Sleepless nights are a reality for many people: parents of newborns, students cramming for tests, people struggling with insomnia. We all know that we need to sleep, but can’t we go without it for a while? Sort of, but it’s not pretty. The most famous record holder for sleep deprivation is Randy Gardner, who is widely considered to have undergone the best-documented period of extreme sleep deprivation by a human: 264 hours, or about 11 days. He was 17 at the time. His record was broken multiple times after that, most recently in 1986, with a nearly 19-day sleepless stretch by stuntman Robert McDonald. That’s the last documented world record. Don’t try to beat it, though: The Guinness Book of World Records decided in 1997 to stop monitoring the sleeplessness record. They recognize that publishing a record means that people will keep trying to beat it, and the effects of extreme sleep deprivation are considered dangerous enough that they didn't want to encourage it. While humans can theoretically survive for 11 days without sleep, severe cognitive decline and hallucinations begin after just 72 hours. The CDC recommends that adults get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night to maintain basic cognitive function and overall health.
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| Randy Gardner |
