In late 1963, The Beach Boys are playing on the radio in America, the United States is gradually being drawn into the Vietnam War, high school students are on Christmas break, and two teenagers are planning an experiment that will attract the attention of the whole country.

The experiment ended on January 8, 1964: 17-year-old Randy Gardner spent 11 days and 25 minutes without sleep. Bruce McAllister, one of the two high school students who created the experiment, said that this project was invented out of a simple need to conduct at least some kind of scientific experiment. With the creativity and fearlessness of adolescence, Bruce and Randy set out to break the wake record held by a Honolulu DJ at the time. He hasn't slept for 260 hours.

“We initially wanted to explore how insomnia affects paranormal abilities. Then we realized we couldn't do it, so we decided to find out how lack of sleep affects cognitive ability and performance on the basketball court,” McAllister said.

To find out who would be the guinea pig, the guys tossed a coin. And, fortunately for Bruce, this fate befell Randy.

“We were idiots. I stayed up too, keeping an eye on Randy. And after three sleepless nights, I woke up writing notes directly on the wall,” McAllister said.

The teenagers realized they needed a third person and asked friend Joe Marciano for help. And later they were joined by a professional sleep researcher William Dement from Stanford University.

“I was probably the only person on earth who was doing sleep research at that time,” said William Dement.

Now a professor, Dement was taking his first steps in the still new field of sleep in 1964. He read about the schoolchildren's experiment in a San Diego newspaper and decided to help them, to the delight of Randy's parents.

“Randy's parents were very concerned that the experiment might harm him. Because back then they didn’t know whether lack of sleep would lead to death.”

McAllister claimed that their experiment was not affected by the chemicals.

“Randy drank a little cola sometimes, but there was no talk of Dexedrine, Benzedrine or other psychostimulants.”

By the time Dement arrived in San Diego, the experiment had already lasted several days, and Randy was optimistic. However, the further the experiment went, the more unexpected results emerged. Randy was periodically tested for his ability to taste and smell and distinguish sounds, and after some time he began to notice abnormalities. McAllister recalled that Randy began to say, “Don’t make me smell this, I can’t stand the smell.” Surprisingly, his basketball skills improved, although this could be attributed to the fact that he spent a lot of time on the court to avoid sleep.

“He was in good physical shape. We made him play basketball or took him bowling. If he had closed his eyes, he would have fallen asleep immediately,” Dement said.

As the experiment continued, media attention to it gained momentum. At one point, the experiment became the third most important in the American press - after the assassination of Kennedy and the arrival of The Beatles. True, according to McAllister, most often the experiment was treated as a prank among schoolchildren. But the participants themselves were serious. Eventually, after 264 hours without sleep, the record was broken and the experiment ended. But instead of letting Randy get a good night's sleep, he was taken to a naval hospital to study his brain function.

“He slept for 14 hours, which is not surprising, and woke up because he wanted to go to the toilet. During the first night, his REM sleep lasted a very long time. Then it gradually began to decrease and became normal,” McAllister said.

“And then he got up and went to school. It was amazing,” Dement added.

The results of the study from the hospital were sent to an Arizona research center. It was concluded that Randy's brain was constantly drifting in and out of sleep. Some parts of the brain were asleep, others were awake.

“He was far from the first person who did not sleep more than one night. Apparently, the human brain, in the process of evolution, has learned to cope with this by giving certain areas a rest. This explains why nothing bad happened to him,” McAllister said.

Many people tried to break this record, but the Guinness Book of Records refused to register these attempts, believing that it could be dangerous to health.

11 days without sleep seemed to have no effect on Randy’s well-being. Although he later said that he suffered from insomnia for several years. Immediately after the experiment, the schoolchildren held a press conference. The guy, who had not slept for 11 days, managed to philosophize on the topic of experience.

“This is a victory of the spirit over the body,” he said.

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Many of us often wonder what will happen to a person if we don’t sleep at all, or at least for some relatively long time. Study, work, household chores - all this can take away sleep or make you think about how to sleep less in order to get everything done. But there is an experiment that was conducted in 1963–1964 that can answer all the questions.

website talks about how the experiment took place and how a person felt who had not slept for almost two weeks.

Randy Gardner - a 17-year-old student who became the very person who spent no sleep 11 days and 24 minutes(December 28, 1963 – January 8, 1964). However, Randy did not use any stimulants to help him stay awake.

Day 1

Gardner woke up at 6 am and was absolutely ready for the upcoming experiment.

Day 2

Already in this short period of time, the lack of sleep began to make itself felt: Randy became hard to focus on things. On this day, touching objects, he tried to understand what it was with just one touch.

