What happens if you don't sleep for a week. What will happen if you do not sleep at night and what harm it will bring to a person

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Insomnia is a lack of sleep that prevents the body from fully recovering.

Prolonged insomnia (forced or voluntary) can seriously undermine a person's health. Of course, irreversible consequences do not come soon, but something can be “picked up” almost immediately ...

Records and achievements

For more than 40 years, enthusiasts have been trying in practice to find out how long you can stay awake, and what happens to the human body and psyche during prolonged wakefulness. The current official record from the Guinness Book of Records is about 19 days (the American Robert McDonalds did not sleep so much). At the same time, they still often remember the record of the schoolboy Randy Gardner, who lasted 11 days without sleep.

Probably, people are seduced by the fact that after that he slept for only 14 hours, and not 2 days, as one might assume. This time was enough to restore the normal cycle of sleep and wakefulness.

There is also an unconfirmed record of 28 days, but even that pales in comparison to some people's ability to stay awake all their lives. Yes, yes, there are some, but you won’t find them all over the world “by day with fire”.

It is noteworthy that people who do not need to sleep at all are quite healthy and enjoy life. But record holders, students, workaholics, just sick people and other “vigorous” people experience enormous overload during their constant vigils. Let's talk about them...

Effects of long periods of insomnia

Despite the fact that the causes of insomnia are different, the reaction of the body to lack of sleep in most people is about the same. So what happens if you don't sleep:

in the first two days, chemical processes begin to take over the psyche, but this is almost imperceptible to others and to the “subject” himself (irritability and fatigue are not taken into account);

further, consciousness begins to get confused, as the hormonal background changes, and the connections between brain neurons are disrupted;

on the fifth (and for some, on the third) day, hallucinations and paranoia come to those who do not sleep for a long time, then Alzheimer's disease companion syndromes appear;

a week or more without sleep turns a person into a sick "old man" with slurred speech, trembling hands and weak intellectual abilities (up to forgetting arithmetic);

well, then - either a long-awaited dream, or death (it is difficult to name the exact dates, because everyone has a different need for sleep).

It should be noted that the human brain has one interesting defense mechanism against long-term insomnia - superficial sleep. In fact, this is a partial shutdown of the brain for a while (from a second to several minutes). At this time, a person can talk and even drive a car. Superficial sleep is useful, but in the end it does not save you from death.

By the way, according to NRMA statistics, every sixth car accident is associated with tired drivers who are asleep.

What causes chronic sleep deprivation

We figured out what will happen if we don’t sleep for a long time, but this issue is relevant only for a small part of the world’s population. Much more interesting and important is what problems the daily lack of sleep causes for each of us (and this begins almost from kindergarten).

Of course, significant experience in shortening and postponing sleep indefinitely lulls (pardon the pun) your vigilance, but do you understand how seriously this affects your body? Undoubtedly, ordinary lack of sleep cannot be compared with the one we described above, but its consequences are sometimes even worse.

After all, if you do not sleep for only a day, the ability to learn and process information is reduced by 30%, and two days of wakefulness take away about 60% of a person's mental abilities. It is curious that if during the week you sleep less than 6 hours a day (with an 8-hour need), then the brain suffers as if it was deprived of sleep for two nights in a row.

The oxidative processes that occur with chronic lack of sleep have a bad effect on learning and memory. The body ages faster, the heart muscle rests less and therefore wears out more quickly. The nervous system is depressed and after 5-10 years of chronic lack of sleep it becomes more difficult for a person to fall asleep. In addition, immunity begins to fail, because due to the short duration of sleep, an insufficient number of T-lymphocytes that resist viruses and bacteria are activated.

In addition to the purely medical consequences, it can be added that people who lack sleep are more irritable and grumpy. Therefore, we recommend that you torment yourself with less insomnia, despite the requirements of your superiors, lack of time, and other factors.

