No Sleep For 61 Years But Healthy At 80

[Clyde]

This 80 year old alcoholic smoker seems to be healthy and performing well. Maybe he found the secret to long life and 30 or so extra years of consciousness.

Sleep deprivation is an effective antidepressant too.

Insomniacs rejoice. You've been duped! Stop fighting your gift.


View: https://youtu.be/EDx1JvPEtxs

 

[Vileplume]

Well I guess he’s still alive. Which is crazy in itself. But I’d be very curious to learn about his hormone status.

Like the video’s closing lines suggest, he is probably under a lot of stress, like adrenaline and cortisol, that prevent him from sleeping. But he hasn’t died yet, so… hmm!

 

[Clyde]

Well I guess he’s still alive. Which is crazy in itself. But I’d be very curious to learn about his hormone status.

Like the video’s closing lines suggest, he is probably under a lot of stress, like adrenaline and cortisol, that prevent him from sleeping. But he hasn’t died yet, so… hmm

Maybe his secret to surviving sleep deprivation is alcohol and cigarettes.

 

[JamesGatz]

Honestly I believe it because I actually crave drinking and smoking like legit we live in a BACKWARDS WORLD

but lets not ignore the fact the dude ALSO lives in the middle of nowhere - escaping all the technical stressors we are bombarded with everyday - city living is one of the biggest stressors and big cities are abominations

ALSO - notice he has no polyester mattress, dude lays down on WOOD

Just goes to show you all HOW FAR YOU CAN GO just by changing environment

 

[Summer]

Interesting. To go without any sleep sounds like a curse, though.

 

[brightside]

No. Sleep deprivation as an antidepressant is equivalent to glucocorticoid shots for “anti-depressant” effects. The effect lasts only about 1-2 days, and goes away when you sleep. The only reason it exists is to help you resolve the issue that causes the lack of sleep, its a stress response of sorts.

Also, you cannot live without sleep, let alone be healthy. He’s either (1) lying or (2) having short “naps” that last seconds, but even those can’t sustain you very long.

I think you skipped over the “think” part of “Perceive, think, act”

 

[Warrior]

There is a reason why nearly all schizophrenics smoke and why wearing nicotine patches gives you crazy dreams that are super vivid.

The latter makes it worth trying, even if you don't have an addiction to kick, as its worth the experience and will offer you a lot of hints about higher dimensional perception if you do it correctly. Heck, even if you do nothing but slap it on and drift you'll have an IMAX experience with the correct dosage. Physically it makes your energy descend whilst spiritually it lifts as all elements are interconnected through the realms. This is the "secret" of why people enjoying lighting up after a meal and the palpable sensation of expansion it brings as it works like a physical accelerant and mental relaxant at once.

Maybe he's continually activating the same systems via his coping mechanisms and thus bypassing certain elements of sleep while still getting the benefits on intense sections of REM here and there that keep him going.

Add his PTSD into the mix which is giving him excessive rumination, hyper-vigilance and an inability to relax so when he tries to drift the subconscious Patterns of tension ease and he's back to awake again due to the traumatic memories unvented and aggregated over time popping into his awareness. This is also the prime reason why a lot of alcoholics drink in order to bypass this state and get (knocked out) to sleep as they can't switch off. Schizophrenics also usually have at least one type of sleep disorder and (surprise, surprise) some form of unprocessed trauma so there is a lot of correlation in the cases.

The guy in the video looks very healthy though, doesn't he? Great range of motion, fitness, skin, hair, strength, presence, cognition and the rest of what it means to be human is present and correct, in spite of all the detrimental aspects of his life and experience.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

 

[Clyde]

No. Sleep deprivation as an antidepressant is equivalent to glucocorticoid shots for “anti-depressant” effects. The effect lasts only about 1-2 days, and goes away when you sleep. The only reason it exists is to help you resolve the issue that causes the lack of sleep, its a stress response of sorts.

Also, you cannot live without sleep, let alone be healthy. He’s either (1) lying or (2) having short “naps” that last seconds, but even those can’t sustain you very long.

I think you skipped over the “think” part of “Perceive, think, act”

I was mostly speaking with tongue in cheek.

When researchers study sleep deprivation for depression, the patients go back to sleeping. Would it apply to people that never sleep?

It was mentioned in the video that he can sleep for maybe 1-2hrs if he gets drunk enough. So the video title isn't completely accurate but I liked that they decided to include that info instead of editing it out.

I obsess over my sleep and always think I should be dead after only sleeping 2hrs for months. I woke up today at about 2:30 (about 4hrs of sleep) and I was panicked to get back to sleep so the the insomnia doesn't kill me (no luck). So my gut reaction was that he seems much healthier than I was expecting and maybe it's not as damaging as I think. I would never expect someone could survive to 80 like that (and he even looks good for his age). There are some potential upsides like having more of your life to enjoy and be productive (he has more time to make rice hooch) but you would have to embrace it rather than obsessing over how it's killing you.

