What is the world record for staying awake?

The London Times reports that Tony Wright of Cornwall recently stayed awake for 266 hours. He was attempting to break the world record of 264 hours awake set by Randy Gardner of San Diego in 1964. Wright was also attempting to demonstrate that, thanks to his "caveman diet" of raw food, he was able to "train his mind in such a way as to stay awake for 11 days and remain coherent and aware of what was going on around him."

The Times then goes on to report the bad news. Gardner didn't actually hold the world record for staying awake. Gardner's record had long since been surpassed by others. So Wright didn't set a new record.

The Times reports that: "The Guinness previous record was for 11½ days, or 276 hours, and was set by Toimi Soini in Hamina, Finland, between February 5 to 15, 1964." However, Soini's record was removed from the Guinness Book of Records in 1989. "It was deleted on the grounds that it could encourage records harmful to health and was unverifiable because of the claims of insomnia sufferers."

Actually, the question of who holds the world record for staying awake is a little more complicated than that, which I know because Gardner's sleep deprivation experiment is one of the experiments I discuss in Elephants On Acid: and Other Bizarre Experiments. I even interviewed Randy Gardner, who still lives in San Diego.

Gardner set his record on January 8, 1964. Two weeks later newspapers reported that Jim Thomas, a student at Fresno State College, beat Gardner's record by staying awake for 266.5 hours. And a month later Soini set the new record. 1964 was a banner year for sleep-deprivation trials.

However, subsequent issues of the Guinness Book of Records report far longer periods of sleep deprivation. The 1978 edition, for instance, states that:
The longest recorded period for which a person has voluntarily gone without sleep is 449 hr (14 days 13 hours) by Mrs. Maureen Weston of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in a rocking chair marathon on 14 Apr.-2 May 1977. Though she tended to hallucinate toward the end of this surely ill-advised test, she surprisingly suffered no lasting ill effects.
Ironically, I don't believe Randy Gardner's record ever did make it into Guinness. Gardner reports that "I did not get listed in Guiness as I missed the publication date." However, Gardner's record is the most frequently cited because it was (and probably still is) the most scientifically rigorous long-term human sleep-deprivation study, since Gardner was monitored by Dr. William Dement of Stanford University.

The overall problem with determining the record for the longest a person has stayed awake is that people take "microsleeps" without being aware of it. To really determine if a person has been constantly awake you'd need to record their brainwaves throughout the experiment. As far as I know, such a study has never been done.

Body Manipulation Science

Posted on Sat May 26, 2007


Comments

Um, to the person who listed symptoms of not sleeping... blacking out pretty much counts as sleep so game over right there.

I do know that the best strategy is to have someone keep track of time for you. I've stayed up longer when I didn't care, or wasn't trying to stay up on purpose. Usually I'm told "wow you have been up for X days, aren't you tired?!" by another person.

The trick is probably to keep your mind busy, with as little effort as possible. Good luck with that, and the freakish diet that would be ideal for trying to break this crazy record.
Posted by Dude  on  Wed Jun 09, 2010  at  05:11 AM
they said that i am not eligible for a trial because they say that this is a sleep disorder, like it was hard to have a doctor consulting me,this is a fraud to,it's like that everyway you try to make a difference
Posted by Aneb1990  on  Wed Jun 09, 2010  at  03:12 PM
i seriously have no idea what im doing this i just thought it would be fun but it is currently 1:30 on thursday afternoon and the last time i slept was yesterday at like 6:30 before my mom wok me up. btw, thats 31hrs. ill try for two weeks since yesterday was the last day of school. haha! this is what ive been waiting for! haha! and im not really all that tired, actually. :lol:
Posted by shyannayanna  on  Thu Jun 10, 2010  at  02:33 PM
Rediculous... Any of the studies should have the test subject checked for any medcations in his body. mainly speed. I know people who have stayd awake for weeks... sure they crashed, slept for 3 days straight, was extremely sick from not eating, malnurished heavily, dehydrated.... get the point?

Not a good idea to stay up.

