Effects of skipping a night's sleep

[Goldfish4209]

I just went to my first sleepover (believe it or not, for a 14 yr. old), and didn't sleep for a night. Obviously, bad things happened, but I wanna know what happens to other people.

We were watching movies and playing video games, and I had 5 cans of coke. I was hyped up and high on caffiene, and didn't sleep all night. (even though I tried)

The next morning, we did some bible study (this was a church organized event) at about 8-9. I was pretty alert. Another guy, who did the same thing as me pretty much shut down at that point. He also had 5 cokes, and I'm guessing that he ran out of awake time earlier cause he weighed more.

We had breakfast, and I felt pretty good. Around 10 we were back to the video games, and it was then that I stopped functioning. I was still awake, but I couldn't concentrate on more than one thing at a time, and was basically falling asleep standing up. The owner of the house is obsessed with trains, and has a world class train collection that he let us play with. I was putting cars on the track, and it was taking me a long time to align the wheels and the track. This is something that I can usually do very quickly.

So what happens to other 14 year old guys?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Shens

 

[MegaVovaN]

Don't worry about it

 

[Goldfish4209]

I'm not worrying, I'm just wondering what happens to other people.

 

[technologyslice]

I'm the same. My reflexes and functions slow down dramatically

 

[everman]

I can get by on 3 hrs a day for a couple days, but I really need 6. 8 if I have a big day (exams,etc).

 

[irishScott]

I'm 20. I can get by for a day or so with 3 hours of sleep. Off of no sleep I'll be oddly awake until the late afternoon, when I'll be straining to keep my eyelids open. Oddly enough, once I get past 11 pm in that state, I get an adrenaline rush and can stay up till 3 am or later before falling into something resembling a narcoleptic coma.

 

[skace]

Wait until you get to the point where you have to concentrate to walk down a flight of stairs or pick up a fork and eat something with it. That's always good for a few laughs.

 

[TecHNooB]

You're 14. That's how it is when you're 14 Simply staying up late gets your adrenaline pumping. Don't make it a habit though. Gotta let your brain develop at that age~

 

[Shortass]

Originally posted by: TecHNooB
You're 14. That's how it is when you're 14 Simply staying up late gets your adrenaline pumping. Don't make it a habit though. Gotta let your brain develop at that age~

Oh man, my brain must be toast. Sleep and I don't get along.

Originally posted by: irishScott
I'm 20. I can get by for a day or so with 3 hours of sleep. Off of no sleep I'll be oddly awake until the late afternoon, when I'll be straining to keep my eyelids open. Oddly enough, once I get past 11 pm in that state, I get an adrenaline rush and can stay up till 3 am or later before falling into something resembling a narcoleptic coma.

I've pulled 2 all-nighters in a row because of that damned late night rush of energy. The 2nd full day of no sleep was pretty much the same as the first. I wonder how many consecutive nights I can manage in a row? I'm also 20...

Maybe in the summer I'll set up an OT forum sleepless club to see how far we can push it...

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I can't pull all nighters anymore. My body just can't take the punishment.

 

[paulxcook]

I don't particularly remember my last all nighter. I can do 3 hours of sleep once in a while and I function normally the next day. Not two days in a row though.

Ok no I do remember my last all nighter, I was driving a bunch of friends home from a week long music fest back in high school. I fell asleep once while on the high way, pretty scary.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Drinking a lot of coke probably doesn't help things in the long run. The caffeine works in the immediate time frame, but once it starts wearing off it'll be a killer. I have had three days in the past month that I have traveled for 24+ hours and basically went without sleep for 36+ hours each time, the first two I drank nothing but water, and while I felt tired I had to force myself to wind down before actually feeling tired enough to fall asleep.

 

[dakels]

Goldfish, what happened to you is pretty normal. When you don't get sleep, you will start to lose higher brain function/response and motor control. You can read all about sleep on wikipedia or something.

In short the awareness problems you are having mostly stem from areas of your brain starting to temporarily lose functionality or respond much slower. Studies show that higher brain activity changes greatly in people who are very tired or don't get enough sleep. Falling asleep standing up like you say, is probably what is referred to as microsleep. It's like sleeping for a few seconds at a time. This is generally (when not a chronic condition) a sign that you need sleep very badly and you are using your conscious mind to fight against your autonomic response to sleep.

There are a lot of very negative effects to depriving yourself of sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation is very bad for your overall health and awareness. The list of negatives is so long its not worth mentioning here. 1 night of no sleep like you did is not a big deal. You can recover after a long sleep. Just be aware that the next day it can and usually will have those negative temporary effects making some things difficult to dangerous. MANY accidents involving injury or death are attributed to sleep deprivation and microsleeps. Some people handle an "all nighter" better then others and it seems to depend on training/recurrance, fitness, age, nutrition, and just a innate tolerance due to "unknown" factors like individual mechanisms. Some people are built very different then others, especially when it comes to brains. My chief of surgery once stayed up for nearly 3 days operating. This goes well beyond fitness and training. I think it is safe to say that only a select few are capable of doing this with that level of control and mental capacity no matter how hard they prepared for it. Whether you are a navy seal on 48hour recon, surgeon in back to back transplants, or 14yo student playing too much nintendo, everyone generally needs about the same level of sleep, some are just able to handle sleep deprivation better then others.

 

[Goldfish4209]

Awesome! Thanks everyone!

 

[Duddy]

Halo 3 release, me and my friend stayed up for 32 hours. Before we both passed the **** out within 5 minutes of each other, we didn't have the ability to walk. Dyslexia had set in.

We ran on Monster and Bawls.

Slept for 18 hours.


Will never, ever, ever, ever do it again until Halo 4 comes out.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Originally posted by: Duddy
Halo 3 release, me and my friend stayed up for 32 hours. Before we both passed the **** out within 5 minutes of each other, we didn't have the ability to walk. Dyslexia had set in.

We ran on Monster and Bawls.

Slept for 18 hours.


Will never, ever, ever, ever do it again until Halo 4 comes out.

Hahaha.
I am not a fan of Halo but I am a fan of GTA.
When GTA IV comes out for PC I'll play that baby all day. Maybe around 8 hours max though.