The Guys at SIGGRAPH

[Long John]

I am really surprised, they are so young...

well I just did two weeks without sleep but with meditation (2*2hrs/day), without it I would be lost and dead. After such weeks I need a day to recover. I belive it would better with LCD/TFT monitors.

thats not bad, world record is 11 days without sleep.

we have a guinness book entry here.

[Igor]

insomnia

As far as I have learned in the medical books, a normal 35 years old homo-sapiens can hold maximal 3/4 (in some cases 5) days without sleep. (this is almost same for all warm-blooded animals on this planet)

6 and 7 days without sleep make a human insane and he his health (or brain functionality) is forever damaged. In other words, you turn into a debil.

7-8 days without sleep kill in 99,5% all cases a normal human being. Actualy he kills himslef because the concentration of the toxic materia in his blood makes him unable to recover anymore.

there are people who has different "recycling" system in the body - so they can hold longer. They make this 0.05% who survive

[RErender]

Losbellos, did you need an alarm clock to come out of your "meditation"?

I imagine if one could reach the proper state, meditation is equal to or better than sleep.

[Long John]

Re: insomnia

As far as I have learned in the medical books, a normal 35 years old homo-sapiens can hold maximal 3/4 (in some cases 5) days without sleep. (this is almost same for all warm-blooded animals on this planet)

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p980301b.html

[Igor]

no no! I am not that IGOR!

[Dschaga]

eh.. peter... take a brake ..please!!!! ..you looks like me and i know that i should stop dooing work all the day and night...

..and vlado..eh .. you looks like a racecar driver from finland... don't know why i think that *g* ..but i'm happy that all that useless muscles are gone... the last year picture ..huh..i thought ..no ..nothing... )

serious: i hope you guys have also fun!!! ..good work!

[dejaVu]

You're right Dschaga...those muscles have gone from Vlado...he mustn't have time to work out anymore...his arms are smaller, but his head has probably increased to compensate

Either that or they have the right size T shirts this year.

Vu

[Brim]

56 hours

My freshman year of architecture school I went 56 hours without sleep. I was having blank-outs driving in the morning - driving through traffic lights that were red and realising it a couple sesonds later. Very dangerous and very vey stupid. After that I made sure to sleep at least 4-5 hours every night even if I had a deadline the next day in class. Makes you budget your time better and is healthier for your body.

Xavier

[flipside]

Yeah I also once didn't sleep two nights in a row for a school project. It was really tough, and I went to school that final day by bus, people had to wake me up at the end stop and I tried so hard not to fall asleep. I was lucky the endstop was my stop too! It was really crazy how my brain started to think. really weird. After I handed in the project we got an introduction to a new one, and I kept falling asleep, which my fellow collegues seemed to enjoy! Everybody was laughing with me and still I tried everything I could to stay awake, just couldn't handle it anymore.

One night without sleep is easy but two was difficult.

In my last year I worked 7 days in a row with an average of 3 hours sleep/day. That was also pretty hard. By working I mean working at the pc, so that's 21h/day staring at a screen! (minus some time to eat of course ) But I got more physical problems than sleepy ones. My whole arm hurted from clicking that damn mouse! I also went a bit crazy as some of you described. There were moments I really couldn't keep on working, I went completely mad and frustrated and all kind of other feelings all at the same time.

But sometimes I also sleep very long. Several times I slept 16H without waking up one time (at least not once I could remember)! I think my record is 17 or 18H...

Losbellos are you joking? If not, please learn me these meditation techniques!

[losbellos]

in meditation the rest is much much deeper than in even in deep sleep is possible. Thats why is possible. And after practising it more than 10 years body and mind get trained to hold that deep restfull state even in slight activities such as sitting behind the monitor.

These kind of articles are just to make people blind/suffering, there are so many areas where "medical science" is simply failed to make clear picture whatever they are examining...(personally I believe there is not even a area where they have done anything FULLY succesfull) But they are claiming (just like you) that this is it, its not possible, because we examined it!. They examined it and dont know even about they self. Just look around how many people suffering all kinds of sickness... There are so many good/unpoisoning ways of healing, and one of the most powerfull is 'connect' your mind to your own self. The root of your life, just like as a good gardener would do it. Take care the root, and all parts of the life(plants/trees) will be fullfilled.

You belive or not...

[Brim]

flipside - after my 56 hours I slept 22 hours straight. I think this also is not good for your body. Well...like I said I never will do this again and I never have. No reason to.

Xavier

[flipside]

Losbellos, I totally agree. Altough I don't know anything about meditation and stuff, I also believe there are other ways of healing. I have studied lots of science courses, I find it extremely interesting but I also have an open mind for other things. Science is very usefull & important imo, but I don't take it as the one and only truth. I also think that many deseases these days are not caused by what scientists now think it is, but much more has to do with like you say connection to your self etc...

So why would it not be possible to live two weeks if you meditate 4 hours a day? I could live two weeks with sleeping 4 jours a day, why would a state of meditation be less good than sleeping?

[Dogzilla]

cool. hope you guys had fun at siggraph.

...and I do the power-nap thing, and just have fruit and water. I can work for 2-3 nights without too much consequence. The coffee, mars bar, and ADD pill (dexy-amphetamine) method get's you through 1 night, maybe 2, but then you crash bigtime.

[vlado]

To add to the discussion : when things get interesting, I can skip a night's sleep or sleep very little (a can of Red Bull helps a lot ) but I always need to make up for the sleep I've missed after that... the problem is that I can't get into a regular daily routine... there's always something to cause me to stay late/get up early

Best regards,
Vlado

[Da_elf]

gives you wings huh hehehe