longest you have gone without sleep?

[emily]

I have insomnia, and currently I'm in my third week of my current bout- still not even slightly tired

what is the longest you have gone without sleep?

[o0amber0o]

The high school I graduated from does a yearly marathon dance that raises money for various people/organizations in the community. It runs from Friday evening into Saturday evening, a total of 27 hours. They do offer classroom sleeping arrangements from like 3 am - 6 am but if you're cool you do the whole 27 hours. So 27 for me.

The real sleep deprivation that was just the worst experience of my life was when my daughter was born and she was having to be fed every two hours and then after feeding I'd have to pump for 20 minutes and then try and sleep. I experienced sleep paralysis and hallucinations - I hated it. Eventually my body was able to adjust on the interrupted sleep patterns but for that first month or so it was torture.

I really feel for people who struggle with sleep issues.

[daphodil]

Post-radiation/post-menopause I ended up with both kinds of insomnia - can't fall asleep and then can't stay asleep. I had it for five years and it was pretty awful. I remember clearly the first night I fell asleep and then slept all night. I felt like a different person. The low-grade exhaustion of insomnia is survivable but had impact on my memory and thought processing. I feel for anyone who has it and if it happened again, I'd definitely medicate.

[holly]

10 months.
I have chronic insomnia & about 7 years ago when my dr retired, the new one refused to prescribe my meds, because it was a benzo. Mind you, at this point I’d been on them for 19 years. I literally cannot sleep without it. I’ll lay there feeling so exhausted, but not being able to sleep. It’s the only med that helps me sleep. I’ve tried them all, & believe me, if something else worked, I’d have taken it. Anyway, I was on a search for a new doctor for 10 months. I would get a semi-decent night of sleep every 3 or 4 nights from sheer exhaustion. Every stupid dr I went to was of the mindset that long-term benzo use is dangerous (which yes, it can be, but the amount of time I’d been on them should’ve been taken into account). Isn’t it more dangerous for me to be driving without sleep? I don’t abuse them. If you give me 30 capsules they’ll last 30 days. After I finally found a dr who would prescribe them, I felt like a new person. He couldn’t believe the way these other drs had treated me. I was terrified when we moved to a new state because I thought I’d go through the same shit again, but on my first try, I found an amazing dr who not only kept me on my benzo, but he also is the one who finally ordered the proper tests for my thyroid (I had no energy since I was 17, & I knew something wasn’t right but every dr was like “your tests are normal” 🙄 I felt like a crazy person. ) Anyway, about a year ago he had samples of a newer sleep medication that I wanted to try, & holy shit that stuff gave my the worst vivid horrific nightmares I ever had. I took it one night & said fuck this. Then not too long ago I read a bunch of reviews for it & it was incredible the amount of people who had the same crazy vivid nightmares like I did. So I’ve been on the same benzo for 26 years now. It’s literally the only way I can go to sleep at night.
Interestingly, my youngest brother has really bad insomnia (worse than mine, even) & my mom also does. My paternal grandmother was also an insomniac, so maybe there’s some kind of genetic component to it?,

[notoriousmkg]

30 hours, if you mean not even lying down or taking a nap. I can sleep anywhere, any time. I could drink two cups of coffee and go back to bed. I'm also a very heavy sleeper.

[no1novice]

42? From 7am Friday morning to 2-3am Sunday morning.
I was working at a festival & had the occasional 2 minutes standing up on the Saturday night as we emptied the Venue as it had an event the next day.

I used to regularly stay up on a Friday night & not go to bed til Saturday night.

[no1novice]

And at the moment appears to be operating on 5 hours max & lots of chocolate & tea.

[loftybike]

48 hours - after a one hour night of sleep. I was completely beside myself from exhaustion and slept for 13 hours then.

During menopause, I went through 2 years without getting much sleep. I had up to 30 hot flushes a day and if I got to sleep, I was awake up to 10 times at night.
I remember a day in July when i woke up and had slept through the night, it was wonderful.

[chalet]

Apr 16, 2022 16:05:00 GMT holly said:

10 months.
I have chronic insomnia & about 7 years ago when my dr retired, the new one refused to prescribe my meds, because it was a benzo. Mind you, at this point I’d been on them for 19 years. I literally cannot sleep without it. I’ll lay there feeling so exhausted, but not being able to sleep. It’s the only med that helps me sleep. I’ve tried them all, & believe me, if something else worked, I’d have taken it. Anyway, I was on a search for a new doctor for 10 months. I would get a semi-decent night of sleep every 3 or 4 nights from sheer exhaustion. Every stupid dr I went to was of the mindset that long-term benzo use is dangerous (which yes, it can be, but the amount of time I’d been on them should’ve been taken into account). Isn’t it more dangerous for me to be driving without sleep? I don’t abuse them. If you give me 30 capsules they’ll last 30 days. After I finally found a dr who would prescribe them, I felt like a new person. He couldn’t believe the way these other drs had treated me. I was terrified when we moved to a new state because I thought I’d go through the same shit again, but on my first try, I found an amazing dr who not only kept me on my benzo, but he also is the one who finally ordered the proper tests for my thyroid (I had no energy since I was 17, & I knew something wasn’t right but every dr was like “your tests are normal” 🙄 I felt like a crazy person. ) Anyway, about a year ago he had samples of a newer sleep medication that I wanted to try, & holy shit that stuff gave my the worst vivid horrific nightmares I ever had. I took it one night & said fuck this. Then not too long ago I read a bunch of reviews for it & it was incredible the amount of people who had the same crazy vivid nightmares like I did. So I’ve been on the same benzo for 26 years now. It’s literally the only way I can go to sleep at night.
Interestingly, my youngest brother has really bad insomnia (worse than mine, even) & my mom also does. My paternal grandmother was also an insomniac, so maybe there’s some kind of genetic component to it?,


My Mom took Doxepin for her insomnia which started when she was about 70.  Doxepin (she took the liquid form) is a very old prescription that was used for depression.  Her doctor prescribed 1 mg in the dropper, you get a little drowsy in about 20 minutes and you fall asleep and wake up refreshed. Like a 7 hour sleep.  It was her miracle drug.  No side effects, nothing.  Her doctor retired and her new doctor said "oh don't' take that........take this...Klonopin.  So she took it, 1 mg and it worked fine. 2 years ago she was reading about it (on pubmed and other medical sites) and they mentioned possible dementia.  So she said she wanted to get off of it. It was only to be taken for a couple of weeks but she cursed herself that she didn't research and she took it for 10 years.

