Can you survive without sleep?

Question

Or how long you can go without it. And why it is bad not too sleep.

Answer 1

Not well, to put it mildly. For example, look up "From Fatigued To Fantastic- Dr. Jacob Teitlebaum" and other Fibromyalgia related web sites, such as fmnetnews.
At the core of the illness is the lost ability to experience level 4 (REM) sleep.
The worse your sleep, the symptoms both increase and add new ones exponentially to the level of deprivation, causing a worse response the longer it goes on.
Happily, as you work hard with the Dr. to find Rx combos that permit sleep to begin again, the benefits and beginning of healing are also exponential.
In POW situations, if it goes on long enough, the breakdown of the body both physically & mentally can cause mental breakdown and eventual death.
The body cannot heal the muscles from the simplest daily activities without deep sleep, and the brain cannot make the proper chemical balance needed for concentration & recall.
While these are the extremes of sleep, looking up the symptoms you will be amazed at what ongoing sleep deprivation produces in the body.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

It is concievably possible to physically survive without sleep, though your immunity and body's ability to repair would be compromised. But more importantly, it would almost invariably cause very severe mental/emotional problems. When you sleep your subconcious mind takes opportunity to purge junk data through 'dreams', or can actually be therapuetic emotionally if you have a positive-response dream that relates to an unresolved issue, and even sometimes give solutions to standing problems. Sleep deprivation WILL cause compromised if not completely absent ability to concentrate. You very likely would experience hallucinations as well. This I know from my own childhood experiments in staying awake for as long as possible during one summer in a competition with a friend (the stuff kids do.) Sure it'd be great to be able to overcome the NEED for sleep, but like all machines, are mind/bodies can't run continually without maintenance, or invariably they will breakdown.

Answer 3

The body heals when you sleeep. You can go for intervals without slepp, think of new parents who have interrupted sleep for weeks or months. They survive, but we get a little absentminded. They brain relivs the day during sleep and the subconcious has a chance to run and breathe. You need it, but can survive short periods without it.

Answer 4

No you could not survive too long without sleep.

Answer 5

I read somewhere once that you can actually go insane from a lack of sleep (somewhere around 7 to 10 days, I think) . . . because when you sleep it's a chance for your mind to shut down, tune out the world around it and just rest - if you're awake, your mind is constantly being stimulated and not getting any rest (ever stay up for over 48 hours? feels like you're on some kind of drug!! it's the worst feeling ever, like your skin is crawling and your eyelids are weighted down - I do NOT recommend it!)

Answer 6

No the body has to recharge itself in order for you to keep working. I stayed up for about 5 day without sleep and i started to kind of hallucinate but when i fell asleep my body just automatically shut down at where i was at. It is not good not to sleep and there is also a disease that makes you not sleep at all but that disease will kill you sooner or later.

Answer 7

Adequate sleep is necessary for a
healthy and balanced life.Sleep may
be a way of recharging the brain. The
amount of sleep varies from person to
person.Detail infomations available at
http://nosleep.in/sleeprequired.html

Answer 8

There's a song about this by Arcade Fire. It's called "Rebellion (Lies)".

Sleeping is giving in,
no matter what the time is.
Sleeping is giving in,
so lift those heavy eyelids.

People say that you'll die
faster than without water.
But we know it's just a lie,
scare your son, scare your daughter.

Great song.

Answer 9

A Nazi study determined that a human will die in 264 hours if totally deprived of sleep.

Answer 10

you can not survive without sleep it will totally mess up your emune system and matabalisyme... it depends on your body for how long you can go without sleep