On weekends, many people not only do not get enough sleep, but almost do not sleep, leaving for a sleepless two-day entertainment marathon. We decided to find out what would happen if we didn't sleep for a week.

First day

If a person does not sleep for a day, then this will not cause any serious consequences for his health, however, a long period of wakefulness will lead to a failure of the circadian cycle, which is determined by the setting of a person's biological clock.

Scientists believe that approximately 20,000 neurons in the hypothalamus are responsible for the biological rhythms of the body. This is the so-called suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Circadian rhythms are synchronized with the 24-hour light cycle of day and night and are associated with brain activity and metabolism, so even a daily delay in sleep will lead to a slight disruption in the body's systems.

If a person does not sleep for a day, then, firstly, he will feel tired, and secondly, he may have problems with memory and attention. This is due to a violation of the functions of the neocortex, which is responsible for memory and learning abilities.

Second-third days

If a person does not go to bed for two or three days, then in addition to fatigue and memory problems, he will have a violation of coordination in movements, serious problems with concentration of thoughts and concentration of vision will begin to arise. Due to the exhaustion of the nervous system, a nervous tic may appear.

Due to a disruption in the work of the frontal lobe of the brain, a person will begin to lose the ability to think creatively and focus on the task, his speech will become monotonous, clichéd.

In addition to "brain" complications, a person's digestive system will also begin to "rebel". This is due to the fact that a long period of wakefulness activates the protective evolutionary mechanism "fight or flight" in the body.

A person will increase the production of leptin and increase appetite (with an addiction to salty and fatty foods), the body, in response to a stressful situation, will start the function of storing fats and producing hormones responsible for insomnia. Oddly enough, it will not be easy for a person to fall asleep during this period, even if he wants to.

Fourth-fifth days

On the fourth or fifth day without sleep, a person may begin to experience hallucinations, he will become extremely irritable. After five days without sleep, the work of the main parts of the brain will slow down in a person, neural activity will be extremely weak.

Serious violations will be observed in the parietal zone, which is responsible for logic and mathematical abilities, so solving even the simplest arithmetic problems will be an impossible task for a person.

Due to disturbances in the temporal lobe, which is responsible for speech abilities, a person’s speech will become even more incoherent than on the third day without sleep.

The hallucinations already mentioned will begin to occur due to a malfunction in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Sixth to seventh days

On the sixth or seventh day without sleep, a person will not be much like himself at the beginning of this sleepless marathon. His behavior will be extremely strange, hallucinations will be both visual and auditory.

The official record holder for insomnia, American student Randy Gardner (did not sleep for 254 hours, 11 days), on the sixth day without sleep, developed syndromes typical of Alzheimer's disease, had severe hallucinations and paranoia appeared.

He mistook a road sign for a person and believed that the radio station host wanted to kill him.

Gardner had a strong tremor of the limbs, he could not speak coherently, solving simple problems baffled him - he simply forgot what he had just been told and what the task was.

By the seventh day without sleep, the body will experience serious stress of all body systems, brain neurons will be inactive, the heart muscle will be worn out, immunity will almost cease to resist viruses and bacteria due to the passivity of T-lymphocytes, the liver will experience enormous stress.

In general, such experiments with health are extremely dangerous.

On weekends, especially in summer, many people not only do not get enough sleep, but almost do not sleep, leaving for a sleepless two-day entertainment marathon. And let's find out how our body reacts to such bullying and what will happen if we don't sleep for a week.

First day

Scientists believe that approximately 20,000 neurons in the hypothalamus are responsible for the biological rhythms of the body. This is the so-called suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Second-third days

Due to a disruption in the work of the frontal lobe of the brain, a person will begin to lose the ability to think creatively and focus on the task, his speech will become monotonous, clichéd.

Fourth-fifth days

Due to disturbances in the temporal lobe, which is responsible for speech abilities, a person’s speech will become even more incoherent than on the third day without sleep.

