h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hmmm...

After 6 or 7 days I usually am significantly disabled. Actually, my endurance is less than it used to be - and now it's 4 or 5 days. This is done with only legal aid. Here's a few tips and tricks so that you can handle whatever marathon needs to be run.

1 - Go as long as possible before reaching for chemical stimulus. Sugar, caffeine, guarana, ginsing - all of these stimulate for a time and then peter out. Holding off for the first few days is great, with the occaisional cup of tea to tide over the difficult bits.

2 - Get some physical excercise. This helps, but you will suck at it. Nothing super heavy, either - that's shooting yourself in the foot. Playing hacky sack, maybe some friendly football (soccer) both good.

3 - Keep your mind active. Again, this helps but you will suck at this, as well.

4 - Don't keep a schedule. Plan way too many things. Make sure that you're always trying to get somewhere (with someone else), or somewhere with lots of people. And be friendly (but not too friendly - sex is a big up then a big down, which leads to sleep, which is preceisely what we are trying to avoid).

5 - Eat, but eat light. Refuel regularly on stuff like peanuts, all-dressed chips, ceasar salad (mebbe with chicken). Stick with cold, solid, not too filling snacks. Yogurt is like a blanket for your stomach - even though it is cold going in, it will warm you up. Staying hungry means you'll have one additional thing keeping up awake.

6 - Stay cold. Especially if it is dark, stay cold. This will force your body to stay a bit more active to keep warm, which keeps blood flowing and keeps the oxygen and nutrition going to the needed parts of the body.

7 - Avoid sugar by itself. Refined sugar gives you a brief burst of energy, then leaves, and leaves you lower. Caffeine is better, but it's still spike-drop (it's actually a drop-spike-drop, which is why sugar is added to coffee - the simple carbs in the sugar provide immediate boost, counteracting the initial depressant effects of caffeine, then the caffeine kicks in and counteracts the drop in sugar level). Guarana (something new being added to beverages) has a much longer and softer arch, especially when mixed with Ginsing, Astragalus and other herbal remedies.

8 - Change your clothes and shower. Clean underwear makes a huge difference - and not smelling like yesterday makes it seem like you're on a new day. And new socks are a must - I find I sweat more when I am tired, so changing the underthings two or three times a day is a lifesaver.

That's pretty much it for now. Any additional tips or tricks you may have, or disagreements with my methods, feel free to put 'em up.

/bene.

i can go allright for days without sleep without unplesant side affects if i stay away from achohol.no sleep tends to clear my thinking.has a purgeing effect.

very intersted in your surviving sleep deprivation tips. i am resarching a documentary on sleep deprivation for british tv and wondered if you'd be interested in appearing in it
where are you based?


anyone else intersted should also contact me at [email protected]

I'm doing a report on a certain area of sleep and was wondering if you knwo anything about it. I have to find out if there is a reason some people sleep better than others with light and if there is a reason some people can sleep through noise while others cant, and if there is a noise limit people can sleep through. If you could help me or direct me to a resource I would appriciate it. My teacher said there have been studies done on these specifics but it would be hard to find someone who knows about them. Thanks

I like not sleep deprivation because I think of things I never thought of before, and the delerium is fun. I used to get quite nervous, as I heard someone tell me that staying up for too long could cause brain damage or an anyeurism (sp?). Does anyone know if this is true?

--Dani

I'd be very interested in the results of this research & it sounds like a good study. I can't sleep through any level of noise (despite earplugs) and it drives me mad.

sleep dep. does cause some level of brain damage. something about your brain releasing chemicals to stay awake and to sleep at the same time. sounds like a neorotoxicity thing to me but i'm not sure. i once stayed awake for seven days straight and went crazy near the end. i did do it with a controled substance though but not one of those dirty street drugs- more of a prescription type controlled substance.
the silliness of sleep dep. is highly entertaining but as with most activities you should always weigh the good against the bad for you. i suffer uncontrolled fits of sleep dep. but enjoy them none the less.

for my pschology coursework myself and a fellow student are staging an 'awake-a-thon'. the purpose of this is not to go insane, but to study the effects of complete sleep deprevation on the human body and mind. we are attempting to stay awake for 148 hours (the record is 214, by a dj called Tripp.) but we are in dire need of suggestions of techniques for staying awake. if you have any ideas and are quite confident that they work please let me know. we are trying to stay away from drugs as these can have side-effects that can be confused with those of sleep deprivation e.g. halusinations.

it will probably take place on the 13th of december (or there abouts) so we would welcome the company on-line.

thor173098.

I would love to help you stay awake, as a rather experianced stayer-awaker.

Here are some tips that I've found to be rather succesful:

-Drink a lot of cold, caffinated drinks. Coffee is okay for a little while, but try to stay away from warmth. It makes you tired.

-Again with the warmth. Keep yourself cold, and don't bundle up in blankets.

-Physical activity. It keeps your blood flowing to your brain. Overdoing it, however, can and most likely will make you sleepy. Just take a walk or something.

-Doing tasks like reading, writing, organizing, or whatnot is active for the mind...but what I've noticed is that I fall into a state of almost sleep while I'm doing this, while I'm still working, but my mind takes on a deep, dreamlike trance and I start to almost dream. It's your brain trying to aquire its essential REM sleep.

-Eat. I notice that it balances things out. You need energy somehow, so eat more than usual.

-If you get tired, it is important that you do not just close your eyes for five minutes. That never works, and it makes it harder to get up. I sometimes try to trick myself by counting to one hundred and then getting up, but I almost always either fall asleep or convince myself to count to a higher number...and then fall asleep.

-Don't watch a lot of television. It immobolizes you.

-Extreme sensations can snap you back into awake-land. Put your hands in ice, take cold showers, ect...

That's all I have to give you right now. It's mostly common sense. You can E-mail or IM me ([email protected]) and I'll keep you awake as best I can!

Good luck and cheers. Oh -- and try not to take the things you hear in your head during this sleep deprivation period too seriously. Trying to assign a meaning to these things may have very bad psychological side-effects.

Me and my husband couldn't sleep for hoursA snake was in my bed

Me and my husband couldn't sleep for hoursA snake was in my bed

I tend to find that I work better after I have been awake for about 17-19 hours. My natural energy high is about 11.30 pm, and I even achieve this when I have eaten nothing all day. Weird.