Sleep Deprivation: Counting Days Until Death

Sleep is essential for human health and can affect your mood and well-being. While sleep deprivation cannot directly kill you, it can impair your judgment and increase your risk of death from a fatal accident. Sleep deprivation can also have serious health consequences that are associated with an increased risk of death, such as an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. The longest anyone has gone without sleep is 264 hours, or just over 10 days, and severe symptoms such as hallucinations and psychosis can develop after just a few days of not sleeping.

Sleep deprivation: Can you actually die from it?

Sleep is essential for human health and can affect your mood and well-being. While there is no good evidence that sleep deprivation can directly kill you, it can impair your judgment and increase your risk of death from a fatal accident. Lack of sleep can also affect your biology in ways that might ultimately lead to death.

The short-term effects of sleep deprivation

You can start to feel the effects of sleep deprivation after just one night of insufficient sleep. After 24 hours without sleep, you may experience symptoms such as trouble concentrating and slower physical and mental reaction times. After 36 hours, the effects become more severe, with hormonal imbalances, decreased oxygen intake, and increased production of the stress hormone cortisol.

The link between sleep deprivation and accidents

Sleep deprivation can increase your risk of accidents and injuries that can be life-threatening. For example, getting less than seven hours of sleep over a 24-hour period puts you at a higher risk of being in a car accident. Sleep deprivation has been linked to several significant industrial accidents, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The long-term health consequences of sleep deprivation

Prolonged and recurrent sleep deprivation can have serious additional health consequences that are associated with an increased risk of death. Sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and mental health conditions. Chronic sleep deprivation can contribute to an early death by increasing the risk of these chronic health conditions.

Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. However, the amount of sleep needed varies from person to person and can depend on factors such as age and gender.

Tips for improving sleep

• Stick to fairly regular sleep and wake times seven days a week.
• Establish a 'wind-down' routine 30 to 60 minutes before bed.
• Avoid stimulants like caffeine and intense exercise close to bedtime.
• Make your bedroom a sleep-conducive environment.
• If you have persistent trouble sleeping, consult a healthcare provider.

How long has someone stayed awake?

Staying awake for extended periods can have severe consequences on a person's health and cognitive abilities. While it is rare for someone to die from sleep deprivation, it can increase the risk of accidents and injuries that can be life-threatening.

The current scientific record for the longest period a human has gone without sleep is held by Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for 264 hours (just over 11 days) in 1963/1964. Gardner experienced nausea, memory issues, paranoia, hallucinations, and irritability during his record-breaking attempt. After completing the challenge, he slept for 14 hours and 46 minutes, then woke up naturally and stayed awake for another full day before sleeping for ten and a half hours. Interestingly, Gardner reported suffering from insomnia around 2007, decades after his initial sleep deprivation experiment, and believes his participation in the study is to blame.

Other notable mentions include Robert McDonald, who held the Guinness World Record for sleep deprivation after staying awake for 18 days and 21 hours (453 hours and 40 minutes) in 1997, and Toimi Silvo, who reportedly stayed awake for 11 and a half days (276 hours) in 1964.

It is important to note that attempting to stay awake for extended periods can be dangerous and potentially life-threatening. Sleep deprivation can cause serious cognitive and behavioural changes and increase the risk of accidents and health issues.

What are the initial effects of sleep deprivation on the body?

Sleep deprivation can have a range of initial effects on the body, impacting both physical and mental health. Here are some of the ways that sleep deprivation can affect an individual:

Central Nervous System

Sleep is necessary for the proper functioning of the central nervous system, which is the body's main information highway. During sleep, pathways form between nerve cells in the brain, aiding memory and learning. Sleep deprivation leaves the brain exhausted, leading to difficulties with concentration and learning new things. It can also cause delays in the signals the body sends, reducing coordination and increasing the risk of accidents.

Immune System

Sleep deprivation can negatively impact the immune system. During sleep, the body produces protective substances like antibodies and cytokines, which help to fight off bacteria and viruses. Lack of sleep prevents the immune system from building up these defences, increasing the risk of illness and prolonging recovery time.

Cardiovascular System

Sleep affects processes that are vital for maintaining a healthy heart and blood vessels. People who don't get enough sleep are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, with insomnia linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Sleep deprivation can also lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Metabolic System

Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. It can also contribute to weight gain and obesity by disrupting the hormones that control feelings of hunger and fullness. Sleep deprivation can lead to reduced physical activity and increased calorie intake, further contributing to weight gain.

