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

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.

Hmmm... I've only managed a pretty poor 48, though I did do a three day stint with 5 hours of sleep altogether when I had to write a mammoth essay. A question: are you intending to go about your daily routine during this period, or will you be concentrating soley on your project of staying awake? because if it's the latter, it'll be much easier. My methods are the usual and boring - lots of coffee and Pro-Plus on hand (surely caffeine is alright on the drugs level? If not, you're in real trouble).

Try to follow 10-15 H2G2 threads simultaneously for that week. No chance to get to sleep there

Or write the home-assignment for a lawyer's bar exam. That keeps you fully awake and working for the last week of it...

Or spend the whole time in a 10 foot deep swimming pool, you fall asleep, you drown. That should provide some incentive.


Tube

PS: Two psychologist walk down a flight of stairs, one stumples and falls down seven steps. The other rushes down and asks: "You wanna talk about it?"

From my experience, caffeine isn't of much help if you're trying to stay awake for more than 36-48 hours. Here are my suggestions (BTW, my record is 132, so relatively close to what you're aiming for -- of course, I wasn't trying to just stay awake, I just had way too much to do).

1) Don't even think of eating 3 normal meals a day. Eat smaller meals at regular intervals around the clock -- i.e., every 2 hours. Don't overdo the carbohydrates.

2) Get lots of exercise -- i.e., calisthenics every 3-6 hours.

3) Take a shower every day.

4) Try to stay relatively active and busy -- i.e., cleaning a room or playing a video game rather than watching TV.

And a FINAL WARNING -- be aware that there *will* be health effects of this stunt, and that it will likely take at least a month afterwards for your body to recover.

good luck!

Mikey

I once has to stay awake for 5 straight days, stay busy & lots of sweet black coffee (it worked for me)

Plenty of fluids and Vitamin C.
But don't confine both to orange juice.
Drink real water. No alcohol until you're ready to collapse.
peace
~jwf~
PS: Take a regular and lengthy mental break, even if it means drifting off a bit. Constant stimulation to the mind without a few moments of mindless peace will put your body/mind ratio way outa whack and you will (1) get crazy and (2) do physical harm.
Rest and Relax. Often. Get fresh air and exercise daily.

Hmm, don't lean against anything or you'll fall asleep. Keep on your feet all the time. And of course drink lots of caffeine.

Don't drink lots of caffeine. You said yourself you don't want to use drugs, and caffeine is a drug like any other. If you use lots of caffeine, tou won't know at the end whether you are studying the effects of sleep deprivation or caffeine overdose.

Make sure your doctor knows you are about to undertake this project. It is very bad for your health and while you may not be intending to go insane, you will undoubtedly achieve this result, hopefully only temporarily.

I once did almost 5 days without sleep when 17 years old, at a particulalry good party, so alcohol was the main agent being taken, but I'm not too sure if the alcohol actually helped us stay awake, and amphetamins are probably out of the question..
Caffeine won't help you stay awake: there was a study conducted a few months ago, it was reported on in the new Scientist I seem to remember, where they examined allertness in coffee and non coffee drinkers and found no differnece in attention and states of alertness, only that the coffee drinkers require coffee to achieve the same level of alertness as non coffee drinkers coffee>

Be prepared to see some really strange hallucinations if you do this...

If you drink more coffee than you normally drink, it will keep you awake. If you regularly take four mugs a day, continuing to take four mugs will not affect your sleeping.

Do something interesting. Boredom will be your biggest bugbear. I used to regularly stay awake three or four days at a time (over a weekend). Computer games (good ones) seem to be able to keep me awake indefinately, and in the above examples it was MUDs that did it. Genocide rocked Only side effect was that I found that you end up really clenching your jaw tightly. Until later......
BCNU - Crescent

Oh yes - don't close your eyes

Maybe watch the Freddy Krueger movies

2 words: lil's atelier!


Dancer

1 word: What?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A304354

It's one of the the places with the fastest growing backlog on h2g2.


Dancer

1 word: Aha!

*amazed that I'm still waiting for some pedant to point out that 7 x 24 = something other than 148*

Where did all the pedants go?
Are details no longer important?
Does it not matter that this thread is arithmetically incorrect?
Shall the flaws be left unfixed?
Never would have gotten away with this in the old days!

jwf

Don't do one thing for too long, i.e. don't watch TV for more tahn about two hours at a time. spend lots of time outside in crowded places. Don't wear yourself out with excercise just keep moving gently. take up Ti Chi for the week. Go swimming (gently). Change clothes and shower a lot, especially towards the end. Do a jigsaw puzzle. Play a long game of chess. talk to frined on the phone. dont eat or drink anything like chocolate, carbonated drinks, junk food etc. I knoe its boring but you will honestly last longer if you do it on salad and grilled chicken and grapefruit rather than chemicals and stodge. Get a routine going, like go to the bakers first thing in the morning when it opens, then go and get a paper, make sure you have set things to do to break up the day and night.

and never


ever


ever


lay down in the sun.

it's fatal


good luck

FABT