Ok, so this is probably the stupidest question ever, but I’m wondering, how long has everyone here been able to go without sleeping?
I very rarely have a sleepless night, and when I do, I usually end up falling asleep by early morning. This week, however, I have really struggled with sleep. Being autistic and also a college student, this is common for me, but this week my sleeping has been especially bad.
It started when I first came home for winter break last month. I have been sleeping in until about 11 am, and not going to sleep until 2-3 am the next day. My schedule is never like this when I’m in school. I had planned to get back on schedule this week so I am ready to go back to school, however, my sister was admitted to a mental hospital on Monday and since coming home yesterday, has been quite depressed again. This keeps me up at night due to previous experiences with her when we were younger, along with me going back to school and starting new classes next week. On top of it, I was stupid enough to take my steroid inhaler before going to bed, which of course means I’m going to be wide awake for a while.
I cannot sleep, I worry that whenever I do fall asleep, that I won’t be awake again until 11-12 the next day, as this is what has been happening the last several nights. I go back to college tomorrow and need to get back into my schedule, for I have an early morning class on Monday, and need to be ready. Melatonin doesn’t work for me, it either keeps me up all night or only helps me to sleep for a few hours. My sleep is usually good when I’m in school but at home it is not always the best. Plus my alarm rarely goes off for some reason, despite setting it the same way every night, although I always end up snoozing it anyway.
For whatever reason, I’m worried about staying up all night and going the next day without sleeping. It sounds awful but it seems like the only way to get me back on track (napping and sleeping in often leads me to be awake for hours past my bedtime). My dad wants to get me back to school as early as possible, for he is super anxious about time lol. I plan to get everything done early and spend the rest of the day relaxing.
Has anyone here gone over 24 hours without sleeping, and is it as bad as everyone makes it seem? The longest I’ve gone without sleeping is 18-20 hours.
Went to a job interview after my night shift with no sleep the day before, so awake from about 4pm to the interview two days later at 11am. So at 43 hours awake I had a technical interview and almost got the job. You can seem to function at a fairly good level tired, but depending on various factors it can be really bad for your performance. It is similar to being tipsy with regards to driving, so definitely don’t drive tired. Stimulants like coffee don’t make you better at thinking, they just make you less aware of how tired you are so you can keep going. Your performance is still shot but you are less able to judge. Other stimulants like Ritalin can help more for people who work well with them, but that is people with ADHD or some people who are autistic.
That said, longest would be post open heart surgery. Lots of pain, multiple days of missed sleep, lots of pain killers which don’t really work well for me, but eventually I figured out I could sleep slumped forward over a desk rather than in a hospital bed. You can go without sleep for a while without dying but you become less functional and it is bad for long term health.