The hallucinations already mentioned will begin to occur due to a malfunction in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Sixth to seventh days

He mistook a road sign for a person and believed that the radio station host wanted to kill him.

Gardner had a strong tremor of the limbs, he could not speak coherently, solving simple problems baffled him - he simply forgot what he had just been told and what the task was.

In general, such experiments with health are extremely dangerous.

Why is it dangerous to work at night and how to protect yourself from it? Councils of the psychotherapist.

Life coach and psychotherapist Natalya Stilson talked about why night work is not at all a salvation and a heavenly vacancy for a person from the owl squad, but a powerful blow to the body.

What is the night shift for us? One night shift can be compared to an 8 hour jet lag. That is, working one night is like flying by plane through 8 time zones.

Imagine how difficult such conditions are for the body. A number of our genes (and quite a few) are responsible for various rhythmic processes. For example, the processes of cell division, sleep-wake, digestion, synthesis, hormone release, and so on. After we switch to night mode (or fly to the place), the work of 97% of these genes deteriorates significantly. This failure of all processes is needed by the body in order to rebuild in a new way, but such a reboot is extremely difficult. All physiological processes are sharply slowed down. But after the flight, a person usually returns to the usual mode, and work on the night shift goes on and on. Naturally, this affects health.

Working night shifts increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and even breast cancer.

Causes of breast cancer

During sleep disturbance with regular night shifts, the level of melatonin, the hormone responsible for the onset of sleep, decreases. This substance also has an antitumor effect (protects against cancer). There are 3 hypotheses explaining the action of melatonin:

A decrease in melatonin increases the concentration of female sex hormones in the blood. There is a constant stimulation of breast cells to divide, which can cause malignant degeneration.
Melatonin itself has cancer-preventing properties. It blocks the biochemical pathways in the body that are used for constant uncontrolled cell division.
The secretion of melatonin is closely related to the secretion of the p53 protein, the main defender of our body against tumors. Less melatonin - less p53, more chances for a cancer cell to survive and multiply.

Causes of type 2 diabetes

Women who work night shifts for 10-19 years in a row increase their risk of diabetes by 40%. And those who have been engaged in such work for more than 20 years - by 60%.
The likely cause is a violation of insulin secretion and a deterioration in its effect on body tissues. Cells starving from a lack of energy cease to respond adequately to it and take glucose from the blood. This is due to a violation of the release of hormones responsible for appetite. The hormone ghrelin, which increases appetite, appears in the blood in greater quantities than leptin, the satiety hormone. As a result, at night you want to have a snack, and this is not a physiological time for eating.
Another hypothesis suggests that a decrease in glucose tolerance (cell resistance to insulin) is associated with a violation of the microbial composition of the intestinal contents (dysbiosis) during jet lag. After a jet lag, the intestinal flora is restored in a couple of weeks, but this is not available for people with night shifts.

Of course, working at night also leads to vitamin D deficiency, because late birds spend little time in the sun. And this is another factor in the development of obesity, as well as impaired immunity, depression and dementia.

Go stupid in the night

Perhaps most disturbingly, night shifts exacerbate the phenomena of cognitive decline. That is, they lead to a deterioration in memory and intelligence. The more a person works in this mode, the more pronounced the changes. Night workers are 6.5 years ahead of peer day workers in memory and intelligence decline. After leaving work after 10 years, it is still possible to restore lost abilities, so for 5 years. And then, this is if the employee is not affected by other factors that worsen mental health.

Several articles have cited a study showing that aircraft attendants who experience chronic jet lag show a reduction in the frontal lobe. This is not surprising, since a chronically sleep-deprived person begins to lose their neurons. After several sleepless nights, the level of a protein in the brain rises, which protects nerve cells from destruction and helps them recover. But if insomnia becomes chronic, then the chances of recovery are reduced. It is not known how pronounced this process is in humans, but mice in the experiment lost up to 25% of neurons in the locus coeruleus (responsible for the physiological response to stress).