Im on day 4 or 5 no sleep ( i forget which one and i am already slightly hallucinating (nothing like acid or mushrooms stuff just moves slightly), but im still detoxing off morphine...and naturally my body goes nuts and hurts and keeps its self from sleep. klonopin and trazadone ( benzodiazaoine and a sedative) do not help at all right now as I have been taking 100mg trazadone and and anywhere from 4-6mg of klonopon a day ( well approximately a 24 hours period)

Its not fun staying up for days. its rediculous. There are SOOO many drugs to help you stay awake, keep your body retaining water for health reasons, lowering your metabolizm, not to mention you WILL have to recover from this... IT will be hard to eat, piss, drink, you will be weak, you will hallcinate during the process.

If there was no doctor to draw blood and check for drugs, and no one monitoring the patient EVERY second then everything they have all done is in vain.


IMHO--- bad idea, Dont do it. Not worth the time and energy. Not to mention your bowels will hate you and hurt. Oh ya, you will slowly become disoriented and angry...easily adjitated, panic attacks may occure. And if your a diabetic you WILL start forgetting to check your level ( very dangerous for a diabetic)


but good luck to those who want to stay awake for no reason...

Im going to bed...
Posted by Verybadidea...nor did doctors correctly monitor pa  on  Thu Jun 10, 2010  at  04:18 PM
i stayed awake most of tonight.........im 11 and its 5:08 im almost seeing sunrise......prey for me gosh....... :gulp:
Posted by Emma  on  Tue Jun 15, 2010  at  04:09 AM
I am currently starting day 5 of no sleep. i want to sleep just cant.
Posted by Lane  on  Sun Jun 20, 2010  at  01:20 AM
Yeah? Well I'm going to stay up for 7083652 days so you all lose. End of story
Posted by Evan  on  Mon Jun 21, 2010  at  01:54 AM
:-/ um no lie but i just turned 13 yrs old n Ive stayed up for 7days straight...until my mother made me go to bed.i honestly don't see how it is so hard to stay up... i wuz going to go for the record but my mom said no.by the way that was the best summer break ever. all i needed was TV, internet,a Nintendo ds , and a phone. for whoever breaks the record, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! :cheese:
Posted by Brianna  on  Wed Jun 23, 2010  at  10:34 PM
me and my friend r trying 3 days
we r going to drink venom energy, ALOT of coke, chocolote, jerky, and sweet sweet tea!
do u think we could stay up longer"? were pretty young.
Posted by tickmen  on  Thu Jun 24, 2010  at  09:03 AM
I've mastered 94 hours without sleep. I can do this pretty easily, it;s just an annoyance. the reason I can do this is because insomnia does not allow me to sleep normally.
Posted by JustChris  on  Fri Jun 25, 2010  at  02:58 PM
lol, ive been awake for like 3 days now and im still pretty awake mentally, my body is hella tired though, longest for me was a little over a month but i was on an lsd binge of too many hits so take for granted but yeah. w/e i was bored 😛
Posted by madscurrvy  on  Sat Jun 26, 2010  at  04:17 AM
Right now I'm going for the 3 day challenge and longer if so. It's gonna be fun-Cj
Posted by C.J. Wood  on  Sun Jun 27, 2010  at  12:12 AM
Well me and my cousin. Are gonna stay up for around 14 days atleast we are going to try and stay up for that long lol been 3 days now!
Posted by Ayman  on  Sat Jul 10, 2010  at  04:28 AM
wow its so stupid to stay up that long im gonna try to stay up to feel the hallucinations
Posted by Ty Nguyen  on  Tue Jul 20, 2010  at  02:05 AM
The longest I've stayed awake-ish was apparently approx. 168hrs, although during that time I suffered from sleep lapses that lasted anywhere from half a second to approx. 2 minutes which freaked me out to no end. You turn around and suddenly everything's changed. Without sleep lapses I made it approx. 120hrs without sleep. I suffered hallucinations, tremors, bladder problems, etc. But even after i finally slept I suffered long-term problems that I'm not going to get into, but will only get worse. This is all because I suffer from a genetic disorder that causes severe chronic insomnia. I know of people who have gone much llonger than me without sleep and who are now dead as a result. Anyone who tries to do it to break a record is an idiot, partly because its a dumb thing to inflict on yourself, but also because you'll never beat the record and survive.
Posted by Chris J  on  Thu Jul 22, 2010  at  07:45 PM
The longest i've ever stayed awake is 76 hours, and that was a couple months ago...I wasnt tired until I passed out, lol.
Imma try to beat the record though...Because im bored and have no life...And the summers gotta go out with a bang :D
Posted by Riz  on  Thu Jul 22, 2010  at  08:25 PM
I have done 72 hours so far and i am using movies, ice cold showers, walks, and loud music as my motivator. Wish me Luck.
Posted by Kacy  on  Fri Jul 23, 2010  at  01:40 AM
i stayed awake 265 hrs. im fcking tired i need coffee
Posted by Close to world record!  on  Sat Jul 24, 2010  at  02:45 AM
my longest is 52 , hours I often do 40 hours work and all, I do get good sleep the weekend , but I would nt attempt to stay awake on purpose , might do some funky stuff to your head long term
Posted by derek  on  Sun Jul 25, 2010  at  09:03 PM
I have stayed up passed that me and my sister both stayed up for a little over 2 weeks :coolmad:
Posted by dyakn york  on  Sun Aug 01, 2010  at  06:29 PM
When I was doing my B. Tech., I slept only for around 16 hours in six days during my 5th semester final exams. After it was over, I tried to sleep, but couldn't. :( Then, to pass time I played Counter Strike on Hostel LAN whole night and visited some local places with my friends next day. That makes 16 hours sleep in seven days. Then I was able to sleep at 9:30 PM, and woke up at 7:30 PM next day i.e. I slept for 22 hours, without any break. I took several 12+ hours sleep for a few days after.
Usually I gave all my exams in the same fashion, but this experience was the best to post here.
😊
Posted by Adarsh  on  Mon Aug 02, 2010  at  05:17 AM
I know it's not that long but the longest I've stayed up is 26:00.00 hours. Yes, thats right, I stayed up exactly 26 hours. It was on New Year's Eve 12/31/09. I woke up at 8:45am Dec. 31 and went to sleep at 10:45am Jan. 1

