Awake for 36 hours: What Happens When You Don’t Sleep for Days
What Happens When You Don’t Sleep for Days
All-night study sessions, important business deals, new babies — most people will experience a taste of sleep deprivation at some point in life. While an occasional lack of sleep may not seem like a big deal, its impact can be intense and its effects can linger. And if you make it a habit, not sleeping enough can have severe consequences on your health.
“As a society, as families and individuals, we have not yet fully appreciated the importance of sleep,” says Terry Cralle, RN, a certified clinical sleep educator based in Fairfax, Virginia. “Sleep, along with diet and exercise, constitutes the very foundation of good health.”
They’re so interconnected that each of them needs to be a priority, she adds.
Chronic poor sleep puts us at increased risk of serious medical conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. During sleep, the body secretes hormones that help control appetite, metabolism, and glucose processing.
Poor sleep can lead to an increase in the body’s production of cortisol, also known as the stress hormone. In addition, skimping on sleep seems to throw other hormones out of whack. Less insulin is released after you eat, and that, along with the increased cortisol, may lead to too much glucose in the bloodstream and thus an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
Everyone is different, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults should get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. And contrary to popular belief, sleeping an extra hour or two on the weekends cannot make up for the lost sleep you may have experienced over the course of a busy week. It could also throw off your internal body clock and possibly lead to insomnia on Sunday night. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule is the best way to regulate the body’s clock.
Here’s what happens to the body when you miss out on shut-eye.
At 24 Hours: Impaired Coordination, Memory, and Judgment
After 24 hours of no sleep, stress hormones — specifically cortisol and adrenaline — increase to compensate for the fatigue we’re battling and to help us keep functioning, explains John Cline, PhD, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at the Yale School of Medicine and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
“The brain is trying to cope with not having its opportunity to rejuvenate itself, so we have these heightened stress hormones to keep the body activated,” Dr. Cline says.
The consequences of sleep deprivation at 24 hours are comparable to the cognitive impairment of someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.1 percent, according to past research. You have a reduced reaction time, slurred speech, and slowed thinking, says the Cleveland Clinic. (For reference, in most states, the alcohol limit to legally drive is 0.08 percent.)
That level of cognitive impairment could be enough to spell danger, depending on what you’re doing.
Cline points to research that suggests people have an increased risk of car accidents after working an overnight shift, because of drowsiness.
In a small study published in the Journal of Sleep Research in 2016, 29 healthy young men were kept awake for 24 hours, and it was found that the lack of sleep made them more likely to recall false memories.
“Judgment is affected, memory is impaired, and there’s deterioration in decision-making ability and eye-hand coordination,” Cralle says. You also tend to be more emotionally reactive, attention is decreased, hearing is impaired, and there is an increase in your risk of death from a fatal accident, she says.
At 36 Hours: Physical Health Starts to Be Negatively Impacted
Now your health begins to be at risk. High levels of inflammatory markers are in the bloodstream, which can eventually lead to cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, Cralle explains. During a typical healthy night of sleep, blood pressure drops by around 10 to 20 percent. (According to Mayo Clinic, blood pressure dropping less than 10 percent overnight is a sign of an irregular blood pressure pattern.) But if sleep is chronically interrupted or not happening at all, remaining at an elevated blood pressure may be a risk factor for hypertension, research suggests.
Additionally, hormones are affected — which means your emotions can be all over the place.
As your body keeps pumping cortisol into your bloodstream, raising your heart rate and blood pressure to keep you alert, the continued stress can increase feelings of anxiety and mood swings, Cline says.
If you were cranky, on edge, and zombie-like before, those symptoms will likely worsen after 36 hours with no sleep, Cline says. “Everything going on at 24 hours is going to be worse at 36 hours.”
Cognitive impairment gets much more severe as well. You’ll likely feel sluggish and experience delayed reaction time, foggy memory, and an inability to concentrate, learn new information, and process social cues, says Michelle Drerup, PsyD, a psychologist and director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the Cleveland Clinic.
Another study, which kept 35 undergraduate students awake for 36 hours, found that the group was slow to notice changes in their environment and had a delayed response to new stimuli in their surroundings.
