Randy Gardner (record holder)

Randy Gardner once held the scientifically documented record for the longest period of time a human being has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. In 1964—as a 17-year-old high school student in San Diego, California—Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (eleven days even), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds of Honolulu. [http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p980301b.html "Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis and Mental Efficiency"] , Stanley Coren Ph.D., March 1998, Vol. XV, Issue 3]

Gardner's record attempt was attended by Stanford sleep researcher Dr William C. Dement. The boy's health was monitored by Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross. Accounts of Gardner's sleep-deprivation experience and medical response became widely known among the sleep research community. [ [http://www.articlebrain.com/Article/Eleven-Days-Awake/412 "Eleven days awake"] , Extract from "Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments," by Alex Boese.] ["Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments", Alex Boese, ISBN 0156031353, Harvest Books, 5 Nov 2007] ["Neurological Findings After Prolonged Sleep Deprivation", Ross J. (1965), Archives of Neurology 12:399-403.]

Health effects

It is often claimed that Gardner's experiment demonstrated that extreme sleep deprivation has little effect, other than the mood changes associated with tiredness (mood swings, short temper, loss of concentration). [http://www.benbest.com/health/sleep.html#health " The Nature of Sleep and its Impact on Health"] , Ben Best, life-extensionist homepage, undated article] This is primarily due to a report by researcher William Dement, who stated that on the tenth day of the experiment, Gardner had been, among other things, able to beat Dement at pinball.

However, Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross who monitored his health reported serious cognitive and behavioral changes. These included moodiness, problems with concentration and short term memory, paranoia, and hallucinations. On the fourth day he had a delusion that he was Paul Lowe winning the Rose Bowl, and that a street sign was a person. On the eleventh day, when he was asked to subtract seven repeatedly, starting with 100, he stopped at 65. When asked why he had stopped, he replied that he had forgotten what he was doing.

On his final day without sleep, Gardner presided over a press conference where he spoke without slurring or stumbling his words and in general appeared to be in excellent health. "I wanted to prove that bad things didn't happen if you went without sleep," said Gardner. "I thought, 'I can break that (Peter Tripp's 1959) record and I don't think it would be a negative experience.'" [ [http://www.gelfmagazine.com/archives/sleeping_in.php "Sleeping In"] , David Goldenberg, Gelf Magazine, 31 May 2006]

Recovery

Gardner's sleep recovery was instrumented by sleep researchers who noted changes in sleep structure during postdeprivation recovery. ["Psychiatric and EEG observations on a case of prolonged (264 hours) wakefulness", G. Gulevich "et al", Arch Gen Psychiatry, Vol. 15, Issue 1, 29-35, 1 July 1966] [ [http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/reprint/32/2/189.pdf "Sleep Patterns Following 205 Hours of Sleep Deprivation"] , Anthony Kales "et al", Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 32, No. 2, March-April 1970] After completing his record, Gardner slept 14 hours and 40 minutes, awoke naturally around 10:00 p.m., stayed awake 24 hours, then slept a normal eight hours. [http://science.jrank.org/pages/6176/Sleep.html, no author, undated, unsourced]

ubsequent record information

Tony Wright on May 25, 2007 exceeded Randy Gardner's feat [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6689999.stm "Man claims new sleepless record"] , BBC, unattributed author, 25 May 2007] in the apparent belief that Gardner's record had not been beaten.

Other sources claim his record was broken two weeks later by another student, Jim Thomas, Fresno State College, who stayed awake for 266.5 hours, and state that the 1981 Guinness record is 449 hours (18 days, 17 hours) by Maureen Weston, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in April, 1977, in a rocking-chair marathon. [ [http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/242559/What_happens_when_you_stay_awake_for_eleven_days_ "What happens when you stay awake for eleven days?"] , pseudonymous contributor, Digital Journal, October 2007 ]

According to the Australian National Sleep Research Project, [ [http://abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm "40 Facts About Sleep You Probably Didn't Know"] , The National Sleep Research Project, undated, site © Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2000] the record for sleep deprivation is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes. However, few details are available for this claim.

In an internal sleep deprivation study of the Liverpool John Moores University, UK among, it was claimed that a 20 year old student, Jonathan Daley, John Moores University, Liverpool, broke the world record by being deprived of 502 hours and 6 minutes (20.91 days) within a non-zeitgeber context of a windowless chemistry laboratory.

It is difficult to determine the accuracy of a sleep deprivation period unless the participant is carefully observed to detect short microsleeps, which the participant might not even notice.

References

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ee also

*Sleep deprivation

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/articles/whatissleep.shtml "What is Sleep"] , from BBC
* [http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p980301b.html Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis and Mental Efficiency] - article from "Psychiatric Times" noting Gardner and Tripp cases
* [http://ask.yahoo.com/20060920.html Ask Yahoo! article]
* [http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=0000F879-8E01-1CD1-B4A8809EC588EEDF How long can humans stay awake?] Scientific American, 25 Mar 2002
* [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060216&ct=1 "Is Sleep Essential?"] , An examination of available evidence of whether sleep is a biological necessity.

Further reading

* "The Sleepwatchers", William C. Dement, Nychthemeron Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0964933804