How Long Can You Survive Without Sleep

How Long Can You Survive Without Sleep?

We are all familiar with the testimony of  Dr. Charles Czeisler, who stated that Michael Jackson  went without "real" sleep for 60 days leading up to his death. Jackson had been chronically receiving nightly infusions of propofol, a surgical anesthetic, which would suppress the REM sleep. These had created  a hell lot of arguments amid the jurisdiction.What could have actually led to his death?Is sleep deprivation fatal?We need a great deal of unethical studies to get to the conclusions.We are incapable of bringing a follow up since human experiments actually possess its limitations.

But there had been many animal experiments to appreciate the effect of sleep deprivation though the results could be far different than that would be with the humans.

In a study conducted by Jouvet in 1967 to investigate the effects of REM  deprivation in animals, a cat was placed on a small island surrounded by cold water. When the cat went into REM sleep its skeletal muscles relaxed, leading it to fall into the water, waking it up. The effects of this on the cat’s physiological and behavioural functioning was observed over a period of 70 days.The result was that the longer the cat was deprived of REM sleep, the more attempts it made to enter REM. The cat became progressively more disturbed and eventually died.Similar studies on the humans as well concluded that REM deprivation doesn’t appear to have a marked effect on how well people function,but at the same time they try to compensate for it.

Importance of REM sleep

All sleep is not created equal. Sleep unfolds in a series of recurring sleep stages that are very different from one another in terms of what’s happening beneath the surface. From deep sleep to dreaming sleep, they are all vital for your body and mind.

There are two phases of sleep-the REM and NON REM. NON-REM which is the deepest sleep in further has three stages which lasts for 5 min,10-25 min and so on. A normal adult spends approximately 50% of total sleep time in Stage 2 sleep, 20% in REM sleep, and 30% in the remaining stages, including deep sleep.
REM phase is the most active stage of sleep during which there is considerable eye rolling and state of dreaming.Each REM phase will last for about 70-90 minutes.While all of us believe that sleep is one activity where all parts our body rest, it’s not true in concern with the brain.It’s when you sleep that your brain will consolidate the information you have learnt during the day,forms neural connections to strengthen memory etc.Severe REM-sleep deprivation can likely affect mood, concentration, focus, pain tolerance and memory.  It replenishes the supply of feel-good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.

How long can we stay awake?

There is no  obvious evidence as to answer this question. The easy experimental answer to this question is 264 hours (about 11 days), a record set by a 17 year old named Randy Gardner for a science fair.There had been many reported cases of sleep deprivation in humans, the longest being 33 years in a Vietnamese farmer named Ngoc Thai which commenced after a severe fever and has suffered total insomnia ever since.He swears it hasn’t given him any physical troubles.Dr.Wadhwa insists some insomniacs can’t distinguish between sleep and wakefulness and that they might also be having micro naps.
     
There is a evidence of another man named John Alan Jordan who reportedly hasn’t slept for the past 3 years after being exposed to some laboratory chemicals and a severe fever.He now, at his 40 years of age,suffers from premature dementia and memory problems.

There are some medical conditions associated with chronic insomnia-
* Morvan¿s fibrillary chorea or Morvan¿s syndrome characterized by muscle twitching, pain, excessive sweating, weight loss, periodic hallucinations, and severe loss of sleep (agrypnia).

* Another rare disorder, the Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI),  an autosomal dominant disease that is invariably fatal after about six to 30 months without sleep. FFI belongs to a class of infectious prion diseases that include Mad Cow Disease.

How much sleep do you need ?

While sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need between seven and a half to nine hours of sleep per night to function at their best. The best way to figure out if you're meeting your sleep needs is to evaluate how you feel as you go about your day. If you’re getting less than eight hours of sleep each night, chances are you’re sleep deprived. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco discovered that some people have a gene that enables them to do well on six hours of sleep a night. This gene, however, is very rare, appearing in less than 3% of the population. For the other 97% of us, six hours doesn’t come close to cutting it.

Sleep Needs By Age :

Newborn to 2 months old : 12 - 18 hrs
3 months to 1 year old : 14 - 15 hrs
1 to 3 years old : 12 - 14 hrs
3 to 5 years old : 11 - 13 hrs
5 to 12 years old : 10 - 11 hrs
12 to 18 years old : 8.5 - 10 hrs
Adults (18+) : 7.5 - 9 hrs
Despite all these it’s the quality of sleep  that counts more than the quantity.
How dangerous is sleep deprivation?

Generally, sleep deprivation may result in : aching muscles,confusion, memory lapses, depression, hallucinations, hand tremor, headaches, malaise, stye, sensitivity to cold, periorbital puffiness, commonly known as "bags under eyes" or eye bags,increased blood pressure,increased stress hormone levels,increased risk of diabetes,increased risk of fibromyalgia,irritability,nystagmus (rapid involuntary rhythmic eye movement),obesity,temper tantrums in children,yawning,mania etc.

In addition, as a result of continuous muscular activity without proper rest time, effects such as cramping are much more frequent in sleep-deprived individuals. Extreme cases of sleep deprivation have been reported to be associated with hernias, muscle fascia tears etc.It mimics psychosis.There is an increased incidence in traffic accidents.