What happens if you don't go to bed for two days or a week. What happens if you do not sleep for a long time, scientific facts

If a person is deprived of sleep for 7 days, then starting from the 5th day there is a high risk of dying from lack of sleep - for example, from a heart attack due to hallucinations. This is how a person works - we need to recuperate after a day's work. During sleep, the subconscious is actively involved in the work, the information accumulated during the day is processed. The muscles of the body rest, the internal organs are calmly busy with their functioning, the consciousness is turned off. Why is it so important to go to bed at the right time, get enough sleep, and never deprive yourself of sleep for a long time? This is easy to understand if you follow what happens to a person suffering from insomnia for various reasons. The consequences are dire...

1st day
1 day without sleep is not much. Surely you will remember a situation when you did not have to go to bed for a whole day. Fatigue, poor memory and concentration, wandering attention, headache, indigestion - this is what is usually observed after a sleepless night. Memory and attention cannot function normally due to the fact that neocortex did not recover overnight. All systems in the body are connected, and therefore other organs react to lack of sleep. For health, 1 day cannot cause significant damage, but well-being is unpleasant.

2nd–3rd day
Violated not only attention, but also coordination of movements. frontal lobes of the brain they cannot work normally without proper rest, so you can forget about creative thinking. A person left without sleep for 3 days is in a state of nervous exhaustion. There may be a nervous tic, panic attacks. Appetite will increase, because in stress, the body will release a large amount of the hormone cortisol, which contributes to the unrestrained eating of food. I want fried, salty, spicy, and this despite the fact that the digestive system works poorly and haphazardly. Falling asleep, oddly enough, is very difficult - again due to overwork of the nervous system.

4th–5th day
Hallucinations are bound to appear. A person will speak incoherently, poorly understand what is happening to him, solving the simplest problems will become unbearable for him. At the same time, irritability and anger will increase in proportion to the time spent without sleep. Parietal and prefrontal cortex will refuse to work, that's why all this is happening.

6th–7th day
American student Randy Gardner did not sleep for 11 days. Already on the 7th day, he behaved extremely strangely, experiencing the strongest hallucinations and showing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The tremor of the limbs, the inability to think sensibly and the strongest paranoia are what he had to endure for the sake of a scientific experiment.

Among the causes of insomnia are nervous and muscular strain, pain syndrome and indigestion. Stuffiness, bright light, uncomfortable bed - that's what makes it difficult to fall asleep. Insomnia itself is considered the cause of many diseases, doctors say: if you want to recover, first get rid of insomnia. But it happens that a person does not sleep for several days on his own initiative - this may be due to work. In doing so, you must be aware of the consequences of failure in the normal mode of life. It is recommended to sleep at night, and not during the day, because in complete darkness the human body produces hormone melatonin. Melatonin prolongs youth, improves brain function, and protects a person from cancer. Sleep is a medicine that everyone needs.

Surely many of you have experienced a situation where you had to stay awake at night. For example, it may be the night before the session, unlearned school homework. And someone needs to go to work, because the night shift is scheduled. Therefore, the question of what will happen if you do not sleep for 2 days is quite relevant. Let's try to deal with this problem.

Consequences of two nights spent without sleep

With a person there are different, most unpredictable situations. It is clear that for normal well-being at night you need to sleep, but due to circumstances, sometimes you have to stay awake for two days in a row. Let's figure out what will happen if you do not sleep for two days. The following consequences are possible:

• general, depressed state of health;
• the strongest lethargy;
• disorders of the stomach (diarrhea or constipation);
• increased appetite, and you want salty, spicy foods;
• a state close to stress;
• Weakening of the immune system, making it harder for the body to fight viruses
• distraction, inability to make a quick decision if necessary;
• blurred vision (difficulty focusing on a particular subject);
• it is difficult to concentrate on any thought;
• speech becomes simplified;
• problems with coordination of movements;
• headaches in combination with noises;
• jumps in blood pressure;
• muscle and joint pain;
• increased heart rate;
• uncontrolled irritability.

If you do not sleep for two days, then the body will begin to produce certain hormones to deal with a stressful situation. After a sleepless pastime, I really want to fall asleep. But, the longer you stay awake, the harder it is to get out of the state of wakefulness.

It is known that in certain emergency situations, the reserve buttons of the body are activated, and increased activity occurs.

