How long have you stayed awake before, in hours? I think the longest for me has been about 36 hours. Sometimes it just feels more convenient, if my sleep schedule is messed up anyway, and I have to get up early on monday (this is sunday morning @ 6 AM and I woke up at 1 PM on saturday).... I've only stayed awake through a night probably 5-10 times in my life so far, I don't like doing it regularly. But I don't like the feeling that sleeping pills give me (or in my case a single tylenol PM), so I don't use them.

Just curious if any of you have had to stay awake for more than 18 hours for whatever reason, and if there is any hilarious reason why (escaping prison?) or whatever.

(warning: sleep deprivation is dangerous, thats why guiness book of world records removed it from their records. so don't go staying awake just because)

I stay awake for 36 hours and then go to sleep for 15 hours. I call it a hibernation cycle.

What you're describing (staying up all night and into the next day, instead of trying to go to bed and get up early when you woke up in the afternoon) is called chronotherapy.  It's a technique I regularly use because I have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.  That's why I post at all hours of the day, because I'm always adjusting my sleep schedule.

ive got exactly the same thing entroper has, it's driving my parents nuts.

it's where my name comes from

I have horrible sleeping paterns, I have to get up early for work and don't finish until late, so on my days off I sleep in to about 2-3pm, sometimes later, sometimes ealier, the longest I've stayed up without sleeping would be about 36-38 hours, any more then that and you'll just start to shut down I reckon.

Sometimes when I know I can only get about 3 hours sleep before having to start work I'll just stay up.

What is so dangerous about it and what is the absolute minimum sleep per night the body can regulary comprehend?

AoA, sleep deprivation takes a serious toll on the human body. Because of my ridiculous habits, I feel as if I've aged about 15 years in the last 5 years. I would say the body needs about 7 hours of sleep every night to maintain good health, and 8 or 9 hours to maintain top performance.

Okay thanks, I was just looking up sleep deprivation just then and one sourse says that a National Poll states that 5 hours a night of sleep is the minimum acceptable amount.

When I used to work at Sprint customer service, there were times I stayed awake for 72 hours. Damn depression.

The last time this hapenned, I was at work and I think I had a fever of around 110°F, I ended my turn and went to McDonalds... after that I don't remember anything :P

Now that I quit there, I'm a happy being that sleeps 8 hours at night :D

The longest I've stayed up was 72 hours. I actually worked all 72 hours on a project that had to be done by a specific date and in which the 2 people that were supposed to be helping me weren't (one was on vacation for two weeks and had left on it a week before we were given the deadline, the other called in sick for two days and wasn't much help when he was actually there).

I usually get 2-5 hours of sleep at a time so that's probably why I might seem abrupt or rude on this site sometimes. Literally anything will wake me up, if I leave my bedroom window open for the night to get cool air the first bird to sing in the morning wakes me up. If I have the window closed but hear a car door slam across the street it'll wake me up.

Four days. Too old to ever party like that again.