At 48 Hours: Microsleeps and Disorientation
Dr.
Drerup says that at the 48-hour mark, you’re dealing with “extreme sleep deprivation.”
The body begins to compensate by shutting down for “microsleeps” — 3- to 15-second bursts of rest — during which your brain switches off, Drerup says. Your eyes don’t necessarily close, and you may not be consciously aware of what’s occurring, but your brain is going offline for seconds at a time.
Brain waves measured by electroencephalogram suggest that during microsleep there are both differences and similarities to the four stages of sleep, according to research.
After two days of no sleep, you can count on increased irritability, anxiety, foggy memory, and impaired thinking, says Hussam Al-Sharif, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Some people may even encounter hallucinations — seeing or hearing things that aren’t really there. “Some people feel depressed, and some might become euphoric,” Dr. Al-Sharif adds.
Research suggests that the immune system takes a hit, too.
In a study of 16 volunteers who had to forgo sleep for 72 hours, researchers found that NK cells — or natural killer cells — decreased by 37 percent after 48 hours of wakefulness. NK cells play a key role in fighting off viruses and tumor formation.
At 72 Hours: Major Cognitive Deficits and Hallucinations
Expect significant deficits in concentration, motivation, perception, and other higher mental processes after many sleepless hours, Cralle says.
A study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry studied 12 astronauts who were assigned to isolation for 72 hours or sleep deprivation for 72 hours. The group that had to stay awake for three days had increased heart rates, higher negative mood, and lower positive emotions, compared with the group that had to live in solitude for three days.
You’re going to feel pretty miserable and dysfunctional with this much sleep deprivation, Cline says. “The brain is fighting against wanting to shut down, and that’s going to create a really fragile emotional state.
”
Microsleeps also increase in length and frequency.
Cline says that this is a protective response by the body — but those fleeting moments of involuntary rest are incredibly risky, especially if you’re behind the wheel, operating heavy equipment, or responsible for make-or-break decisions at work.
This is also when the mind is ripe for hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia, Al-Sharif says.
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The 5 Stages and What They Mean
Sleep deprivation can occur after just 24 hours of no sleep.
However, the longer you spend awake, the more severe — and less tolerable — symptoms become.
People need sleep to survive. Sleep allows your body to repair itself and perform essential biological functions. Adults need about 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. But sometimes, work and lifestyle factors may disrupt your ability to sleep.
When you get less sleep than needed or no sleep at all, it’s called sleep deprivation.
For most people, a short bout of sleep deprivation isn’t a cause for concern. But frequent or prolonged sleep deprivation can cause serious health issues.
Lack of sleep can lead to poor cognitive function, increased inflammation, and reduced immune function. If sleep deprivation continues, it may increase your risk for chronic disease.
In general, there are five stages of sleep deprivation. The stages are usually divided into 12-hour or 24-hour increments. The symptoms usually get worse the longer you stay awake.
There isn’t a universal timeline for sleep deprivation.
However, the general stages are determined by how many hours of sleep you’ve missed. The symptoms of sleep deprivation tend to get worse in each stage.
Here’s what might happen to your body during sleep deprivation:
Stage 1: After 24 hours
It’s common to miss 24 hours of sleep. It also won’t cause major health problems, but you can expect to feel tired and “off.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 24-hour sleep deprivation is the same as having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10 percent. That’s higher than the limit to legally drive.
Staying awake for 24 hours may cause symptoms like:
- drowsiness
- irritability
- anger
- increased risk of stress
- decreased alertness
- impaired concentration
- brain fog
- fatigue
- tremors
- reduced coordination
- increased risk of mistakes or accidents
- food cravings
- puffy eyes
- dark undereye circles
Stage 2: After 36 hours
When you miss 36 hours of sleep, your symptoms become more intense.
You’ll have an overwhelming urge to sleep.
You may start to have microsleeps, or brief periods of sleep, without realizing it. A microsleep usually lasts up to 30 seconds.