But, even if necessary, not everyone manages to stay awake for 2 days. At some point, uncontrollable drowsiness sets in, when you can just turn off. Next, let's talk about what to do when it is necessary not to sleep for two days, and it is forbidden to rest.

How to overcome sleep if necessary?

There are many ways to deal with sleepiness. So, if you have to stay awake for 30 hours or more, then the easiest option to avoid the undesirable consequences of sleepless nights is to get enough sleep in advance. It is clear that several hours of daytime sleep do not compensate for even one sleepless night, but it will be easier for the body to cope with the situation.

We offer you to get acquainted with the best ways to help not sleep for 2 days:

1. try breathing exercises. Inhale as usual, and exhale should be sharp (10 repetitions). Breathing exercises will help to cheer up, warm up;
2. chew menthol gum, which is not so much refreshing as it will cause a feeling of cheerfulness;
3. ventilate the room where you are. To cheer up, eliminate drowsiness, you need coolness. It doesn't matter what season it is outside. Cold (cool air) causes the body to activate its protective functions in order to warm up. So you can cope with drowsiness;
4. physical activity any character (jumps, squats, push-ups). Just a few exercises in 15 minutes are enough to cheer up;
5. face rinse with wrists cool or cold water;
6. go hungry even if you really want to eat. If you eat a heavy meal at night, then lethargy will immediately appear, combined with drowsiness;
7. music (rhythmic) will help you feel energized. If possible, sing along, dance. The sound must be moderate in order to hear the words of the songs. Thus, listening to the words, you make the brain work;
8. bright lighting help fight sleepiness. Muted light, on the contrary, relaxes;
9. massage movements areas of the back of the neck, ears (lobes), under the knees and between the fingers (thumb and forefinger), improve blood flow, relieve fatigue;
10. make yourself uncomfortable. Use a chair with a hard seat and back for sitting, spend some time standing up;
11. use strong, tart scents. Even an unpleasant aroma will invigorate and eliminate fatigue during night wakefulness;
12. try tongue touch the upper palate, then tickle him. Immediately it will become easier;
13. you can get distracted by watching a funny video, or discuss on the forum that interests you.

These tips will help if you need not sleep for 2 days. Pay attention to foods that should contain more proteins (eggs, nuts, vegetables). Give up sugar. Drink a lot. As for coffee, you can drink no more than 2 cups per night, otherwise it will have the opposite effect. A cup of coffee helps to cheer up for 20 minutes. But still, it is better to do without caffeine during the night wakefulness, and use the methods described above.

Anyone can remember an episode in their life when they had to stay awake for at least one night. For some, this is due to long parties, New Year's holidays, others tried to prepare for the session, complete some task, others were obliged to stay awake by work. But what happens if you don't sleep for a long time? How will this affect the state of the body? After all, there may be situations when there is a need to stay awake for longer than one night.

Sleep is very important for the body, because at this time the restoration of all systems and rest is carried out. The brain processes the information received during the day, the immune system is restored. Therefore, regular and long sleep is extremely important. It allows you to maintain the functions of the body in a stable state. So, consider what happens if you do not sleep for a day or even several nights in a row.

What happens after a day of lack of sleep

If you do not sleep for 1 day, there will be no special problems in the body. If you get out of a stable regime once for a long time, there will be no serious disturbances in the body. Of course, after that, you need to refrain from driving a car and performing other responsible work that requires concentration. But in general, such a person will not lose his ability to work and will feel fine. Moreover, if you work according to a special schedule, the body will soon get used to the fact that from time to time you have to not sleep at night.

Of course, the next day after being awake, a person will periodically feel a terrible desire to sleep. To eliminate it, you can drink coffee or another invigorating drink. There may also be a decrease in concentration, a deterioration in the ability to remember, some weakness and even chills. If a sleepy person rides public transport or sits waiting in line, he may fall asleep abruptly.

The next night, many have problems with sleep, which is associated with an excess intake of dopamine in the blood.

So, is it possible not to sleep the night before an important event? If you are preparing for an exam, wedding or other events, do not stay awake at night. The body will only be more tired, and the brain will not recover from the load of the day. As a result, mental functions will be oppressed, intellectual abilities will decrease for a while. There will be signs of inattention, absent-mindedness, indicating lack of sleep. The lack of sleep is also reflected in the appearance - the skin becomes more faded, bags appear under the eyes, cheeks are slightly swollen.

