Can we survive without sleeping?

[gameangel147 5,915]

  Like everyone else has already mentioned, you can't survive without sleep.  But there are people who can survive with one or two hours of sleep.  Night owls sleep for one, two or three hours, and then wake up completely refreshed and go on with their day.  It is just how they are.

 

I have also read about the uberman, which is training your body to survive on two hours of sleep a day by taking 20-minute naps every four hours, so that makes six naps a day.  It deals with training our mind to enter the REM state every time you sleep, so at first it is going to be extremely difficult as your body won't be getting much REM sleep.  The long-term effects are unknown, so I would do more research on this before you attempt to try this.

[~Chaos~ 3,967]

I'd say you need sleep, to regain energy and all that, couldn't imagine life without sleep!

[Gay Bird 421]

It is possible as far as we have studied. The longest recorded time someone has stayed awake I believe is 12 days and the person survived. He fell asleep because he was so delusional he forgot that he was trying to stay awake. He didn't suffer any long term effects. Scientists have kept rats awake longer, but they ended up dying. The cause of death was not lack of sleep, but heart attacks from being woken up constantly. So yes, it is possible, but I wouldn't do it.

[Celestial Wish 349]

best answer:

 

 

If this doesn't answer your question then I don't know what will LOL

Edited March 29, 2014 by Celestial Wish

[man dude man 555]

Whats most impressive to me about all of this is that this debate on these forums has lasted almost 2 years lol.

Go to bed, don't do meth. Adjust your sleep scheduale, utilize your time accordingly. If you work/are a night person sleep during the day. If you are the majority of the blue collar day workers, or go to school, or do whatever it is you need to do during the day, sleep at night. You can press on easily on 5 and a half hrs, and if take time for an hr nap some time within the next few hrs. Just don't go schizophrenic drug binge, or fry your motor skills, and attention span. Sleep.

[CT-1138 3,182]

No. The body requires sleep to catalog memories and heal daily strains that are placed on the body. Without sleep, the body eventually shuts down and forces sleep.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Dinos4Ever

[crazitaco 596]

Hey everypony and here is an interestin think that i have been thinking a while. Could we somehow survive without sleeping. Because scientists havent found a reason why we need sleep,other than our brain says that we need it. Not because your body needs rest or anything. Also i see sleeping as a huge waste of time.

Scientists do have a multitude of theories as to why we have to sleep.

For one, we regenerate most of our muscle tissue and lost cells while we sleep. It also supports healthy brain elasticity, and allows us to mentally sort through our experiences from the day.

Its actually been discovered though why we would DIE without sleep. Basically, our brain cells secrete waste which builds up while we're awake. When we sleep our neurons shrink down and allow the by-products to flush into our liver. Source.

So lack of sleep is similar to not going to the bathroom. Harmful toxins start to build up in the body which can kill us if not removed.

I actually have to do an informative speech about the topic of sleep this Monday, and i chose the topic because i also thought that sleep is a huge waste of 1/3 of our lives. The only cool thing about sleep is dreaming. Dreaming is awesome, yo.

Edited March 29, 2014 by crazitaco

[Golden Muse 15]

Not having to sleep is a nice fantasy to think about, but unfortunately as of right now it is necessary, due to the fact that we don't have drugs to sustainably prevent the symptoms of undersleeping. Plus, try going like a week without sleeping, and it's obvious that even if we don't need sleep, we're much happier with it than without. 

In the future, I think we might develop some kind of drug that makes sleep unnecessary, but it's going to take a ridiculous amount of work to develop it, considering humans have evolved to consistently rely on sleep and its benefits.

[Midnight Solace 5,132]

We could survive without sleeping, but it shortens our life span. This is why I try to sleep less than 2 hours every night.

[Dreambiscuit 9,577]

Sleep is necessary or the body will shut down from total exhaustion eventually. Sleep allows the brain to release chemicals required for optimum health and functionality.

There was an invention from the early '80s that won the 'invention of the Year' prize (not sure what contest it was), and it accelerated brain waves to release the same chemicals in 30 minutes as it normally does in eight hours. So a person needing a full night's sleep could get the equivalent in just a half an hour. In my opinion it's one of the greatest inventions of all time and would revolutionize the world. Unfortunately, as with most great innovation, it disappeared. As far as I know, there is only one of these 'Sleep Machines' still known to exist, and it resides at the University of Wisconsin. Anyone wanna help me sneak in and borrow it? 

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,440]

Au contraire. You do need sleep. It’s vital to your body and if you don’t sleep long enough you risk brain damage and death.

[BulkyBright 37]

On 1/19/2019 at 1:13 PM, Midnight Solace said:

We could survive without sleeping, but it shortens our life span. This is why I try to sleep less than 2 hours every night.

Isn't necroposting against the rules?

[Midnight Solace 5,132]

23 minutes ago, BulkyBright said:

Isn't necroposting against the rules?

I'm pretty sure posting in old threads are allowed. That being said, I'm probably MLPF's thread reviver. 

[Lord Midnight Madness 1,543]

I don't think we can. I've seen some people only some people sleep for four hours then wake up everyday but that's still sleeping for some time.

[Passion 3,484]

Ladies and gentlemen, enter Thai Ngoc.

https://m.theepochtimes.com/sleep-ngoc-thai-tony-wright-randy-gardner-david-blaine_1530805.html

[Cash In 22,213]

Sleep is necessary for our bodies, so I don't believe we are able to survive without it. Coming from a person who's always half asleep and roams around his house in his pyjamas, we need decent sleep to keep ourselves going.

[Patty Thundersnow 4,163]

No. Sleeping is necessary for us, and we can't survive without it.

[Lucky Bolt 35,062]

That would be a big negative. Humans need sleep to survive. I do at least. 

[Denim&Venöm 18,689]

I think the record for going without sleep is between 10-12 days. But then around that point brain damage starts to occur. Think of it like your brain being overworked and parts of it begin to break down form the constant use with out rest. 

Even a 20 minute nap can work wonders for a tired brain. 

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Eh, there's a condition called Fatal Insomnia, in which your brain never really shuts down and you can't sleep for more than 6 months or so. Panic attacks quickly set in, followed by hallucinations and rapid weight loss. After a while, dementia. You die in the end. I imagine that it's very slow and painful, so... :v

[Phosphor 11,528]

I mean, it would be great if we could comfortably survive without sleeping. I could do lots of stargazing and astrophotography. 

But, we can't and I will feel like absolute garbage the next day if I get less than 6 hours of sleep.  

[Nsxile 26,895]

Certainly not as far as I'm aware.

[Rixton 1,105]

Sleep is something like when you do maintenance to you car, without it, it will like stop, just in our case, it is a faster process. You can exploit you body quickly, irreversible.
Work and games can wait, if you decide ignoring caring of you body, it will have it's vengeance on you.

[Splashee 28,563]

Sleep is essential, just like bathroom breaks. Don't get fooled by TV shows just because they skip those details

[Justin_Case001 4,881]

On 12/26/2012 at 5:13 PM, GamerLuna7 said:

Also i see sleeping as a huge waste of time.

Oh, that's funny, because apparently basically the entire human race seems to disagree with you!

To answer your question, the human body can survive for approximately 11 days without sleep.  Of course, long before that time, most people will just drop, face-plant, pass out where they stand no matter how hard they try to stay awake.  However, there have been rare cases of someone developing some kind of super rare neurological condition that prevents sleep, and 11 days is about the maximum before the brain just goes kaput.