Different parts of your brain will have a hard time communicating with each other. This severely impairs your cognitive performance, causing symptoms like:
- impaired memory
- difficulty learning new information
- behavioral changes
- impaired decision-making
- difficulty processing social cues
- slow reaction time
- increased errors
You’re also more likely to experience physical effects like:
- increased appetite
- increased inflammation
- impaired immune function
- extreme fatigue
Stage 3: After 48 hours
Missing sleep for 48 hours is known as extreme sleep deprivation. At this point, it’s even harder to stay awake. You’re more likely to have microsleeps.
You might even begin to hallucinate. This occurs when you see, hear, or feel things that aren’t actually there.
Other possible effects include:
- depersonalization
- anxiety
- heightened stress levels
- increased irritability
- extreme fatigue
Stage 4: Awake for 72 hours
After 3 days of sleep loss, your urge to sleep will get worse. You may experience more frequent, longer microsleeps.
The sleep deprivation will significantly impair your perception. Your hallucinations might become more complex. You may also have:
- illusions
- delusions
- disordered thinking
- depersonalization
Stage 5: Awake for 96 hours or more
After 4 days, your perception of reality will be severely distorted. Your urge for sleep will also feel unbearable.
If you miss so much sleep that you’re unable to interpret reality, it’s called sleep deprivation psychosis.
Typically, sleep deprivation psychosis goes away once you get enough sleep.
It’s possible to recover from sleep deprivation by sleeping more.
You can start by going to bed early rather than sleeping in late. It’s also a good idea to get at least 7 to 8 hours of rest each night. This will help your body get back on schedule.
It can take days or weeks to recover from a bout of sleep deprivation. Just 1 hour of sleep loss requires 4 days to recover.
The longer you’ve been awake, the longer it will take to get back on track.
The best treatment depends on how much sleep you’ve missed. Possible options include:
- Napping. If you’ve only lost a few hours of sleep, napping could reduce your symptoms. Avoid napping more than 30 minutes, which might disrupt your ability to sleep at night.
- Good sleep hygiene. Practicing healthy sleep habits is key to preventing and treating sleep deprivation.
- Over-the-counter sleep aids. Over-the-counter (OTC) sleep aids are ideal for the occasional sleepless night. You can develop a tolerance to them, so it’s best to use them sparingly.
- Prescription sleeping pills. Your doctor may prescribe sleeping pills. But like OTC sleep aids, they can become less effective over time.
- Light therapy. If you have severe insomnia, your doctor might suggest light therapy. This treatment is designed to help reset your body’s internal clock.
- Breathing device. If your sleep deprivation is due to sleep apnea, you might be given a device to help you breathe during sleep. A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is the most common option.
Healthy sleep hygiene is one of the most effective ways to prevent sleep deprivation. This includes positive lifestyle habits that help you get quality sleep.
Expose yourself to natural light
Natural light exposure helps normalize your body’s production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. This will regulate your body’s internal clock.
Get regular physical activity
Regular exercise will help you feel tired at night.
Aim for at least 20 to 30 minutes each day.
Try to work out at least 5 to 6 hours before bedtime. Exercising too late in the day might mess with your ability to sleep at night.
Avoid caffeine later in the day
If you drink caffeinated drinks, have your last cup before noon. It can take 6 hours for caffeine to wear off.
Avoid alcohol before bed
Although alcohol is known to promote sleepiness, it can disrupt the quality of your sleep. Avoid drinking too much alcohol before bedtime.
Avoid electronic screens before bed
It can be tempting to watch a movie or browse social media just before bed. However, the blue light from the screen can stimulate your brain. It also reduces melatonin production.
To avoid these effects, avoid using electronics 30 minutes to 1 hour before bedtime.
Create a calming bedtime routine
A soothing bedtime routine will help your body and mind prepare for sleep. This may include relaxing activities like:
- taking a warm bath
- stretching
- meditating
- reading
Have a pleasant sleep environment
You’re more likely to get quality sleep if your bedroom is comfortable and relaxing.
To create an ideal sleep environment:
- Turn off electronics, including TVs and smartphones.
- Keep the bedroom cool (between 60 to 67°F, or 16 to 19°C).
- Use a comfortable mattress and pillow. Want suggestions? Browse our market, filled with editor-trusted and expert-verified pillow and mattress recommendations.
- Cover up loud sounds with a fan, humidifier, or white noise machine.
