How many hours can a person safely stay awake without long-term damage?

Question

I've been quite busy with work yesterday and today and have been awake for roughly 20 hours so far. I wanna stay awake for 12 more hours and then go to my comfy bed finally.

Is that safe?

Answer 1

It's like.. 37 hours until your body starts merging into "micro-sleeps". This is when you appear to be awake and your body just shuts down. Its dangerous because it can happen while your driving or doing other dangerous things. I wouldn't recommend 12 more hours. Atleast take a one hour nap. And by the way, if your putting toxins into your body like caffienne and sugar, that'll only make you crash and burn much more severely..

Answer 2

Yep that should be fine. In fact you could probably stay up for several days and be fine. If you make a habbit of it and do it often that it may affect your long term health but if it's a one off then it's fine. I would say don't go for more than 48-60 hours without sleep because your body has to use more and more energy to keep you concious so things like brain power and digestion won't work as well.

Answer 3

Yes you are safe to stay awake for another 12 hours. There will be no damage although depending on your normal sleeping patterns you may feel extremely tired and find it difficult to do much as your cognitive functions begin to decrease after a lack of sleep.

By the way, that 3 year old....he has to have slept. The body dies without sleep for an extended period of time. I am going to assume that what they mean is he is not getting REM sleep, but he will definitely be getting SOME sleep, and more than likely he is getting some REM sleep just not the usual amount. If he wasn't he wouldn't be alive, to put it simply. Three years definitely qualifies as an extended period of time.

Answer 4

Should be safe. Your body may shut down. But you will need a lot of sleep to catch up on. I suggest at least taking a nap for an hour.



There is a case of a little boy who hasn't slept in 3 years.



http://www.local6.com/health/16210114/detail.html

Answer 5

You'll be tired, but yeah, it's not going to do any damage. You start getting really screwed over after about 60 hours and the real damage starts to occur after about 96 hours (but even then it's not nec. long term)

Edit: You *will* be tired, esp if you aren't used to being awake this long, so don't drive.

Answer 6

thats a good question because my working hours are 12 hr shifts. and if the guy that relives me calls out im pulling 24. i done about 46hrs before.

Answer 7

ice junkies stay awake for weeks straight with not a minute of sleep.





but i dont think thats safe..

Answer 8

Yes. I think you can go for about 2 weeks as long as you eat and stay hydrated.