never felt long enough. I was only back to a normal sleep schedule on the fifth night. It was terrible. I phoned a friend at some point to help me because I was in shambles and absolutely panicked I would never settle again. Don't do cathinones

I can't even do a proper night-out so I have nothing to say about your question. I just hope you get better from your depression OP. Here, enjoy my upvote and comment notification dopamine!

About 24 hours. I'll almost fall asleep standing up at that point and whatever reason I've got to stay awake just is not worth it.

Not very long. About one and a half nights. Went to a rave where I stayed up all night and day then went straight to a metal festival next night. Tried to drive after to go back to my far away home but couldn't drive safely because my eyes couldn't see the road very well. I was exhausted and had to nap for a few hours mid trip.

About 36 hours. Borded on the plane for Mauritius (afternoon) , after 12 hours of flight, landed there, was told I need a visa to get in. Borded on exactly the same plane , flew 12 hours back. 2/10 wouldn't recommend. Still gets 2 points for psychodelic effects of tiredness

When I was a student I wrote a piece of software. Originally an assignment to be done within 6 months, I decided to go for it at once. I started programming on Thursday, and finished it on Saturday, while living on snacks, pizza, soft drinks, and tea. No time for sleep while being 100% in the zone.

I don't think I've gone longer than 48 hours. There was a very stressful period of my life where I couldn't sleep (and if I did I'd only get a hour or so) and I'd only get sleep every other night from how exhausted I was.

Approximately 36 hours. Got on a serious roll with some friends to beat Super Mario World 3, realized when we finished that it was about 4:30am, just went with it. I ended the day after throwing up a shrimp burrito from Taco Del Mar when the guy behind the counter misheard “shredded beef” and I had already got home (I don’t eat seafood, so it was already tough to get down). Never again.

78 hours. I was 18, and anxious af about the situation my life was in. I don't remember getting tired or anything other than frantically cleaning the house and finally passing out in front of a ProActiv infomercial after scrubbing the hell out of the fridge. I was unconscious for about 10 hours (sleep is not the word for that state) after.

72 hours, insomnia. They first put me on benzos, then trazodone, then finally Lunesta was able to get my brain working fully again. The benzos were interesting because I didn't really feel like I slept when I was on it? Like it just erased my memory of the sleepless night

30 hours. Electrical substation upgrades. Back in the '80's, when I was young.

Multiple times, a few because of partying (it was the 80's ... what can I say) and three due to work (system crashes).

The work ones were 2@24 hrs and 1@36 hrs -- partying I can't remember how long. Definitely wouldn't be able to do that now.

Apparently a not insignificant portion of the electorate has been asleep for 8 years

Edit: actually on topic, I’ve done a few 36 to 40 hour stints over the years, but i don’t make a habit of it

Army.

Because basic training.

Like 3x3 and close to none for 4. It was insane and I'm surprised I lived.

(They'll tell you the DS isn't allowed to mess with your sleep, and they told us that on day one as well. Just so we knew that they weren't messing with it. )