😊 😉 😊 😉 😊 😉 😊 😉 😊
Posted by Matt  on  Tue Aug 03, 2010  at  07:29 PM
PS: I'm only 12 and when I went to sleep I only slept for 4 hours and then I was back on the proper sceduele.
Posted by Matt  on  Tue Aug 03, 2010  at  09:10 PM
i dont know why you allow idiots to comment on this subject,try it and then laugh
Posted by Iosif Alexandru  on  Wed Aug 04, 2010  at  08:03 AM
I'm going to stay awake 30 hours in order to get into a normal routine again. If I have a vacation, I tend to go into a routine of sleeping all day, and being awake at night. It's not healthy and it's pretty lonely too. So I've decided it's been enough. I can't just sit here on the computer the entire night and sleep while everyone's outside having fun. I've been awake for only 13 hours and it's 4:32 am. had my alarm clock on 10am, but I woke up at 3pm, psh. >_>

So yeah, I'm going to stay awake until, say... 9 PM tomorrow?

Wish me luck!
Posted by Yentl  on  Fri Aug 06, 2010  at  08:33 PM
Well its been 3546hours since i slept still awaking and playing halo. Hit me up im Mr. Anderson i sell u my secrets 😊
Posted by Mr Anderson  on  Mon Aug 09, 2010  at  11:43 PM
i just take meth amphetamines or trips and i easily stay awake around 8 days even with a 50 hour a week job could go longer with ease but i enjoy sleeping for 24 hours when u wake u feel absolutely awesome and besides u have plenty of time to sleep when u are dead
Posted by Gibbo90  on  Mon Aug 16, 2010  at  02:06 AM
This is hour number 43 and I still can't sleep Idk why tho I've never had a problem with sleep before :(
Posted by Waseem  on  Thu Aug 19, 2010  at  03:28 AM
Doctors urge us we should not stick to "sleep debt" as likely to develop heart disease, diabetes and even psychosis. I try not to break these tips.
Posted by Banu Anda  on  Wed Sep 08, 2010  at  05:18 AM
i am currently on my 9th hour and i plan on sleeping when i get tired wish me luck everyone c:
Posted by Joe  on  Sat Oct 16, 2010  at  11:46 PM
I'm an ex navy seal, we have been trained to stay awake for approx. 5-6 days. After that we are required sleep be it if we are in the middle of an operation it is law that we need sleep after 5-6 days if needed too we will give it the extra 4-5 hours.. depending on what we are doing at the time. My record is 5 days in Korea, and trust me without the supplements we are given i don't recommend anyone to stay awake for this amount of time, you're fine up to about 3 days then it hits you really hard.
Posted by Ricky  on  Tue Oct 19, 2010  at  04:11 AM
I, Gunar Lowder, currently hold the world record as of last week; I stayed awake for a consecutive time of 349 hours without sleep. I did this as a simple 'experiment' in psychology to beat my teacher's record of 11 1/2 days without sleep. and I succeeded successfully.

