About 6 years ago some buddies and I were talking over MSN and decided not to sleep that night and reconvene the following day at the Nip/Tuck-athon. So we went out seperate ways and did our thing. My only memory of the night was sitting in my bedroom with my back against the bed watching TV all night. If I felt tired I would get up and go for a walk and have some watery coffee. Somehow I made it through the night and caught up with Josh in the morning and we walked from his house to Simon's house to commence the Nip/Tuck-athon. I struggled not to faint or vomit on the walk, and was surprised to find the walk revived me. When I arrived at Simon's, I found out that both Simon and Corey had fallen asleep and were feeling quite defeated. Simon had tried to listen to Iron Maiden to stay awake but instead Bruce serenaded him to sleep. They were trying to get me to fall asleep so my record number of hours wasn't too high, so they had prepared a mattress on the floor with pillows and blankets for me to sit on and watch Nip/Tuck. I stayed awake all day watching episode after episode, and even hallucinated seeing a cat in the room. I can't remember what time I fell asleep but the record was 33 hours. Not really much when you think about it.
I saw a documentary on SBS about sleep deprivation a while ago and the host decided to test himself out, so he hung out with this man who held a sleep deprivation record. The host lost his mind slowly, his appearance became unkempt and he was sitting under a tree at night trying to stay awake and started talking jibberish. It was a very interesting doco. So I suppose I wanted to attempt it again but record what I think and feel seeing as I couldn't remember the last time.
So Friday morning I got up at 7:00am and went to work. It wasn't until half-way through the day that I decided I might as well just try it. The original plan was to just go 1 night and then the following weekend go for 2 nights. I didn't think I could go the double straight away. I should also preface this sleep deprivation account by explaining another intention for the weekend. I have been doing a creative writing course and I thought that the extra hours of waking would allow me to write some quality stuff and also get through the pile of books I had to read. This was the main thing I wanted to achieve over the weekend, and as long as I beat my record I was happy. I thought I could kill 2 birds with one stone and also use the time to get to know my new kitten Peanut:
What a cute little gal! So here is a kind of time-line of how my weekend went...
Friday
7:00am- Woke up
8:30am- 5:00pm- Work
5:00pm- After work drinks. Wondered if the pint of beer would put me to sleep on the train ride home.
6:39pm- Got the train heading home
7:30pm- Dinner at mum's place - had some red wines - again wondered if i was sabotaging myself.
8:30pm- Left mum's with my brothers. Stopped into my place to visit the new cat - the house was empty so there was no stimuli.
9:00pm- Went to dad's place to hang out with my brother/dad.
9:32pm- Starting to feel tired already.
9:34pm- My first yawn. Got out my Baby Box(es) from the roof to go through and look at all my old school work and stories etc.
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| Grade 6 Jumper, still fits. Somehting is so wrong with that... |
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| "I can make people into snakes" from Grade Prep... |
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| No idea what the hell this is about. It is an anti-racism thing I think. I hope. |
SATURDAY
1:20am- Got back home from Dad's, played with Peanut and did the dishes. If I sit down it will be all over.
1:30am- The house is too quiet, put the tv on. Flicking through the channels I see "Desperately Seeking Susan" with Madonna in her 'Like a Virgin' style garb, "Barber Shop 2" and Entourage. I really don't like Entourage. I got told by a male friend that it's like the male equivalent of Sex and the City, so I can't talk too much trash on it. All I will say though is that I can't stand Kevin Dillon. He looks like a mix between his brother and Kevin Bacon. I'm not exactly a fan or either, and the combo is just disturbing. I saw a movie on one channel called "One Nite in Mongkok" which made me laugh. Not only because of the dirty sounding name, but also because I found out Mongkok is the name for Hong Kong's Red Light district. This is made even funnier because there is a restaurant in Adelaide called Mongkok where my cousin Bec had her birthday dinner! I turn over to rage and watch some videos. Eventually I put on Skins to watch, and Maki comes home around 2.30 or 3:00am and we get to talking.
3:00am- Eat some boiled vegetables for my second dinner.
4:00am- Maki goes to bed and I make myself a coffee and put on "High Tension" to write a film review for practice.
4:30am- I feel the muscles in my face acting of their own accord and they feel as though they want to be slack and rest. Some time later I write that my knuckles and joints hurt because I am not giving my body a chance to rest.