Conclusion - night work is unambiguously unhealthy. If there is no way to refuse it, then it is better to at least leave it before your experience is 10 years old.

Protective measures

What if you still have to work at night? The main idea of protective measures is to maintain, if possible, the alternation of sleep and wakefulness, so as not to expose the body to unnecessary stress. After a sleepless night, sleep should be followed by a prescribed 6-8 hours of sleep.

In addition, it is useful:

Don't work hard after the night shift. The clock has struck - home.
Take a nap during your shift if possible. This reduces the overall stress of forced wakefulness.
If you can’t take a nap, then be sure to take breaks during which you try to move more.
Avoid constant chewing of any nuts, chips, sweets and the like. Snacking will further de-align the system associated with satiety and hunger.
Do not drink alcohol.
As for coffee-containing drinks, experts differ. Some believe that drinking them is necessary to maintain the level of wakefulness, others argue that after them you only want to sleep more. But this is different for everyone. There are those for whom coffee is no worse than sleeping pills.
After you have left the workplace after the shift, it is advisable to put on dark glasses so as not to wake yourself up with sunlight. Under its influence, the amount of melatonin decreases and drowsiness decreases. At home, go to bed with curtained windows. Don't drink caffeinated drinks before bed. Avoid alcohol, even if it makes you fall asleep.

And now a young man who, as he claims, did not sleep for 5 nights, shares his feelings:

Sleep is essential for everyone. At rest, strength is restored, information is processed and stored, and immunity is strengthened. Therefore, it is so important to observe the regime and pay due attention to night rest. Speaking about what will happen if you don’t sleep for a long time, the consequences can be irreversible. In many ways, the changes occurring in the body depend on how long a person spent in a state of wakefulness.

How long should sleep last

In the course of a number of studies, it was possible to establish that the rule of three eights should be taken as the basis of the regime. Thus, work, rest and rest should take eight hours a day. It should be noted that there are also individual characteristics of the body that must be taken into account. One person who has slept five hours will feel alert upon awakening, while another will need up to ten hours to restore all systems.

To determine exactly how much time you need to devote to rest during the night, you need to consider a number of factors:

age category;
the presence of physical or mental stress;
health status.

It is noted that the older a person is, the less time he spends on sleep. At the same time, the duration of rest for newborns is up to twenty hours daily. Older children need already 10-12 hours, in adolescence 8-10, and adults - 7-8.

In addition, the duration of sleep is directly dependent on the state of the body, the presence or absence of physical and mental stress. In addition, women need a longer night's rest than men. They are much more emotional and their strength is restored longer.

What happens if you don't sleep for a long time

Prolonged wakefulness will inevitably affect a person's abilities and his well-being. If you do not sleep for only a day, the situation is fixable: you just need to replenish your strength. It is quite another matter if you do not sleep for 3 days in a row or even more. In this case, the changes will be more serious.

1 night

The first 24 hours without sleep will have almost no effect on health. A sleepless night will cause drowsiness. There will be a feeling of brokenness. The ability to process information is reduced. The concentration of attention is reduced. The next night you may have trouble falling asleep.

Doctors say that the work of the brain is disrupted, the sense of time is distorted. There are changes in the emotional background.

2 days

If a person is forced not to sleep for 2 days, changes are noted not only in brain activity. There may be failures in the operation of other systems. Gastrointestinal disorders are noted. Appearance of nausea, diarrhea is noted. Dizziness and frequent urge to vomit are also possible. At the same time, appetite increases significantly. The protective functions of the body are suppressed.

After two days of wakefulness, the following changes occur:

the level of attention decreases;
thought processes are carried out more slowly;
speech is disturbed;
motor skills deteriorate. It is not excluded the appearance of trembling.

Similar symptoms appear in cases where there is no opportunity to sleep for a long time, but are eliminated after a good night's rest.