The most difficult part of the experiment was can't sleep at night. To prevent this from happening, Randy Gardner was helped by his school friends and Dr. Dement. To keep him awake, they all went on short car trips together, went to a donut shop, listened to music, played basketball and paintball. When Randy went to the toilet, everyone who was near him at that moment talked to him through the door to make sure that he did not fall asleep. The only thing the entire group didn't do to keep Gardner awake was I didn't use drugs or even caffeine.

Day 3

Approaching day 3 of being awake, Randy became moody and lost the opportunity to repeat the simplest tongue twister.

Day 4

On the 4th day of the experiment at Gardner hallucinations began. It seemed to him that he was a different person - Paul Lowe, an American football player. At the same time, the football player was distinguished by his parameters (height 1.83 m and weight 91 kg) and was also African-American, while Randy at that time was an ordinary 17-year-old white guy weighing 59 kg.

Last week of experiment

The more days Randy spent without sleep, the more often he experienced dizziness and hallucinations. One day he saw the wall dissolve and turn into a forest path. Also continued to appear speech disorders. Lack of sleep meant that Gardner could not even remember what he had said just a minute ago. His parents were concerned about this condition, so they insisted on medical examination in a military hospital. Survey did not reveal any physical abnormalities.

Randy Gardner after the experiment

At 2 a.m. on January 8, 1964, it was installed new record on that moment. After 4 hours of celebration and answering calls from reporters, Randy Gardner was taken to the naval hospital, where, after a neurological examination, he fell into a deep sleep. He woke up 14 hours and 40 minutes later, feeling cheerful and restored.

Some people think that a person can go without sleep for only 3-5 days, after which irreversible processes will begin, health problems will begin, the brain will be severely damaged, and death may even occur. However, there are many scientifically proven cases where people did not sleep for much more than 5 days, and did not feel much discomfort. So what is the record without sleep set by man?

Rand Gardner broke the world record when he went without sleep for 264 hours and 30 minutes, which is 11 days. This time was 4 hours 13 minutes more than the previous man's record, Tom Rounds. When Rand Gardner went 11 days without sleep, he did not drink any stimulants, such as coffee, to achieve this Guinness World Record without sleep.

After this experiment was conducted by Rand Gardner, the Guinness Book of Records stated that it would no longer register such records; its representatives argued that such experiments, when a person does not sleep for a very long time, can have a detrimental effect on health, and can even threaten a person’s life.

During these 11 days, while Gardner set the world record without sleep, his health was monitored by Professor William K. Dement, who studied the nature of sleep at Stanford University. Together with this professor, the record holder was also observed by John J. Ross, who is a lieutenant colonel in the American Army, and he monitored Gardner’s vital signs.

Every stage of this experiment was controlled, it attracted the attention of many researchers, these 11 days became unique in history, and even today they are studied in detail by students of different universities and many scientists from all over the world. And other researchers analyze the nature of sleep and try to find an interpretation of dreams, drawing parallels between dreams and real life. Therefore, for many specialists, what happens to people during a night's rest is a mystery and a subject for conducting various experiments and studies.

Many are confident that these 11 days, when Gardner was constantly awake, perfectly illustrate the absence of irreparable damage to human health. Some believe that if you don’t sleep for 2-3 days, it will not negatively affect a person, and will be tantamount to ordinary fatigue or a bad mood. This idea was confirmed by close observations of the record holder, who after 10 days without sleep felt normal, without feeling much discomfort.

However, immediately after these 11 days, the young man went to a press conference, where journalists asked him various questions, and to the surprise of many, he answered these questions without hesitation. Some of those present said that they did not notice any negative changes in his condition. And if they had not been told that he had not slept for 11 days, they would not have guessed about it.

Rand Gardner was only 19 years old when he decided to set this record. This was back in 1965, a lot of time has passed since then, and there have been many other attempts to break this record. In addition, science is constantly evolving, and many studies have been conducted on how long-term insomnia affects the body.

Scientists report that if you don’t sleep for two days, the hormonal levels in the body change, the psyche is suppressed, and the disruption of neural connections in the brain begins. After 3-5 days without sleep, brain cells are destroyed, and the load on many human organs, including the heart, increases significantly. All the processes that occur next are most often irreversible, and if you don’t sleep even longer, then negative changes accumulate, and as a result lead to a shortening of a person’s life.

Illustration copyright iStock

In December 1963, two American high school students decided to investigate how long a person could stand without sleep. Their experiment helped scientists understand what's going on inside our tired brains.

