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I heard something like' date=' we physically only need an hour of sleep but mentally need the 6-8...

 

Probably a myth though like the "we only use 10% of our brains" thing[/quote']

are u sure it's a myth do we use 100% of our brain all the time then?

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Though it might be of interest, Im currently running (30 hrs in) an online sleep deprivation experiment Im planning to stay awake at least 100 hours as a warm up for an attempt to exceed the closely monitored record of c 264 hrs set by Randy Gardner in 1964. You can log in via the cam link at http://www.kaleidos.org.uk/News%5FUpdates%5FEvents/

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After an initial period of tiredness 24-48 hrs the tiredness rapidly diminishes and is replaced with a feeling of relaxed mild euphoria. All previous function is retained with improvements. The long term adherance to a raw primate like diet is an essential factor. Mosly leaves (salad) seeds nuts fruit. Currently at 55 hrs

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You will die quicker from lack of sleep than lack of food.

 

Thanks its going OK, currently at around 90 hrs have done a couple of runs around 180 hrs so not too concerned.

What you are attempting is very dangerous. You should be conserned. But it is your life. Though I do urge you to think about what impact you death could have on the people that know and love you.

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okeh..this might be out of topic but i heard that, once, a man tried to change his sleeping habit by staying up all night and sleep during the day. He continued for years and suddenly, he died. Is it a true story? does it related with the sleeping habit that we have? i don't know...

 

I should think that are millions of people who work nightshift without dropping dead - he may have died but probably notbecauseof his sleeping pattern.

 

I have heard of rare cases where someone cannot sleep at all, not even with anesthetic. In this case, they slowly lose their mental faculties and end up in a coma and eventually die (well, never come out of the coma anyway).

 

After an initial period of tiredness 24-48 hrs the tiredness rapidly diminishes and is replaced with a feeling of relaxed mild euphoria. All previous function is retained with improvements.

 

Perhaps your own perception of your abilities suggests that they show improvements but a whole hodge of scientific data would suggest otherwise. Have you ever tried testing yourself in certain ways during your prolonged periods of sleep deprevation?

 

are u sure it's a myth do we use 100% of our brain all the time then?

 

yes this is a myth, we use all of our brain.

 

The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don't seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need, while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.

 

While this is true, the amount of extra sleep required is doesn't depend on the duration of the waking period.If you are awake for 96 hrs you only need to sleep as much as you would if you were awake 2 or 3 days.

 

Thanks for all your input, guys. I really appreciate it, BUT what goes on chemically in your body/brain? I've seen a post that says, "we don't know yet." Is this true?

 

We know how the onset of sleep is controlled in the brain but I assume you would like to know the function. There is no definate answer yet. I have provided a list of things we are reasonable sure about as well some of the current ideas -

 

the brain needs sleep and not the body. We Feel tired to make us go to sleep and not because our body is literally exhausted. If we overwork our muscles we get cramp. Any benefits the body receives during sleep are secondary to the needs of the brain.

 

Sleep may allow down-regulation of synapses - the strength of which, it is proposed, are generally increased during active behaviour.

 

Sleep may allow consolidation of the memories of experiences from the previous day. time to push things into long term memory.

 

(My idea) The absence of dominating sensory input may allow our internal generative model to reinforce itself. This may make little sense. A generative model is a model that makes predictions of its sensory input. we can use this model to plan a head a little (ahead of real time) but this requires that our predictions don't match current input. Perhaps the lack of sensory input allows some time for these 'planning-ahead' associations to be reinforced with out constant errors in prediction.

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Sorry, I cut my list off short

 

As far as I know all animals with complex brains sleep. Sharks probably do sleep, they dont need to stop moving to sleep. As has been mentioned, some dolphins sleep one half their brain at a time. Other dolphin species sleep for 2-3 seconds every couple of minutes (exact details may vary).

 

Some experiments have shown that peformance of a motor task that is being learnt can improve after a period of sleep. this is strong evidence for a link between sleep and learning. I think there is similar evidence from experiments where cognitive tasks are learnt.

 

Finally, during all periods of sleep there is no overall reduction in actually neural firing. Sleep does not reduce the amount of energy used by the brain.

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You can die from lack of sleep in certain circumstances. Heres a quote from the page I've linked to.

 

People who cannot sleep die. There is a very rare genetic disorder called as fatal familial insomnia (FFI) that produces a general brainstem deterioration during middle age. The first symptom of this untreatable disorder is the inability to sleep, for months. Eventually the adult man or woman dies, and as with rats who die at 17 days, and young dogs in 6 days, adult dogs in 13 days, these individuals die from the consequences of thermoregulation failure. Thermoregulation is a common theme in sleep. Keeping the body temperature stable is a very critical function (#2 on our list) and sleep (slow wave sleep) in integral to this process.

 

Theres lots of otheruseful information in this page as well.

 

http://start.eegspectrum.com/Newsletter/jul2005.htm

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I've never heard of someone 'literally' dying because of a lack of sleep. There was actually a documented case of one woman who didn't sleep for I think it was about 2 years. I'm going to find that link.

 

This is incorrect. The longest documented case is just under 19 days, and that person suffered severe hallucinations, among other nasty adverse effects. The human body will simply not allow you to stay awake on that kind of a timescale.