3 days

After three days of wakefulness, there will be more serious problems with coordination of movement and speech. If you do not sleep for 3 days, a nervous tic appears and appetite decreases. In addition, the hands become cold, chills are noted. The gaze can focus on one point, and it is quite problematic to take it away.

It is worth noting that failures are possible during this period. At the same time, the awake person does not begin to doze off. There is a temporary shutdown of certain parts of the human brain. He can walk down the street and not remember how he overcame a certain section, or pass the desired stop on public transport. On the fourth day, the situation is even more aggravated.

4 days

The consequences of sleep deprivation after 4 days are quite serious. Hallucinations (auditory and visual) begin to occur. Brain activity slows down. It becomes more difficult to process even elementary information, serious memory problems arise. Consciousness is confused and the appearance changes. The one who is awake becomes like an old man.

5 or more days

After 5 days, the attacks of hallucinations become more frequent. It starts to feel like the days last forever. Changes in body temperature are observed. Moreover, its fall and rise is possible. Solving elementary arithmetic problems becomes impossible.

If you do not fall asleep during the day, the symptoms change dramatically:

irritability increases;
limbs move involuntarily;
speech is almost impossible to make out;
the tremor intensifies and becomes similar to the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Not sleeping for 7 days is extremely life-threatening. After a sleepless week, panic attacks and signs of schizophrenia appear. Crazy ideas begin to appear, and the body is already completely depleted.

Maximum lack of sleep without death

Scientists conducted an experiment and recorded the maximum period of wakefulness - 19 days. In addition, an experiment was conducted by an American schoolboy who did not sleep for eleven days. At the same time, doctors say that an ordinary person is able to stay awake for a week, but even during this period irreversible consequences are possible.

There are also people who may not sleep at all. For example, the Vietnamese Thai Ngoc suffered a serious illness and has been awake for 38 years after that. A native of England, Eustace Burnett, at the same time, has not fully rested for more than 56 years.

Night rest is extremely important for normal human life. Doctors strongly do not recommend experimenting on yourself and giving up sleep. It is noted that without much damage to the body, it is allowed to stay awake for no more than two days. After this period, you need to restore strength in order to avoid serious consequences.

Everyone, probably, at least once in their life, but one night did not sleep. Whether it was due to night parties that smoothly transition into the next day or preparation for the session, or was it a work necessity - usually, if possible, a person, if he has not slept all day, tries to catch up on the next night. But there are times when it is not possible to sleep 2 days in a row or even 3 days. Emergencies at work, time trouble at the session and you have to not sleep for 2-3 days. What happens if you don't sleep for a long time?

Sleep is the rest of the body, it is responsible for processing and storing information, restores immunity. Previously, lack of sleep was used as a torture to extort secrets. However, recently, experts submitted a report to the US Senate that such testimony cannot be trusted, since in the absence of sleep, people hallucinate and sign false confessions.

If you do not sleep for 1 day, nothing terrible will happen. A single violation of the regime of the day will not lead to any serious consequences, unless of course you decide to spend the next day behind the wheel. It all depends on the individual characteristics of the organism. For example, if a person is used to such a work schedule, when after the night shift there is still work during the day, then he will simply finish these hours the next night.

During the next day after a sleepless night, a person will feel drowsiness, which can be slightly relieved by a cup of coffee, fatigue, a slight deterioration in concentration and memory. Some feel a little chill. A person can suddenly fall asleep on public transport, sitting in line to the doctor, for example. The next night, there may be difficulty falling asleep, this is due to an excess of dopamine in the blood, but the sleep will be strong.

One thing is certain if you're wondering something like: what if you stay up all night the eve of your exam? There is only one answer - nothing good. A sleepless night does not contribute to the readiness of the brain for stress. The thought process, on the contrary, will become slower, intellectual abilities will decrease. Absent-mindedness and inattention are companions of a sleepy state. Of course, a person will look worse - the skin will be gray, bags under the eyes will appear, some puffiness of the cheeks.