I'm only 16, I suffer from ADHD+Insomnia.

Shoop da whoop my comrades.
Posted by Gunar Lowder  on  Wed Oct 27, 2010  at  09:50 PM
16 Days you guys are all stupid if you havent gone at least 14 days there is no reason for you to feel any different than the next guys.
Posted by George  on  Tue Nov 09, 2010  at  09:09 PM
this is the longest ive ever been up. its been 4.5 days and will be 5 days by the end of the night. im debating on shooting for two more days making it a week but my tips are to find something that interests you a lot and keeps you occupied. as soon as you start thinking about being tired you got yourself beat. being occupied is definitely necessary. i find that weed and alcohol help keep me up to even when its been a few days. its pretty strange. Ive heard that if you take 3-5 mg or g of melatonin i dont remember which but if you take it and stay up then it can trip you out light weight with hallucinations so ive definitely got to get some of this stuff. an all natural psychedelic basically free trip
Posted by Troy Reneek  on  Wed Nov 10, 2010  at  02:42 AM
I have gone a month and a half with an 2 hours a day, some studies show that if you sleep in intervals and not all at once this can be better for you. i.e. Sleep mode on the computer, rather than turning it off once and a while(or screen saver) I have also stayed up for 58 hours and 26 mins........you know what happened at 58 hours and 27 mins.... lol i crashed HARD.
Posted by Brandon McBurney  on  Wed Nov 17, 2010  at  04:51 AM
I think the longest I have stayed awake is 84 hours, but there's a good chance I might've fallen asleep once or twice sitting in my office chair for a few minutes. lol So I guess that doesn't technically count as staying awake without a wink. I stay up for 2-3 days at a time frequently.

I used to be a full-time college student with two jobs, one of which was a security guard working many overnight shifts. I think after 4 years of that, and just generally having issues sleeping my entire life, my body is just used to staying awake for such long periods. Right now I'm at about 73 hours awake and don't foresee a nap this afternoon...have to work a closing shift tonight, so I'm thinking I'll be awake more than my previous record of 84 hours.
Posted by Katrina  on  Thu Dec 09, 2010  at  08:25 AM
QUESTION: What is the hardest thing for everyone to deal with physically when you are awake for this long?

For me, it's my eyes. They get rather swollen and dry after 3 days up and I've tried tons of things to treat them, but in the end, that's why I end up finally going to sleep. My brain doesn't want to go to sleep, but in the end my body always wins out.I can't imagine being awake for much longer than 3-4 days, though...can't that sort of thing give a person a heart attack? That's my biggest fear because after awhile my anxiety starts to really get to me and I think my heart is going to explode. Only had a few panic attacks, but they are not fun.
Posted by Katrina  on  Thu Dec 09, 2010  at  08:27 AM
i stayed up for 4 days and i was triping i nearly died dont do it if your young
Posted by lewis  on  Mon Dec 20, 2010  at  03:59 PM
tony wright is the coolest i am going to try to beat his world record of 266 maby to 270.
Posted by jessica  on  Sun Dec 26, 2010  at  10:08 PM
Hi me And my mate have stayed awake 4 177 hrs wish us luck
Posted by glue  on  Wed Dec 29, 2010  at  04:28 PM
I was awake for 3 days and most nights i don't go to bed til about 5 because i'm in a mindset of that time then wake up about 3 hours later and when i wake up i'm more tired than when i went to bed...I think if i went to beat the record i might be able to! I've had so little sleep the last 6 months i could go for days and be aware of everything!
Posted by Beckii  on  Sat Jan 01, 2011  at  10:40 PM
Hello and thank you for your article.
But to your last comment on micro sleeps I'd like to refer to Peter Trip who was obsereved by Dement in 1972 and I was wondering if you knew if he was under any more scientific methords?
Posted by Ash.  on  Wed Jan 26, 2011  at  07:40 AM
at this point i have been awake fooorrrr.....
39 hours. which is what led me to this article...
i am unsure if i have a type of insomnia or not which is why i am studying a wiki article about insomnia in the back ground... i'm not sure why i can stay up for extended periods of time without sleep, but it is probably not healthy and i should sleep as soon as possible. i was never able to do this before, and i don't know why i have a talent for it now.
i don't want to be awake and i want to go to sleep. the last time i slept was for 2 to 3 hours which was off and on through the time, for i had an appointment that i had to fulfill in the morning. before those two hours mentioned. i can easily speculate that i had stayed awake for over 20 hours before gaining the 2 hours. which puts me at 2 hours of sleep out of 60 hours. i'm about to watch Inception, and i just got finished watching Mary and Max
Posted by Anonymous404  on  Tue Feb 01, 2011  at  04:05 AM
During my schools spring break, i want to try to stay up for at least a week straight. I usually stay up around 2-3 days normally so why not try a long period of time? Heck, ill enjoy it, watch every movie on tv till i do.

