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No Sleep

becomingagodo

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As songbirds awaken the early risers at dawn on the farm, one resident is already up; in fact, he never slept – not once in the past 33 years.
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Is this a hoax or something. As scientifically speaking going without sleep for 33 years is not possible he should be dead, however he perfectly healthy. Sleep deprivation studies show going without sleep for a couple of days are harmful, so how can a person survive in perfect health for 33 years without sleep.
P.S. I can't post link, however just type in vietnam no sleep in google to get article.
 
The report is from February last year.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=12673

According to the infallible source of all human wisdom the record for going without sleep is 11 days.

The news report is extremely credulous. The only testimony offered to support his claim is his own and his wife's. Doctors examined him and found im to be healthy. The report says nothing about whether they tested his claim. So far we have 1 claim from 14 months ago without anything offered in the way of evidence to support it. I see no reason to accept the claim at present.
 
I saw a documentary on this several years ago but the details escape me. I will see if I can find a reference to it.
 
Aren't there competitions for this? Imagine how many trucks this guy could win. :D
 
Ive stayed awake from a thursday to a monday before playing everquest without sleeping and eating twice. When I went for a walk to get food I remember the sound of the voice apples would make if they could talk to me. I crashed that monday night and slept until Wed only waking up 3 times to use the bathroom and get a drink of water.
 
I have no source, but from just my memory I recall reading in a "Ripley's" book years ago that a captive king (or some such royal) was captured by someone and forced to go without sleep for a year.
So these stories are around, but I don't know how true they are. Probably not very.
 
We had a thread on this a few months ago. I'm trying to remember the technical term. Sleep misperception or something like that. When you watch these people it turns out that they spend all night sitting quietly in a chair and exhibit all the symptoms of sleep, but do not think they have slept and have conscious memories of the time they spent asleep.

Edit: It is called sleep state misperception.
 
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How would one test for conscious memories during the period in which a person was exhibiting sleep-like (for lack of a better term) behavior? It seems to me that constant stimuli would have to be presented, and later verified, which could very well amount to a torturous prevention of proper sleep (Solzhenitsyn averred, and I gladly bow to his knowledge in the matter, that sleep deprivation is a form of tourture that can not be resisted, and that after a few days, no sense of reality or self remained), and thus could not be tested in any way without a serious risk to the testee.
 
autumn1971 said:
How would one test for conscious memories during the period in which a person was exhibiting sleep-like (for lack of a better term) behavior? It seems to me that constant stimuli would have to be presented, and later verified, which could very well amount to a torturous prevention of proper sleep (Solzhenitsyn averred, and I gladly bow to his knowledge in the matter, that sleep deprivation is a form of tourture that can not be resisted, and that after a few days, no sense of reality or self remained), and thus could not be tested in any way without a serious risk to the testee.
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The obvious way woul be to provide just visual stimuli. A screen that shows a different picture every half hour or something like that. If they can remember specific pictures then they must be at least partially concious at least some of the time, if they get the pictures wrong they must have either dreamed them or just made them up. I'm sceptical that anything like this has been done however. I find it more likely that it will be similar to out of body experiences where a person says they remember seeing something and everyone just accepts it.

The big problem with claims that people have gone a long time without sleeping is that it is very easy not to notice that you are asleep. I'm sure pretty much everyone here has had the experience where they have just rested their eyes for a minute and then found out that a couple of hours have gone missing. A recent thread about yet another "ghost" story also made this point. Many, if not most, ghost stories occur when people are alone in a position to go to sleep, and often actually trying to go to sleep. People usually deny being asleep, but there are many cases where someone will get kicked for snoring despite them believing that they were still awake. People just aren't reliable at knowing if they are awake or not, so without actual verification that a person could not have slept even for just half an hour, claims that they do not sleep at all are worthless. It is like breatharians who claim they never eat, but never manage to follow through with their claims when actually observed.

Another point is that it is possible to go a long time with very little sleep, but that does not equal no sleep. It is certainly possible to go for weeks with only an hour or two of sleep each night. It may not be good for you and is certainly not pleasant, but it is definately possible. Speaking from experience I can say it is certainly possible to go 72 hours with no sleep at all, although I wouldn't have fancied driving a car by the end.
 
Cuddles said:
The obvious way woul be to provide just visual stimuli. A screen that shows a different picture every half hour or something like that. If they can remember specific pictures then they must be at least partially concious at least some of the time,....
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Then, cut down the intervals of the pics. This will show just how long the subject is 'napping' for. Probably a Power Point Show could do it. But show it to some awake controlls- most people don't remember 'visual noise' well.
 
I'll bet he has sleep apnea. The blocked breathing passages can wake the subject hundreds of time each night. With many drowning/suffocation dreams. There is a simple enough 'at home' test.
 
I wonder if it's actually possible that he is honestly unaware that he sleeps? I mean - how can you tell when you're asleep? You can tell you've been asleep, because you remember lying down at midnight and suddenly it's 8 am. But could there be a neurological condition that actually stops someone understanding this?
Sounds crazy , unless you've read a few of Oliver Sacks' books.
 
Soapy Sam said:
I wonder if it's actually possible that he is honestly unaware that he sleeps? I mean - how can you tell when you're asleep? You can tell you've been asleep, because you remember lying down at midnight and suddenly it's 8 am. But could there be a neurological condition that actually stops someone understanding this?
Sounds crazy , unless you've read a few of Oliver Sacks' books.
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I wonder this too. If you have ever experienced sleep paralysis, you know that it is possible to be asleep and think you're awake. You also have at least some awareness of your environment. However I think even normally sleeping people have some awareness of their environment. Ever dreamt that the telephone was ringing?

However all the tests of sleep state misperception people seem to show that they have normal sleep, as opposed to the very messed up REM patterns found in normal insomniacs and sleep paralysis and severe sleep apnea.

Maybe they just haven't found the problem yet. An EEG isn't exactly a complete picture of brain activity.
 
Even if they are not aware themselves that they sleep, others must have told them a thousand times.
 
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