Mental Health

Sleep deprivation can negatively impact mental health, making it harder to manage and process emotions. It is associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety and can trigger mania in people with bipolar disorder. Sleep deprivation can also lead to irritability, mood swings, and impaired decision-making abilities.

Can you ever fully recover from sleep deprivation?

Sleep is an essential part of overall health and getting enough of it regularly offers a plethora of benefits. Quality sleep helps boost energy levels, supports immune function, and aids in memory consolidation. However, sleep deprivation can have serious consequences and interfere with work, school, and driving.

Sleep deprivation can occur after just 24 hours of no sleep, and the longer one spends awake, the more severe and less tolerable the symptoms become. While it is rare to die from sleep deprivation, it can lead to fatal accidents and increase the risk of chronic illnesses that can be fatal.

The stages of sleep deprivation are usually divided into 12-hour or 24-hour increments, and the symptoms become more severe the longer one stays awake. After 24 hours, one might experience trouble concentrating and slower physical and mental reaction times. After 36 hours, the urge to sleep becomes overwhelming, and one might experience microsleeps, which are brief periods of sleep lasting a few seconds to half a minute. After 48 hours, it becomes even harder to stay awake, and one might experience perceptual distortions, increased irritability, and temporal disorientation. After 72 hours, the urge to sleep becomes uncontrollable, and hallucinations might become more complex. Finally, after 96 hours, one's perception of reality may be severely distorted, resembling acute psychosis.

The time it takes to recover from sleep deprivation depends on its severity. Total sleep loss of one day may require over two days of recovery sleep. Generally, it can take up to four days to recover from one hour of lost sleep and up to nine days to completely eliminate sleep debt. A full recovery from prolonged sleep restriction can take even longer, as one study found that even a full week of recovery sleep was not enough to restore optimal brain function after ten nights of restricted sleep.

To recover from sleep deprivation, it is important to address any underlying causes, such as stress, medical conditions, or sleep disorders. Practicing good sleep hygiene is crucial, which includes maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, improving the bedroom environment, and developing a relaxing bedtime routine. Napping, over-the-counter sleep aids, and prescription sleeping pills can also help in the short term, but they are not long-term solutions. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is considered the most effective treatment for chronic sleep deprivation.

What happens to your brain when you're sleep-deprived?

Sleep deprivation can have a significant impact on brain function, affecting both cognitive and emotional abilities. Here's a detailed look at what happens to your brain when you're sleep-deprived:

Attention and Working Memory

Sleep deprivation can disrupt attention, which is essential for goal-directed behaviour. Performance on attentional tasks deteriorates with the amount of time spent awake, leading to "lapses" or "microsleeps" where individuals struggle to maintain focus. Functional MRI (fMRI) studies have shown that sleep loss decreases activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus, regions crucial for attention. Additionally, sleep deprivation can impair the ability to sustain attention over time, with reductions in activity in these frontal and parietal regions contributing to attentional failures.

Reward and Incentive Processing

Sleep deprivation can alter the brain's reward system, which includes regions like the ventral tegmental area, striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex. Sleep-deprived individuals may exhibit increased sensitivity to rewards, making them more prone to risk-taking and impulsive behaviours. This is possibly due to changes in dopamine signalling, as sleep loss is associated with higher levels of dopamine, which is linked to arousal and wakefulness.

Aversive Stimulus Processing

Sleep deprivation often leads to negative emotional processing, including irritability, anxiety, and aggression. It can amplify reactivity in the amygdala, a key region for processing negative emotions, and disrupt its regulatory control by the medial prefrontal cortex. This can result in a heightened emotional response to negative stimuli and a diminished ability to discriminate between different emotional signals, leading to emotional volatility.

Hippocampal Memory Processing

Sleep deprivation can impair the hippocampus, a brain region vital for memory and learning. It reduces the ability to induce hippocampal long-term potentiation, a measure of neuroplasticity, and disrupts hippocampal protein synthesis and neurogenesis. Sleep loss also affects the build-up of adenosine, a metabolic product that, when cleared during sleep, is essential for stable synaptic signalling in the hippocampus. As a result, sleep deprivation hinders the encoding and consolidation of new memories.

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