It is very important not to stray from the sleep-wake rhythm, because if the body does not sleep for 24 hours in a row, the brain suffers significantly from this. The following symptoms are observed:

• loss of orientation in time;
• excessive sensitivity to light;
• incoherent speech;
• violation of color perception;
• change in the emotional background;
• the appearance of unreasonable and uncontrolled vivid emotions (crying, laughter, anger, rage, etc.).

Consequences of two sleepless nights

There are situations when it becomes necessary to stay awake for more than one day. And in this case, the question arises: if you do not sleep for 2 days, what will happen? This is a more serious situation that the body is more difficult to tolerate. Not only symptoms of drowsiness can be observed, but also obvious disturbances in the functioning of internal organs, in particular, the gastrointestinal tract. Patients complain of diarrhea, heartburn and other dyspeptic manifestations. In addition, the appetite becomes stronger, a person wants to eat fatty and salty foods. Experiencing stress, the body begins to overproduce hormones that are responsible for the wakefulness cycle. Interestingly, if a person does not sleep for more than a day, then it will be problematic for him to fall asleep later.

After 2 sleepless nights, metabolic disorders in the body are observed, in particular, glucose metabolism. The state of immunity also worsens, so viral diseases after such insomnia are becoming more common.

The result of two nights of insomnia are the following consequences:

• inattention;
• distraction;
• deterioration of speech;
• a sharp decrease in concentration;
• coordination of movements worsens;
• a sharp decrease in cognitive abilities.

Consequence of three days of insomnia

If you do not sleep all night for 3 days in a row, the consequences will be even more serious than in the previous two cases. The symptoms are the same, but more pronounced. Movements become even more uncoordinated, there are severe problems with speech, sometimes a nervous tic appears. Appetite is also lost, regular nausea appears. Patients note other symptoms - cold in the hands, chills in general. Often, those who do not get enough sleep focus their eyes on a specific subject and cannot take it away from this point.

If you do not sleep for 3 days or more, a person may experience dips. That is, at some time his brain can turn off and fall asleep for a short period. This is due to the shutdown of a number of control areas of the brain, that is, this is not a full sleep. So, a person can switch off and not notice how he drove 5 stations in the subway. Sometimes the purpose of the trip is forgotten, you can not notice how a certain section was passed.

If you don't sleep for 4 days

Not everyone knows what will happen to the brain if you don’t sleep for 4 days. And this is understandable, because such a test is very difficult for the body and not everyone passed it. It is enough not to sleep for a day so that cognitive abilities are temporarily reduced by 30%, in two days the reduction will be already 60%. Considering such dynamics, it becomes clear that after 4 days of wakefulness, the consciousness will be rather confused, and the body will be exhausted. The person will be very irritable, his appearance will deteriorate significantly, a tremor of the limbs will appear. Outwardly, such a patient will look much older than his years.

Consequences of 5 days of lack of sleep

If you do not sleep for 5 days, the patient will begin to suffer from paranoia and hallucinations. Panic attacks are often noted for any reason. In this case, the patient has a cold sweat, the heartbeat increases.

Due to 5 days of wakefulness, the neural activity of the brain slows down significantly, which affects the work of the whole organism.

Particularly affected by such experiments are areas of the parietal zone that are responsible for logic and computational abilities. After a period of lack of sleep, a person cannot even perform elementary mathematical operations. He also has significantly impaired speech, which is associated with disorders in the temporal lobe. As for hallucinations, they can be auditory, visual, or dream-like.

What happens if you don't sleep for a week

Many are interested in what will happen if you do not sleep for 6 or 7 days. Will the body be able to withstand this load? Indeed, this is a very difficult task that not everyone can withstand. A person outwardly resembles a drug addict, his speech is very difficult, some symptoms of Alzheimer's disease appear.

The weekend for many people is an opportunity to have time to relax for the entire last working week and few manage to get enough sleep. What will happen if you don’t sleep at all and what will come of it - in our material.

First day

The first day without sleep will not cause serious consequences for health and in terms of well-being. However, for sure, there will be a failure of the circadian cycle, which is responsible for the internal biological clock of a person.

Circadian rhythms are associated with brain activity and metabolism, and the circadian clock is “checked” with the 24-hour light cycle of day and night, so one day without sleep will cause minor disruptions in the human body. A person who has not slept for one day, of course, will feel tired and have some problems with memory and attention.

