Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
How sleep deprived can a person be before they just lose it ? Don't they use sleep deprivation to "break" prisoners of war? I am on night 4 of little or no sleep... It's funny though. Last night I was awake in bed and I thought "they ought to have a support group for insomnia since we're all up all night anyway." And ta-da! They do!
I'm not sure how much you know about sleep....and from my vast experiences and countless conversations with drs....let me give you a little info which might give you some comfort....
There are several stages (4) of sleep. What most of us associate as "sleep" is stage 3 and 4. Stage 1 sleep is VERY light (almost like a resting state). You can totally hear noises, conversations in other rooms, house creaking, cars driving by...whatever....and you totally feel like you're awake but your brain is in fact responding in a stage 1 brainwave sleep pattern! Stage 2 is a little deeper but still not super far and at this stage is where we NORMALLY sleep for 1/2 the time! What I found surprising to learn is that chances are you DO GET SOME SLEEP....but it just doesn't seem like sleep to you....and it doesn't feel like sleep either (big bummer)! But...if they were to hook you up to the electrodes that read sleep at a sleep study center chances are they'd see some sleep brainwaves (maybe only stages 1 and perhaps a little 2) but the great news is YOU DO GET SOME SLEEP!
How long can you go without sleeping? It's hard to say. I missed tons of work, had to have neighbors drive my car with me as a passenger so I could get my kids to school, had tons of dr. apts....I even drove to my local hospital emergency room one morning after a sleepless night because I was having a mental break down--and they admitted me. That's the truth. But I made it....and I think you can too.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Use this board....use your family and friends...neighbors...anyone you trust. Get a support team to help you through this time of your life. Go EASY on yourself and don't be so hard on yourself. Don't hate yourself for not sleeping----right now---it can't be helped. It's like a cold or an infection or???? but it has a cycle and it will come to an end.
It's going to be alright.
~Brook
that reminds me of how all these people died because they didn't go to sleep and yea... it's around 4 days.
http://www.brighthub.com/video-games/mmo/articles/28926.aspx