The London Times reports that Tony Wright of Cornwall recently stayed awake for 266 hours. He was attempting to break the world record of 264 hours awake set by Randy Gardner of San Diego in 1964. Wright was also attempting to demonstrate that, thanks to his "caveman diet" of raw food, he was able to "train his mind in such a way as to stay awake for 11 days and remain coherent and aware of what was going on around him."
The Times then goes on to report the bad news. Gardner didn't actually hold the world record for staying awake. Gardner's record had long since been surpassed by others. So Wright didn't set a new record.
The Times reports that: "The Guinness previous record was for 11½ days, or 276 hours, and was set by Toimi Soini in Hamina, Finland, between February 5 to 15, 1964." However, Soini's record was removed from the Guinness Book of Records in 1989. "It was deleted on the grounds that it could encourage records harmful to health and was unverifiable because of the claims of insomnia sufferers."
Actually, the question of who holds the world record for staying awake is a little more complicated than that, which I know because Gardner's sleep deprivation experiment is one of the experiments I discuss in
Elephants On Acid: and Other Bizarre Experiments
. I even interviewed Randy Gardner, who still lives in San Diego.
Gardner set his record on January 8, 1964. Two weeks later newspapers reported that Jim Thomas, a student at Fresno State College, beat Gardner's record by staying awake for 266.5 hours. And a month later Soini set the new record. 1964 was a banner year for sleep-deprivation trials.
However, subsequent issues of the Guinness Book of Records report far longer periods of sleep deprivation. The 1978 edition, for instance, states that:
The longest recorded period for which a person has voluntarily gone without sleep is 449 hr (14 days 13 hours) by Mrs. Maureen Weston of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in a rocking chair marathon on 14 Apr.-2 May 1977. Though she tended to hallucinate toward the end of this surely ill-advised test, she surprisingly suffered no lasting ill effects.
Ironically, I don't believe Randy Gardner's record ever did make it into Guinness. Gardner reports that "I did not get listed in Guiness as I missed the publication date." However, Gardner's record is the most frequently cited because it was (and probably still is) the most scientifically rigorous long-term human sleep-deprivation study, since Gardner was monitored by Dr. William Dement of Stanford University.
The overall problem with determining the record for the longest a person has stayed awake is that people take "microsleeps" without being aware of it. To really determine if a person has been constantly awake you'd need to record their brainwaves throughout the experiment. As far as I know, such a study has never been done.
Comments
Ryanb Silbough: its spelled RECORD, maybe try learning to check your typing would be a good start, as Jerry pointed out you must be prepared for this otherwise you just wouldn't cope with it. Try working your way up, because the record is a lot to just jump in and try. Train your body to be awake without sleep. Don't use drugs like caffeine or amphetamines to force it otherwise it wouldn't count (obviously).
Cam: 256 hours? I find it hard to believe because you didn't give much detail, that's over 10 days and nights without sleep. And, whilst I have done just over a week on many occasions, I have provided information such as the fact I have recurrent insomnia and have used drugs and I also provided a list of side effects that I had, and I have suggested some that can happen.
People, take a leaf out of Jerry & My book. We contributed detailed information on our own part and opinion, rather than just "omg I stayed up for two weeks then went to sleep".
The internet used to be a place of intellect (and pornography).
...now its just pornography, illiteracy and pointless rantings. NOW it is contributing to the dumbing down of society, the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what, in my and many other's opinion, it was initially intended for.
Iam however all for freedom of speech and expression, but that kind of malarky is hardly expression. More mindless shite.
Thanks all and please, continue to post regardless of what I've just said. Just think when your posting and put some effort in. Hell, I typed this out on a tiny keyboard on my G1 mobile phone.
Peace
Darksider
as for longest time awake, id have to be honest and say I have no idea of the exact hours, but id say around the 4 day mark before i finally collapsed...
so, my suggestions to anyone attempting to complete this record.
-keep well fueled, ie eat well and rink plenty of water. your body chews more energy the longer your awake.
- keep your mind active. when your not able to do interactive "hands on" things, start singing. when that gets boring, try mixing the lyrics of songs with tunes from other songs. it all helps.
-dont just sit at home. get into the sunshine, go for a walk, the vitamin e you absorb from the sunlight releases endorphins, which relax the mind and make you happy, without putting you to sleep.
- after 2 days, get a friend to check you every few hours. after 3, have someone at least in the same house. after 4, id suggest have someone keep an eye on you at all times.
I this all helps, and remember, this is not somthing I would recommend doing- I only did it because I had no choice in the matter.
And i like passed out haha
jezzzzz u can never get lost sleep back!
After that i slept all day and night and was still Exhausted!!!
Theres no point!
As for unintentional lack of sleep, I watched a video on YouTube about a man who had some disease where a part of his brain wasn't functioning properly so that there was no way his body could fall asleep. He was awake for multitudes of month. I can't remember, but maybe it was 6 months. Of course, his body deteriorated, he couldn't think, speak, eat...no function whatsoever. It's such a sad way to die. You should search it.
I watched a video on Peter Tripp's experiment with a sleepless spree. Search that on YouTube. His body was noted to have been asleep although we was still actively on air talking and responding logically to those speaking to him. He actually experienced lasting effects, though. His personality was forever altered and because of it was forced to resign from his job as a radio personality...and that was just a little over one week. I cannot believe someone could go without it much longer and still function normally. Wow.
and for the record i will not go for the record i spent the last 4 years deeling with the cravings for the drug and finaly got a handl on the sycosis i dont want to relive hell and most ppl that reech evan day 7 will understan wut dark matter is
I've heard storys of people staying up for MONTHS on meth...
Hitler didn't create it to make you go to sleep...
do yall care about health not to be mean but this website is pretty dumb its really realllllllly bad for u do yall under stand
My diet curently consists of nothing more than Adderall and Monster.
how do i get the guinness guys in to gimme 10k for it?
also double checking its still allowed to be attempted with the 'record harmful to health' malarkee?
any infos helpful 😊 this should be good
of my myspace and http://www.myspace.com/inforis_red and my 360 gamertag is xkillinyax2012 please support me and if i fail well i can try again over and over i got alot of life in me so yep thanks bye.
To people who don't have sleeping disorders and who are intentionally staying up for the hell of it, please don't. Please instead, be glad that you can fall asleep normally because some of us just aren't that lucky. My personal record for staying awake unintentionally was 62 hours and that was horrible. Have two jobs and went to work for both of them during that patch and felt like death warmed up. I nearly got fired from one of them as i made several large mistakes.
On average i get around 3/4/5 hours sleep per night, if i'm lucky. Been awake 24 hours at the moment. Tried to go to sleep but no luck. This is torture.