So now, for a year and half with a new doctor she tapered off of it where she had use a nail file to scrape off the last few bits of the pill until she was finally done with them.  Cold turkey is not an option as a lot of bad things can happen if it's not tapered correctly.  Her doctor prescribed her fave Doxepin again and she sleeps like a baby.  One drop, a sip of water and sleep.  She gave me what was left over in a bottle and when I couldn't sleep I took some and it was bliss.  Low dose of liquid Doxepin. Works like a charm, read about and suggest it to your people.  

Longest I went without sleep was 36 hours.  I was helping someone with an IV at home. I changed the IV bag and the saline solution myself! If you knew me you'd know I ain't good with that but I did it.  

[holly]

Apr 14, 2024 4:06:29 GMT chalet said:

Apr 16, 2022 16:05:00 GMT holly said:

10 months.
I have chronic insomnia & about 7 years ago when my dr retired, the new one refused to prescribe my meds, because it was a benzo. Mind you, at this point I’d been on them for 19 years. I literally cannot sleep without it. I’ll lay there feeling so exhausted, but not being able to sleep. It’s the only med that helps me sleep. I’ve tried them all, & believe me, if something else worked, I’d have taken it. Anyway, I was on a search for a new doctor for 10 months. I would get a semi-decent night of sleep every 3 or 4 nights from sheer exhaustion. Every stupid dr I went to was of the mindset that long-term benzo use is dangerous (which yes, it can be, but the amount of time I’d been on them should’ve been taken into account). Isn’t it more dangerous for me to be driving without sleep? I don’t abuse them. If you give me 30 capsules they’ll last 30 days. After I finally found a dr who would prescribe them, I felt like a new person. He couldn’t believe the way these other drs had treated me. I was terrified when we moved to a new state because I thought I’d go through the same shit again, but on my first try, I found an amazing dr who not only kept me on my benzo, but he also is the one who finally ordered the proper tests for my thyroid (I had no energy since I was 17, & I knew something wasn’t right but every dr was like “your tests are normal” 🙄 I felt like a crazy person. ) Anyway, about a year ago he had samples of a newer sleep medication that I wanted to try, & holy shit that stuff gave my the worst vivid horrific nightmares I ever had. I took it one night & said fuck this. Then not too long ago I read a bunch of reviews for it & it was incredible the amount of people who had the same crazy vivid nightmares like I did. So I’ve been on the same benzo for 26 years now. It’s literally the only way I can go to sleep at night.
Interestingly, my youngest brother has really bad insomnia (worse than mine, even) & my mom also does. My paternal grandmother was also an insomniac, so maybe there’s some kind of genetic component to it?,


My Mom took Doxepin for her insomnia which started when she was about 70.  Doxepin (she took the liquid form) is a very old prescription that was used for depression.  Her doctor prescribed 1 mg in the dropper, you get a little drowsy in about 20 minutes and you fall asleep and wake up refreshed. Like a 7 hour sleep.  It was her miracle drug.  No side effects, nothing.  Her doctor retired and her new doctor said "oh don't' take that........take this...Klonopin.  So she took it, 1 mg and it worked fine. 2 years ago she was reading about it (on pubmed and other medical sites) and they mentioned possible dementia.  So she said she wanted to get off of it. It was only to be taken for a couple of weeks but she cursed herself that she didn't research and she took it for 10 years.

So now, for a year and half with a new doctor she tapered off of it where she had use a nail file to scrape off the last few bits of the pill until she was finally done with them.  Cold turkey is not an option as a lot of bad things can happen if it's not tapered correctly.  Her doctor prescribed her fave Doxepin again and she sleeps like a baby.  One drop, a sip of water and sleep.  She gave me what was left over in a bottle and when I couldn't sleep I took some and it was bliss.  Low dose of liquid Doxepin. Works like a charm, read about and suggest it to your people.  

Longest I went without sleep was 36 hours.  I was helping someone with an IV at home. I changed the IV bag and the saline solution myself! If you knew me you'd know I ain't good with that but I did it.  

Oh nooooo! Why would he take her off something that worked & then put her on a BENZO of all things?!

So glad she was able to get off them. And properly weaned, not just have them ripped out of her hands. When I later learned that I could have had seizures & even died from the way that doctor just stopped me cold & none of the other twits tried to help me. It pisses me off so bad just thinking about it. I'm so glad I have a compassionate doctor now. 
But I'm going to look into that doxepin, because I have an overwhelming fear of my dr retiring & being in the same situation that I was in before. I don't think I'd survive that again. 

[zoeychloe]

My max is three days without sleep when I was going through a lot of stress. With stress it is usually 2 nights.

I am former military and they would have us do 24 hours shifts (CQ Duty) where we were not allowed to sleep. 6pm-6am I think it was. Around 4am I felt I would die if I didn't sleep. I was afraid of falling over and conking my head.