If We Should Stop Sleeping

Losing sleep can have serious consequences. The United Nations considers it a form of torture, and the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. Just 48 hours without sleep is considered extreme sleep deprivation, but you’ll probably start to notice weirdness before that. After 18 hours without sleep, you might feel a little tipsy. Staying awake for 24 hours is the equivalent of drinking three or four drinks in two hours. And after 48 hours without sleep, your BAC might be at 0.1%, which is higher than the legal driving limit in every state. You might feel foggy, less alert, or double vision, almost like you're wearing sleepy beer goggles. That's because sleep deprivation slows down how your brain cells communicate with each other. So even if you're drinking alcohol, drowsiness will increase its effects. And caffeine only works up to a certain point; by the end of a day and a half without sleep, it'll start to wear off.

Your odds of being sick are higher than usual since your body can't fight as well as it should, and your brain and body are exhausted around this time that you begin to have microsleeps, brief periods of sleep lasting less than 30 seconds that you may not even notice. Definitely irritating, and potentially dangerous if you're doing something like driving a car. Then there's the possibility of hallucinations and visual distortions which are the most common type. Your water bottle doubles in size or moves around the room. However, you may also have sensational or auditory hallucinations, such as feeling someone tap you on the shoulder or hearing your name called. When you reach 48 hours, it's literally torture, which is why most governments have made extreme sleep deprivation research illegal.

Two days without sleep can cause you to lose your sense of reality. The hallucinations worsen, and you may even have depersonalization. That is the sensation that reality is slipping away, which may or may not be accompanied by an out-of-body experience. Add to it intense worry, impatience, tension, and weariness, and it's no surprise that the UN prohibits such deprivation. After 72 hours, you won't be able to think about anything but falling asleep. Don't bother with trivial chores, things like getting dressed or finding a snack may feel overwhelming, partly because to weariness and partly because your ability to regulate emotions is essentially non-existent.

Your hallucinations may get more complicated, including completely formed images such as a human, a bear, or even an automobile you shouldn't drive. Furthermore, in at least four historical sleep studies, participants reported shared hallucinations, specifically the hat phenomenon, which is a sensation of pressure around your head as if you were wearing a hat. All of this increases the likelihood of paranoia, sadness, and delusions. So we've been up for 96 hours or more, Say goodbye to reality, people. More and worse hallucinations and paranoia could lead to sleep-deprivation psychosis, a complete disconnect from reality.

Historically, women convicted of witchcraft were kept awake long enough to experience this madness. The women were convicted after judges weighed their visions and incoherent admissions. The fifth day is now commonly referred to as the "turning point." This is the perilous zone. Your mental health deteriorates dramatically, establishing your delusions as your new reality. Your brain will eventually stop working properly, which could lead to organ failure and, in extreme situations, death. Fortunately, recovering from sleep deprivation can be as simple as catching up on sleep, but if you're sleep deprived on a regular basis, you risk weight gain, acne, migraines, and high blood pressure, among other things. And getting back on track can take weeks.

According to one study, it takes four days to recover from a single hour of sleep loss. Instead of sleeping in late, try going to bed early, or better yet, eliminate the recovery phase entirely by obtaining seven to eight hours of sleep every night in the first place.