Follow a consistent sleep schedule
Wake up and go to bed at the same time every night, even when you don’t have work. This will help your body maintain a regular schedule.
Avoid foods that disrupt sleep
Some foods take a while to digest. The digestive process can keep you awake, so it’s best to avoid these foods just before bed.
This includes:
- heavy meals
- fatty or fried foods
- spicy meals
- acidic foods
- carbonated drinks
If you’re too hungry to sleep, choose a light snack like crackers or cereal.
Also, try to eat your last meal several hours before bedtime.
It’s normal to have the occasional sleepless night. But if you still have trouble sleeping after practicing good sleep hygiene, see a doctor.
Seek medical help if you:
- have difficulty falling asleep
- feel tired after getting enough sleep
- wake up several times at night
- experience microsleeps
- experience frequent fatigue
- need to take daily naps
The first stage of sleep deprivation occurs within 24 hours of missed sleep. Most people can tolerate this level of sleep loss.
But as sleep deprivation continues, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay awake. It also impairs your cognitive function and perception of reality.
Fortunately, with proper sleep habits, it’s possible to recover or prevent sleep deprivation. If you still have trouble getting a good night’s rest, visit your doctor.
What happens if you don’t sleep for a long time.
You will instantly grow old
A mother of many children decided to check for herself what will happen to a person’s face if he does not sleep for about a day and a half. In just 36 hours, the woman aged several years. However, problems with the skin and appearance are not the worst thing that lack of sleep can bring.
Lindsey Hope, a 39-year-old mother of three, decided to experiment by staying awake for 36 consecutive hours. The woman kept a diary and took a selfie every three hours to see how her face was changing, writes The Sun.
Lindsey with a child
According to the woman, with three preschoolers, one of whom is a baby, she does not have to get used to excessive sleep. However, the 36-hour waking experiment turned out to be much more difficult than she imagined.
In the first hour of her experience, Lindsey took a photo of her face, which became the starting point for the whole experiment.
Six o’clock in the morning, the beginning of the experiment – one hour without sleep
I took the first selfie right after I woke up with the children, but I already hated the bags under my eyes.
My skin was reddish and also had a few spots on it,” Lindsey said in her diary.The woman took a shower and put on light makeup, which made her face look fresher and more radiant. Bags and age spots are less noticeable, and the skin is more radiant. She took the next photo four hours after the start of the experiment.
Four hours without sleep, ten o’clock in the morning
I felt more alert and strong. I was happy with my complexion and didn’t feel like it had too many wrinkles, given that I’m almost 40 years old. I drank a glass of water and a cup of coffee, as usual, continued Lindsey’s diary.
The following selfie was taken in the afternoon. Lindsey felt great, doing household chores and going out for a walk outside. According to her, walking in the fresh air seems to have only improved her appearance.
Eight hours without sleep, two in the afternoon
I still look cheerful. I went out with the kids and did a seven minute garden workout.
Going outside seemed to make my skin clearer. The spots and wrinkles seemed less noticeable than when I first woke up.The woman took a new picture in the evening, after putting her children to bed and washing off her makeup.
13 hours without sleep, 7:30 pm
After putting my two kids to bed, I washed my face again and applied moisturizer. I still didn’t sleep. I drank water during the day to keep my skin hydrated, and I also drank a cup of tea and had some chocolate in the afternoon to get the energy to get through the night.
By midnight, sleep began to take its toll. A woman who usually goes to bed at ten in the evening began to struggle with the desire to sleep. But she decided to spend this time doing something that usually does not work – watch TV.
6 pm experiment, midnight
While everyone else was in bed, I had time to catch up at home and watch TV. I started feeling sleepy around midnight, so I had to splash cold water on my face to keep me awake.
The situation worsened at four in the morning. Now Lindsey was very sleepy, but she did not give up.
22 hours without sleep, four in the morning
I felt very sleepy. I had to constantly wash my face to stay awake. I fed the baby around 3 am. Looking in the mirror, I saw that my skin was terrible. Dark circles were worse than usual, and I looked much older than my 39years.
Three hours later, the children woke up and distracted Lindsey from her struggle with sleep. The woman applied a small amount of makeup to her face to smooth out circles under her eyes, and prepared to survive the next 14 hours.