America, late 1963... The Beach Boys are singing on the radio, the United States is slowly being drawn into the Vietnam War, schoolchildren are on Christmas break, and two teenagers are planning an experience that will captivate the attention of the entire nation.

The experiment ended on January 8, 1964: 17-year-old Randy Gardner managed to spend 11 days and 25 minutes without sleep.

Bruce McAllister, one of two high school students who came up with the idea, now says the project was born out of a need to do some scientific research.

When you're 17, creativity is in full swing, helped by the self-confidence that comes with that age. Bruce and his friend Randy decided that they would break the world record, which at that time belonged to a DJ from Honolulu (he spent 260 hours without sleep, that is, a little less than 11 days).

“We initially planned to study how sleep deprivation affected the body's psychic abilities,” explains McAllister. “When we realized that we could not do this, we decided to find out what effect sleep deprivation had on mental abilities and on performance on the basketball court . That's all we could come up with."

They flipped a coin to decide who would be the test subject, and to McAllister's relief, the honor went to his friend. But the naivety of the two friends did not stop there.

“We were idiots, two young idiots,” he says. “I also tried to stay awake to follow the progress of the experiment ... And after three sleepless nights, I suddenly found myself waking up against the wall on which I was trying to write my notes - right on the wall ".

Bruce and Randy realized they needed a third, and invited another friend of theirs, Joe Marciano. And soon a professional, sleep researcher William Dement from Stanford University, got involved in the matter.

At that time I was perhaps the only person on our planet conducting research in this area William Dement, scientist

Dement is now a professor, one of the world's leading experts, but in 1964 he was taking only the first steps in a new scientific field for humanity - sleep research.

He read about the experiment of two schoolchildren in the local San Diego newspaper and immediately decided to take part in it (which Randy Gardner's parents were incredibly happy about).

“At the time, I was probably the only person on the planet doing research in this area,” says Dement.

"Randy's parents were very worried that the experiment would harm him. Because at that time they didn't know what long-term sleep deprivation would lead to - possibly death."

Good morning! Do not sleep? Do you generally get enough sleep and manage to do everything? Or do you still dream of more hours in the day?
Surely during some particularly important periods you think that you can only manage everything by sacrificing sleep. At least, that's exactly what I think from time to time.

But in the last century, 17-year-old student Randy Gardner already conducted an experiment in which he did not sleep for 11 days, without using any stimulants, energy drinks or other “bonuses”. And this is what came out of it:

Day 1
Gardner woke up at 6 am and was absolutely ready for the upcoming experiment.

Day 2
Already in this short period of time, the lack of sleep began to take its toll: Randy began to have difficulty focusing on things. On this day, touching objects, he tried to understand what it was with just one touch.

The most difficult part of the experiment was not falling asleep at night. To prevent this from happening, Randy Gardner was helped by his school friends and Dr. Dement. To keep him awake, they all went on short car trips together, went to a donut shop, listened to music, played basketball and paintball. When Randy went to the toilet, everyone who was near him at that moment talked to him through the door to make sure that he did not fall asleep. The only thing the entire group didn't do to keep Gardner awake was use drugs or even caffeine.

Day 3
Approaching his 3rd day of being awake, Randy became moody and lost the ability to repeat the simplest tongue twister.

Day 4
On the 4th day of the experiment, Gardner began hallucinating. It seemed to him that he was a different person - Paul Lowe, an American football player. At the same time, the football player was distinguished by his parameters (height 1.83 m and weight 91 kg) and was also African-American, while Randy at that time was an ordinary 17-year-old white guy weighing 59 kg.

Last week of experiment
The more days Randy spent without sleep, the more often he experienced dizziness and hallucinations. One day he saw the wall dissolve and turn into a forest path. Speech disturbances also continued to occur. Lack of sleep meant that Gardner could not even remember what he had said just a minute ago. His parents were concerned about this condition, so they insisted on a medical examination at a military hospital. The examination did not reveal any physical abnormalities.

At 2 a.m. January 8, 1964 year a new record was set at that time. After 4 hours of celebration and answering calls from reporters, Randy Gardner was taken to the naval hospital, where, after a neurological examination, he fell into a deep sleep. He woke up 14 hours and 40 minutes later, feeling alert and restored.

He, of course, slept well. But his body probably remembered this to him in life.
For example, I had a period of disrupted sleep patterns, sleeping in fits and starts of several minutes throughout the day and night, and all this was accompanied by severe nervous tension. But this was a necessary measure: while caring for a seriously ill loved one. And the echoes of this still make themselves felt.
And yet I am sure: if you have the opportunity to independently regulate your regime, then it is better to choose rest. We don't work for medicines, do we?