Second and third days

In addition to the fact that fatigue will increase, and memory work will deteriorate, there will also be added: impaired coordination of movements, tangible problems with concentration of thoughts and concentration of vision. A slight nervous tic may appear due to the exhaustion of the nervous system.

The degradation of speech will begin - it will become monotonous and replete with clichés. Disturbances in the frontal lobe of the brain will lead to a deterioration in creative thinking and the inability to focus on the task.

In addition to the deterioration of the functioning of the nervous system and the brain, the digestive system will work unusually - this is a consequence of the “turning on” of the evolutionary defense of the body during a long period of wakefulness, in the form of a “fight or flight” mechanism.

Leptin production will increase and appetite will increase, especially for salty and fatty foods - the body in a stressful situation starts the function of storing fats, as well as the production of insomnia hormones, which means that it will not be easy for a person to fall asleep.

Fourth-fifth days

During this period, a person may experience hallucinations and severe irritability. On the fifth day without sleep, a slowdown in the work of parts of the brain will be pronounced, respectively, neural activity is very weak.

Solving simple arithmetic problems will be an impossible task for you, due to serious violations in the work of the parietal zone responsible for logic.

The temporal lobe, which controls speech abilities, will continue to work worse and worse - speech will become even more incoherent than on the second or third day of wakefulness.

Sixth to seventh days

On the sixth day, a person will radically differ from himself in a normal state. Behavior will change dramatically, and auditory hallucinations will also be added to visual hallucinations.

Mental deviations on the seventh day will become pronounced - paranoia, hallucinations, signs of Alzheimer's disease, persecution mania, signs of schizophrenia. A person may well communicate with a road sign on an equal footing, prove something to him and be sure that a radio host wants to hunt for him and wants to kill him. So it was with the record holder for insomnia Randy Gardner, in total he survived 11 days without sleep.

Randy had a strong tremor of the limbs - this is a consequence of excessive exhaustion of the nervous system. He lost coherent speech, and problem solving is no longer for him, he simply forgot the question he was asked.
On the seventh day, the human body experiences severe stress. Immunity will seriously fall, brain activity will be extremely weak, there will be a deterioration in the functioning of the liver, kidneys and other systems.

Below, especially for those who do not believe in such violations of the human body, we will give the story of our compatriot, who decided to put a similar experiment on himself.

The first day

I woke up and decided not to sleep today. I need to do things that I can't do. 2 o'clock in the morning - I feel fine. At the same time I correspond with friends in ICQ.
Dela made it.

Second day

At 6 am I felt nauseous. Ate, watched TV, played a game, Nausea was gone. Feeling slightly tired and weak. 13:00 in the afternoon - no fatigue, weakness is felt. Sensation of weak anesthesia on the whole body.

Day Three

I'm afraid not to sleep yet. Why? I want to sleep. Stay calm and carry on. OK. He began to speak more slowly. Anesthesia is felt more on the tongue. Sometimes there are freezes of body movement. The easiest part of the body to manage is the eyes. I am playing a game. Irritable. Weakly expressed delusional ideas.

Day four

I have a feeling that the day is unusual, very long. I began to forget what happened on the 1st and 2nd day. Good to have a notepad. Where is the pen?
Searched for 30 minutes. Turns out it was in my left hand. I began to see myself from the outside. The body is weakly felt. Sometimes there is a “cut-off” effect (lags the processor) from 1-10 minutes, although he himself is with his eyes open. Crazy ideas are strongly expressed.

Day five

I read that it was the first and second day with me. I don't think this happened to me. It seems that the day and life in general is endless. Specifically, hallucinations passing at times into euphoria. Losses in memory and body sensation. I can independently, and sometimes without control, get out of my body and fly up to 10 meters around me. And what is most interesting in this state, I can go, controlling myself as in a game from a third person. Crazy ideas are very strongly expressed. I do not want to sleep.

Day six

I sat on a chair and looked at one point on the monitor for about two hours. He jumped up abruptly and ran to the switched off TV. I began to convince the top of the TV that I should pick up the brushes from the place of study. They are in danger. Slow speech. Passing by, I hit the corners and, I stop to realize this blow for 2 minutes. Next I turn on. There was an opportunity, the ability to predict what will happen next for the event. It often gets scary. I see different people. The imagination is highly developed - objects can walk, and I control them. I understood the fullness of the word Insanity.