 

[Perry Staltic]

Did they have him hooked up to sensors, or even have him under 24/7 surveillance, for 61 years to be able to know for certain if he slept or not to be able to make that claim? No they didn't They're taking him at his word. I think it's BS

 

[Warrior]

Did you watch the video or read the thread? He said he sleeps an hour or two here or there when drunk enough.

Still very much sleep deprived although I'd be willing to bet he gets a few microsleeps which he isn't aware of due to their very nature.

 

[blue_lotus]

this sounds awful. I love sleep because it gives me much needed breaks inbetween conscious awareness. I couldnt imagine having one, interrupted stream of consciousness, I would go crazy. I like the apparent breaks between days, it helps me properly structure my psychology and overall outlook.

 

[Warrior]

it gives me much needed breaks inbetween conscious awareness

Could you clarify your intent behind this statement please? I find it intriguing.

 

[UG Krishnamurti]

I know probably no one will believe me but I went around 22-25 days w/o sleep. I had like some OCD focus on sleep and it was like I "try" and "Do" the sleep, which made me extremely anxious and I couldn't break from the pattern at all. I was hyperaware all the time - especially when I try to go to sleep and prepare to go to bed. I would say I wasn't that tired at all after I got up from bed in the morning (I was lying 6-8h with my eyes closed). And I also know most people will think that I had some minutes/seconds of sleep during the night but there's not way to prove that it isn't true - you would just have to believe me that I didn't have a second of sleep during evenings :)

But the biggest problem for me was that I was so anxious that I'm going to die from no sleep that I was worrying every day which probably screw me up much, much more then no-sleeping thing - which was also caused by worrying/hyperawareness.

I remember then reading and listening to some spiritual teachers talking about how some meditators and gurus don't need no sleep at all. All they need is rest, which can be achievable during the daily activities. For some people their way of life is restful so they either need much less sleep or no sleep at all.

 

[blue_lotus]

Could you clarify your intent behind this statement please? I find it intriguing.

I just mean that it would be (psychologically) difficult to live your entire life without sleeping because you would awake all the time with no "off" time. im a strong advocate of balance, in the sense that good feels better if you have experienced bad, you appreciate happiness more if youve experienced sadness, you understand tastiness if youve eaten bad food etc etc. I think contrast is vital to fully experiencing life, experiences have an added value when you have some other experience to compare them to. in this same vein, you cannot fully appreciate your conscious, waking hours without spending some time being unconscious.

 

[Warrior]

Yes, indeed. This realm is all about polarity. A third of our lives is spent asleep.

Quite interesting proportions, when you think about it...

 

[ALS]

Fatal familial insomnia is the only thing I could find in a similar vein. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6503414

I do recall a long time ago a news story about a man in the US who never slept and was perfectly healthy.

 

[DBCoast]

Just think how well he’d do if he slept.

 

[Clyde]

I got the impression he gets most of his calories from the rice wine he makes himself. It was mentioned he barely eats anything. He might calorie restrict or at least methionine restrict but I don't know much methionine is in rice wine (probably not much). And he's low pufa too...no pufa in rice wine :).

Aside from the sleep deprivation, alcoholism and 3.5 packs of cigarettes a day, he's doing everything right.

 

[Peatress]

If he uses that money to seek medical help I wonder how long it will take the doctors to kill him?

 

[Clyde]

I know probably no one will believe me but I went around 22-25 days w/o sleep. I had like some OCD focus on sleep and it was like I "try" and "Do" the sleep, which made me extremely anxious and I couldn't break from the pattern at all. I was hyperaware all the time - especially when I try to go to sleep and prepare to go to bed. I would say I wasn't that tired at all after I got up from bed in the morning (I was lying 6-8h with my eyes closed). And I also know most people will think that I had some minutes/seconds of sleep during the night but there's not way to prove that it isn't true - you would just have to believe me that I didn't have a second of sleep during evenings :)

But the biggest problem for me was that I was so anxious that I'm going to die from no sleep that I was worrying every day which probably screw me up much, much more then no-sleeping thing - which was also caused by worrying/hyperawareness.

I remember then reading and listening to some spiritual teachers talking about how some meditators and gurus don't need no sleep at all. All they need is rest, which can be achievable during the daily activities. For some people their way of life is restful so they either need much less sleep or no sleep at all.

A very long time ago I was awake for 4 days and I started have optical illusions. It became kind of trippy but not in a good way.

What’s the limit to how long a human can stay awake? And why we don’t monitor the record

Can humans really go years without sleeping? And just how dangerous is it to forego sleep for such a long time?

www.guinnessworldrecords.com

"In 1997, we stopped monitoring the record for the longest time to stay awake. The record holder at the time was Robert McDonald, who went 453 hours 40 minutes (18 days 21 hours 40 minutes) without sleeping in 1986."

You could have made it into the record books.