Tony Wright (sleep deprivation)

Tony Wright, author and consciousness researcher from Penzance, Cornwall, holds multiple endurance records.

leep deprivation record

He claimed the world sleep deprivation record in May 2007. [cite web | author =Daily Mail | url =http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=457403&in_page_id=1770 | title =The record-breaking Cornishman who is staying awake for 11 days| date =May 24, 2007 | accessdate =May 24 | accessyear =2007] Wright bases his record-breaking attempt on the belief that Randy Gardner was officially recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as holding the deprivation record of 264 hours. [cite web | author =Daily Mail | url =http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=457403&in_page_id=1770 | title =The record-breaking Cornishman who is staying awake for 11 days| date =May 24, 2007 | accessdate =May 24 | accessyear =2007] Others believe that the Guinness previous record was for 11½ days, or 276 hours, and was set by Toimi Soini in Hamina, Finland, between February 5 to 15, 1964, and that Wright did not in fact break any record. Wright's friend Graham Gynn asserts that the Gardner record is the accepted record in the sleep research community. [cite web | author =Times Online | url =http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1842716.ece | title =Man who stayed up for 266 hours awakes to bad news]

Wright's record claim was not credited by The Guinness Book of Records, since it no longer accepts records related to sleep deprivation due to the possible health risks.

David Blaine was reported to be working to break the existing sleep deprivation record. [cite web | author =Daily Mail | url =http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=499907&in_page_id=1773 | title =David Blaine braves brain damage to challenge world record for staying awake| date =Dec 5, 2007 | accessdate =Sept 1 | accessyear =2008]

Wright's theory of human sleep metabolism

It is Wright's theory that, due to the consequences of cerebral dominance, humans are unavoidably governed and constrained by the brain's left hemisphere, which he says requires significantly more sleep than the right.By reverting to a biochemically complex diet of raw foods approximating that eaten by our forest dwelling ancestors, he is able to perform such feats of deliberate insomnia. [cite web | author =Cornwall Consciousness Centre | url =http://www.kaleidos.org.uk/introduction/ | title =Introduction| accessdate =May 26 | accessyear =2007]

Wright first published "Left in the Dark " in May 2007. It presents an outline of his theory that the left hemisphere is a hormonally retarded version of the right hemisphere. He has proposed that the ancient Ages of Man mythology accurately describes the onset and progression of a neurological condition that correlates with the end of the rapid expansion of the human brain. He also proposes that the origins of ‘religious’ techniques and practices were borne as an attempt to treat the condition. He further claims the damaged left side of our brain currently dominates us while phenomenal abilities remain latent in the relatively undamaged right.

Wright has also received many ringing endorsements for his theory from a wide variety of leading academics such as Richard Heinberg, Colin Groves, Ashok Gangadean, and the widely acknowledged world authority on savant syndrome, Darold Treffert. [cite web | author =Kaleidos Press | url =http://leftinthedark.org.uk/endorsements | title =Left in the Dark - Endorsements]

The 2nd edition of Wright's book, "Left In The Dark", which was published in February 2008, also includes a foreword by Dennis McKenna that offers further support for Wright's theory. [cite web | author =Kaleidos Press | url =http://leftinthedark.org.uk/book/ | title =Left in the Dark - Book]

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6690485.stm "How man pushed sleepless limits"] . "BBC", May 25, 2007
* [http://leftinthedark.org.uk/ Tony Wright website]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2007/05/24/videonation_sleepless_video_feature.shtml BBC Video nation]