How long can a human stay awake?

A man in Cornwall, England, actually went 11 consecutive days without a wink of sleep. On May 24, 2007, Tony Wright, a 42-year-old horticulturalist, claimed to have beaten the record of 264 hours (exactly 11 days) set in 1964 by 17-year-old American Randy Gardner.

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42 Comments

Fred Keogh

I once stayed awake on an British Army exercise in 1985, in Germany, for 34 hours. I then slept 15 hours, and was awarded the order of the Green Maggot (army sleeping bag) for longest sleep on exercise. A great honour. HaHaHa

Elsy O. Stromberg

AskMrsP, Amazing- don't see how you could do it. Wish you would have told us.

Debra Jenkins

Unless it was monitored by an official, it can't possibly count. If I claimed I stayed awake for 12 days, would that count as a record?

Player

I can barely function after one bad night's sleep. After a couple of days of sleep deprivation, I'd expect impaired cognitive function and loss of coherent speech which is normal for me at the best of times.