25 hours without sleep, seven in the morning
I was grateful to the children who woke up and distracted me from my fatigue. I took a shower, put on a light layer of makeup that covered a lot of skin problems, and got ready for another day without sleep.
By the 28th hour of being awake, Lindsey surprisingly began to feel much better.
She became very hungry.
28 hours without sleep, ten in the morning
Considering that I had not slept for so long, I suddenly felt better than hours earlier. But I was incredibly hungry. Around six in the morning I had breakfast with a bowl of cereal, and by nine o’clock I had to eat more toast. I ate some fruit and yogurt just after ten in the morning and still felt hungry.
Discomfort returned by dinner. Then the woman felt a strange desire to eat all kinds of junk food like chips.
31:00 13:00
I ate lunch until noon, trying to eat only healthy chicken and salad, but ended up opening a can of Pringles. It felt like I was eating a hangover, although I didn’t drink anything.
Soon the fatigue increased. It was much stronger than the usual breakdown that Lindsey experienced in the middle of the day.
33 hours, 3:00 pm
I don’t get much sleep with a newborn, but it’s become clear that even a few short naps make a huge difference in how you feel and look.
I was incredibly lethargic and this showed up as severe dark circles under my eyes. My eyelids were so heavy. I had a can of cola and a chocolate bar to try and cheer me up.In the final photo, the woman barely holds her eyelids. Comparing the first and last snapshot of the experiment, you might think that they were taken with a gap of five or ten years. But it’s only been 36 hours.
36 hours, 18:00
My bags were terrible and my skin became red and pale in places. I definitely had more spots than when I woke up in the morning and I have three more kids to go to bed. Once they’re all sound asleep, I think I’ll be gone like a light.
In fact, lack of sleep is much more detrimental to the body than just the deterioration of the skin. The immune system suffers, as well as the release of stress hormones, which adversely affects human health. Even wounds heal much longer if a person sleeps little.
Lack of sleep can even cause a stroke – this was proven by an athlete who lived according to the wrong regimen.
Another girl decided to do a similar experiment. She showed what her face looks like after four, six and eight hours of sleep. It turned out that even a couple of hours of lack of sleep will play a cruel joke on your face.
How a French speleologist managed to stretch the day to 36 hours
In the dark, in silence, at a constant temperature
Between 1962 and 1974, experiments were carried out to study the subjective sense of time in people in isolation in caves. The first test subject was the initiator of the experiment, the French speleologist Michel Sifre.
Michel Sifre
He spent two months alone in a cave, where food stocks were prepared, places for work and rest were equipped, telephone communications were made, but there was no way to tell the time. In addition, there were no irritants familiar to humans in the form of natural light, weather changes, extraneous noise.
Cifr reported to the scientists on duty outside the time of falling asleep and waking up, as well as his estimates of the duration of the past time periods. The experiment showed that the “internal clock” of the scientist practically did not go wrong, on average, a day was about 24 and a half hours.
Repeated experiments
In later experiments, which were conducted under the direction of Sifra, other participants took part, lengthening of subjective “days” up to 36, and also up to 48 hours was noted. The normal rhythm was disturbed and changed – in favor of an increase in the time of wakefulness and then a longer – in comparison with the usual – sleep.
One of the subjects, Jean-Pierre Merete, who lived in the cave for half a year, was shown to have a 48-hour biorhythm (with a sleep period of 14 hours). At the same time, the participants in the experiment felt healthy and energetic, and were sure that they were living according to the usual schedule of a 24-hour day, the subjective sense of time did not correspond to the real one. Michel Sifre wrote a book about his experiments, In the Depths of the Earth.
The main thing is to get enough sleep
The main factor determining circadian rhythms, that is, the body’s biological clock, is sleep, without which a person cannot do. At the same time, the hormone responsible for falling asleep, and ultimately for the daily rhythm, is melatonin. Light is destructive for him, melatonin is produced in the dark – that is, the conditions in the caves during the experiment contributed to the normal production of the “sleep hormone”.
The phenomenon of an extended day is being studied at the present time, in particular, by biologists from law enforcement agencies of the leading countries of the world.