P.S. im 15 and love not sleeping.
Posted by Jacob E  on  Thu Feb 17, 2011  at  11:47 PM
Me and my friend are going for 60 hours, from yesterday morning, roughly 9am to 9pm on Thursday, which will be the 25th. We're keeping notes and taking a video every 5 hours in case we start forgetting what's going on. We're at roughly 17 hours through at time of writing. Nearly 1/3... My tips to anyone would be to do it with someone else, drink tons of caffeine, play videogames and keep talking to each other! 😊
Posted by C @ C  on  Tue Feb 22, 2011  at  07:03 PM
my personal record is 55hours the highest in my family and my friends family but i started getting slow nausious and feeling like im about to pass out
Posted by bilie bob  on  Wed Feb 23, 2011  at  10:37 PM
I've had Chronic Insomnia for a Year and 1/2 now. I can promise you people this is not something to play around with and it is not fun. In no means would i suggest trying any of this. I don't know any personal record or such but I do know i was up from Sunday to Saturday cause I worked those days and never got to sleep until I was off the next sunday. I promise you, if you have a job or a life, this is not something you should want to or try to do. It cause's severe problems. Personally I was trying to get sleep the whole time, I had just ran out of meds and couldn't get any in those 6 days. I wouldn't suggest to drive or to work during these times either. Please look into the side effects of sleep depravation.
Posted by Chris Bledsoe  on  Fri Mar 04, 2011  at  07:56 AM
Hiya 😊 I stayed awake for 52 hours, just to follow a live event on tv. It was for charity a.k.a Comic Relief. Two radio DJ's placed a bet, to set a new world record, to see how long they could host the longest radio show ever. They made it. I think it's going in the Guiness Book of World Records 2011. Look for Chris Moyles and David Vitty. That's their names 😉
Posted by Sarah.L  on  Mon Mar 28, 2011  at  02:31 AM
I was at band camp once and the beds were so uncomfortable, no one could sleep. But I went seven days without sleeping and I was having crazy hallucinations and weird things were happening. I thought I was going crazy, but everyone in my cabin were too cuz of lack of sleep. So my record is 7 days, never going back.
Posted by Amanda  on  Sun Apr 24, 2011  at  08:00 PM
When I was a resident, it was common to be awake for at least 36 hours straight during "on call" shifts (every fourth night). The constant activity and mental processing (and stress!)kept you going. But when residents are "post call" (meaning just coming off call usually at 5-6pm on the 2nd day), the stress level decreases drastically and a massive wave of exhaustion comes over you. Many residents fall asleep in their cars because they cannot drive home. Most tell stories of going home and passing out in their clothes with the lights on...then waking up at around 7pm not knowing where they are or what's going on and thinking it's 7am the next day AND THEY'RE LATE FOR WORK!! You immediately start cursing and run around disoriented for a few minutes trying to think what to do next. Many call the hospital apologizing for being late only to be told it's still the night before. Others race back out to their cars to go to work and then "feel" that something's not right...usually that there are too many people walking around. The experience is very common. My record for being awake was 63 hours. I remember that the waves of exhaustion would come and go, but became more and more frequent to a point where it was difficult to stand up straight. I cannot imagine staying awake and active for 11+ days.
Posted by Dr. Mike  on  Sat May 21, 2011  at  04:47 AM
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