Day seven

I am in heaven? Notepad does not lend itself to writing. Limbs twitch, tremble. Strange behavior. Vegetable. If a person touches me, then he will be lucky if I answer in a minute or a minute and a half. From lack of sleep, severe memory lapses continue.
Further, I know almost only what people told me. I don't smile. Facial expressions in sleep mode. Eyes move furiously in different directions.
I decide to finish with the experiment. I'm not very happy that I can sleep. I don't believe.
Leg. I leave the body and circle over my corpse for about ten minutes, seeing myself from the side. The chandelier starts to lower and the ceiling starts to press down on me. I don't remember how I fell asleep.
Slept 10 hours.

Day eight

I'm alive. I understand who I am. No headache. I want to eat. I want to drink. Feeling of reality. Inadequate understanding of the time of day. I don't remember what happened. I took a notebook and began to remember. Entered all the notes into the computer. I'm glad.

Such experiments with one's health are highly undesirable and can be dangerous. Sleep is a necessity developed by millions of years of evolution that cannot be overcome, so don't test yourself, but trust your body and go to bed on time.

Your body works according to biorhythms, whether you sleep or not. In the late evening, in the middle of the night, at dawn and in the middle of the day, inhuman fatigue will roll over you. It will seem to you that if you do not lie down right now, you will simply fall asleep sitting up. This state will last for about 20 minutes, and then there will be a surge of vigor. But few people like to sit for 20 minutes in a state of suspended animation, so the body will have to be deceived. Coffee will not help here, and physical activity will do. Get up, stretch, jump and do some exercises. The more active the movements, the better. Over millions of years, our bodies have not changed much, so physical activity after school hours means one thing - danger is somewhere nearby. You seem to be running from a saber-toothed tiger, otherwise why would you be jumping in the middle of the night? This means that the body mobilizes forces and drowsiness will be removed as if by hand. It also works during the day.

Don't drink too much coffee

Only the first cup invigorates, and all subsequent ones only aggravate the situation and make you more and more sleepy. Here's the thing: caffeine is absorbed very quickly and increases blood pressure, so you will feel much more alert in 15 minutes. But after an hour you will be even more drawn to sleep, and with each next cup it will be more and more difficult to fight sleep. The fact is that coffee contains not only caffeine, but also theophylline theobromine and vitamin R.R. These substances, on the contrary, lower blood pressure, which makes you want to sleep. Therefore, with each cup of a fragrant drink, you seem to swing the swing more strongly: you are more and more cheerful every half an hour, and then you are more and more drawn to a horizontal position. And the more coffee you drink, the harder it will be for you to fight sleepiness.

Drink green tea

A cup of green tea has as much caffeine as a cup of espresso. But its impact on your body will be much softer, and you will stay alert longer. The combination of caffeine and tannin found in tea works a little differently than pure caffeine.

Turn on the lights

If you need to spend a sleepless night at home, do not save money and turn on bright lights everywhere, and not just in the room where you are. The same goes for a cloudy day after a sleepless night. This is just a way to deceive the brain: when it is light around, it is more difficult for it to go to sleep. If you didn’t sleep at night, and you need to spend the day at the computer, tweak the monitor settings: the brighter the colors are, the easier it will be to fight drowsiness.

take a shower

Everyone knows that a contrast shower helps to cheer up. Of course, this is the best way to recover after a sleepless night, but on one condition: if that night you did not drink anything stronger than coffee. If you came in the morning from a party, a contrast shower is contraindicated for you. Your vessels have already suffered, they do not need an extra load now. You will cheer up for 5 minutes, and then your head will hurt and pull you to sleep. It is better to take a warm bath, and gradually change the temperature of the water to cool.

Make a coffee scrub

Don't skimp and don't use the grounds from the cup - you need freshly ground coffee. Apply shower gel to your body, then take a handful of coffee and rub yourself all over. The skin will become fabulously smooth, and the charge of vivacity will definitely last for three hours.

Eat something tasty

And finally - the most pleasant advice: try all day to eat only what you love. On the net you can find a list of products that supposedly energize, but in this case they will not help you. But your favorite food is a guaranteed pleasure, that is, a guaranteed increase in the level of endorphin. And this cunning hormone makes us feel not only happy, but also vigorous, full of strength and ready to move mountains.