4:45am- I write that Red-heads like Mike Bailey (Sid from Skins) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) are the kind of Red-heads that I'm attracted to. The colouration of their skin, and lips is the key.
5:37am- I have an intense internal monologue going on. I am having a conversation in my head and there is a running commentary of everything I see. For example: "Ok, here is the plan. I will go over here and clean this thing, and after that I'll go into my room and.....". I also feel a bit nauseous for the first time.
5:49am- Feel the first waves of physical tiredness: shivers or goosebumps washing over me.
5:59am- I heard a car engine start - people are going to work now. My eyes don't want to focus on anything, and blinking is becoming dangerous. My hands are going numb and I need more oranges. (?)
6:08am- Decide to wax and do some beauty treatments like a facial and manicure to stay awake. Sitting is not working out for me.
6:43am- Eating an orange. Decide I cannot possibly go to bed now, I have way too much to do. I have gotten my 3rd wind, and Peanut has gotten her 27th. This cat never stops!! Walking from the kitchen to the bathroom I think I see a man standing near the hallway. It was a jolt that woke me up even more.
6:58am- I heard my first morning warble, I'm racing the sun.
7:02am- Thought I heard a knock at the bathroom door. Starting to feel paranoid. Luckily the sun is coming up and the shadows are retreating. I have made it 24 hours.
7:08am- Kind of missed the sunrise. I'm sitting in the middle of the backyard on a chair staring at the sky. The air is so fresh and I can hear a shrill cricket to my right, and a bird chippering away in the tree above the cricket.
7:17am- Decide to have a shower to welcome the new day. Have to decide whether or not to change my clothes. Will it be good to make a clear distinction between one day and the next? I change my t-shirt and underwear but nothing else.
8:14am- I realise I have so much reading and writing to do today and can really get heaps done. If my kitten still has energy after a night of no sleep then surely I will be fine also. I clean the rangehood.
9:01am- Peanut put herself to bed. Turncoat!!
Decide to watch some TV - I watch Hannah Montana where she has writers block - how fitting!
10:15am- Decide to do a load of washing and put on Six Feet Under in my room. I'm kneeling my the mirror doing my hair and make-up and watching it in the reflection. Each episode goes for 1 hour so I think this could be my ticket to victory!
12:00pm noon- Josh arrives. He starts work at 1:00pm and finishes at 6:30pm. I tried to convince him to not sleep Saturday night with me... but he wasn't interested seeing as he had work at 7:00am the next day.
1:00pm - Josh is gone, Maki has gotten up and we go to get KFC for lunch. I know I will regret eating this.
I am trying to write my film review up into a coherent body of text, but my brain isn't working and i feel myself relaxing and fading into sleep as I sit at the laptop.
4:43pm- This is the worst I have felt. Sore, tired, no motivation to do anything at all, and cannot even write or read.
5:00pm- Walk to the shops to buy a pumpkin
5:30pm- Start cooking dinner. Cooking is a good task that takes up time.
6:30pm- Josh gets home and has a shower as I finish making the curries. He says I look sick. I'm not even offended because I know he is right.
8:30pm- Josh reminds me that it is daylight savings and I wind my clock back one hour. It's only 7:30pm now. What a blow.
We eat the curries sitting in my bed watching Peep Show. I am barely capable of laughter even though I know it is funny. I am not tired and don't want to sleep, I'm just a shell of a person. My brain is not even allowing me to plan things I could do to kill time. I have never been so literally in the moment. The cats are fighting and hissing at each other and I lose my temper and start going a bit hysterical. Josh suggests I have a shower and calm down. In the shower I realise that I haven't really written anything, my bookmark is still in the same place it was on Friday morning, and I am incapable of feeling any joy. I count the hours of waking: 39. I then make the decision to go to bed. I thought at least I could get some stuff done on Sunday.
In hindsight, it's hard to say if I succeeded or failed. I succeeded in beating my record but I failed at producing anything good except for a notebook full of rambling incoherent handwriting, a clean rangehood, a clean dishwasher, and a few less weeds in the garden. If anything I was less productive than usual on a weekend. The staying awake doesn't really bother me but the frustration of not accomplishing much really in my free time does. I am going to say that my curiosity is satisfied for now, I have increased my waking limit, the list item is more or less accomplished, and now I have some serious writing and reading to do before tomorrow's writing class *eep*
I felt tired just reading that haha
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