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I've never heard of someone 'literally' dying because of a lack of sleep. There was actually a documented case of one woman who didn't sleep for I think it was about 2 years. I'm going to find that link.

I have never heard of anyone died from sleep deprivation either.

 

People who cannot sleep die. There is a very rare genetic disorder called as fatal familial insomnia (FFI) that produces a general brainstem deterioration during middle age. The first symptom of this untreatable disorder is the inability to sleep' date=' for months. Eventually the adult man or woman dies, and as with rats who die at 17 days, and young dogs in 6 days, adult dogs in 13 days, these individuals die from the consequences of thermoregulation failure. Thermoregulation is a common theme in sleep. Keeping the body temperature stable is a very critical function (#2 on our list) and sleep (slow wave sleep) in integral to this process.

[/quote']

How to interpret these results is really debatable. In the case of FFI, the death is mainly caused by brainstem damage/deterioration. In these animal tests, high stress and fatigue might be the main factors for the death.

 

In human sleep deprivation records, Randy Gardner after 264 hrs (11 days), and Robert McDonald after 444 hrs without sleep did not lead to death. They have, in fact, even no long term ill-effect, neither physical nor mental.

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Take a look of this theory:

 

Memory Process and the Function of Sleep

http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/A.../6-6/Zhang.pdf

 

this is borderline scientific. He dosn't really make a strong case for this model.

 

How to interpret these results is really debatable. In the case of FFI' date=' the death is mainly caused by brainstem damage/deterioration. In these animal tests, high stress and fatigue might be the main factors for the death.[/quote']

 

I agree that in FFI the extra deterioration complicates the situaiton. However, there have been some rare cases where damage to part of the brainstem results in 'fatal insomnia'.

 

As for animals - death from high stresss and fatigue caused by lack of sleep would still be death bylack of sleep. However the articale suggests that problems with thermoregulation are what causes death in the end.

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Nonetheless' date=' extended sleep deprivation is fatal:

 

http://www.thedoctorslounge.net/medlounge/articles/sleep/

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/sleep-deprivation[/quote']

 

From my knowledge, the conclusion "extended sleep deprivation is fatal" is mainly based on animal test from rat by the disk-over-water method. The problem for this method is that you can not create a fair control for the stress and fatigue incurred by being forced to stay awake from this method. The conclusion of "extended sleep deprivation is fatal", in my opinion, could not been justified by this test.

 

A. Rechtschaffen, B.M. Bergmann, Sleep deprivation in the rat by the disk-over-water method, Behav. Brain Res. 69 (1995) 55-63.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7546318&dopt=Abstract

 

 

In some rare cases, however, people have gone for months - or even years - without sleep, with limited or no adverse side effects. One of recent case is given below. Is this a hoax? I don't know.

 

Vietnam man handles three decades without sleep

http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=12673

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In some rare cases' date=' however, people have gone for months - or even years - without sleep, with limited or no adverse side effects. One of recent case is given below. Is this a hoax? I don't know.

 

Vietnam man handles three decades without sleep

http://www.thanhniennews.com/feature...0&newsid=12673[/quote']

 

Do you have any other examples? This case does seem a bit dubious.

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Do you have any other examples?

 

No, I don't have any other examples. I did read several other cases similar to the Vietnam man one; however, these reports can not prove anything.

 

The human sleep deprivation record that I accepted is, so far, 264 hrs by Randy Gardner, as it is detained in Dr. Dement's book: The Promise of Sleep. As to Robert McDonald's 453 hrs 40 min world record, I'm still trying to look for the details about how the test was performed.

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Thought you might find this of interest, while researching an attempt at a prolonged period without sleep c 300hrs I came across Robert McDonald's 453 hrs 40 min world record. Having conducted three 7 day experiments without sleep and being aware of the literature re sleep deprivatiuon I was a little suspicious of the pressumption that a task as simple as rocking automatically implied being fully awake. Im currently looking to exceed the monitored Gardner record if a suitable location can be found.

 

 

-------Original Message-------

 

From: info@kaleidos <mailto:info@kaleidos.org.uk>

Date: 02/04/06 19:17:19

To: -------rob@-----artship.com

Subject: Rocking chair marathon

 

Hi I recently read that you continuously rocked in a rocking chair for more than 400 hours. Did you suffer any effects of sleep loss? Did you hallucinate or dream were fully conscious/wide awake all of the time were you allowed to sleep at all?

 

Thanks

 

Tony Wright

 

 

------ Forwarded Message

From: rob <-------@planet.nl>

Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 20:13:46 +0100 (W. Europe Standard Time)

To: "info@kaleidos" <info@kaleidos.org.uk>

Subject: Re: Rocking chair marathon

 

 

"Ahoy Tony",

 

 

(WOW) The Rocking Chair Record ?!

 

That was a long time ago in Oakhurst California USA in April 1986 world record no.19 of the 30 attempts to date.

At the time the record was set at 4.44hours 2hour and 20minute short of 19days.

I was allowed 5min breaks every hour or 2hous everyday as I remember it.

after day ten I could rock & sleep at the same time without stopping after day 400 I was suffering strange problems with my blood pressure & heart

and at the end at 4.44hours ("I Was Hospitalized and made to sleep for 2days")..So Think Twice or Passably Three times First Before Trying it?

 

Did I Hallucinate??? (NA) ..."I'm A Sea Captain"

WEEEEEEEE !!!! .."Ha Ha"

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