Experts note that it is enough to skip only the first 24 hours of sleep and brain disorders begin. German researchers noted the appearance of symptoms of mild schizophrenia: a distorted sense of time, sensitivity to light, incorrect color perception, incoherent speech. The emotional background begins to change; the longer a person does not sleep, the more exaggerated emotions become, laughter is replaced by causeless sobs.

If you don't sleep for 2 nights in a row

Of course, situations may arise when you have to stay awake for 2 days in a row. This is a more difficult condition for the body, which can affect the work of internal organs and it will manifest itself not only in drowsiness, but also in the malfunction of the work, for example, of the gastrointestinal tract. From heartburn to diarrhea - the range of sensations experienced can be very diverse. At the same time, a person's appetite will increase (an obvious advantage will be given to salty and fatty foods) and the body, in response to stress, will start the function of producing hormones responsible for insomnia. Oddly enough, during this period, it will not be easy for a person to fall asleep, even with a strong desire.
After 2 sleepless nights in the body, glucose metabolism is disturbed, the functioning of the immune system worsens. The person becomes more open to the effects of viruses.

After two sleepless nights, the strongest person will become:

scattered;
inattentive;
his concentration will deteriorate;
intellectual abilities will decrease;
speech will become more primitive;
coordination of movements will worsen.

If you don't sleep for 3 days

What happens if you don't sleep all night for 3 days in a row? The main sensations will be the same as after two sleepless days. Coordination of movements will be disturbed, speech will worsen, a nervous tic may appear. This condition is characterized by loss of appetite and mild nausea. The experimenter will have to constantly wrap himself up - he will have a chill, his hands will become cold. There may be such a state when the gaze is focused on a particular point and it becomes difficult to look away.

It must be said that under conditions of prolonged inability to sleep, a person begins to experience states of failure - when he turns off for a while and then comes to his senses again. This is not a superficial sleep, a person simply turns off the controlling parts of the brain. For example, he may not notice how he missed 3-5 stations in the subway, or when walking down the street, he may not remember how he passed the section of the path. Or suddenly completely forget about the purpose of the trip.

If you don't sleep for 4 days

What will remain of the human brain if you do not sleep for 4 days is not clear. After all, if you don’t sleep for a day, the ability to process information is already reduced by a third, two days of being awake will take 60% of a person’s mental abilities. After 4 days of not sleeping on the mental abilities of a person, even if he is 7 spans in the forehead, one cannot count, consciousness begins to get confused, severe irritability appears. Plus, there is a trembling of the limbs, a feeling of wadding of the body and the appearance is greatly deteriorating. The person becomes like an old man.

If you don't sleep for 5 days

If you don’t sleep for 5 days, hallucinations and paranoia will come to visit. Perhaps the onset of panic attacks - the most nonsense can serve as an occasion. During panic attacks, cold sweat appears, sweating becomes more frequent, and the heart rate rises. After 5 days without sleep, the work of important parts of the brain slows down, and neural activity weakens.

Serious violations will occur in the parietal zone, which is responsible for mathematical abilities and logic, so a person will hardly be able to add even 2 plus 2. In this situation, it is not at all surprising that if you do not sleep for so long, there will be problems with speech. Violations in the temporal lobe will provoke its incoherence, and hallucinations will begin to occur after the malfunction of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. These may be visual hallucinations similar to dreams or sound.

If you do not sleep for 6-7 days

Few people are capable of such an extreme experiment with their body. So, let's see what happens if you don't sleep for 7 days. The person will become very strange and give the impression of a drug addict. It will be impossible to communicate with him. Some people who decided on this experiment developed Alzheimer's disease syndromes, severe hallucinations, and paranoid manifestations. The record holder for insomnia, a student from America, Randy Gardner, had a strong trembling of the limbs and he could not even perform the simplest addition of numbers: he simply forgot the task.

After 5 days without sleep, the body will experience the strongest stress of all systems., brain neurons become inactive, the heart muscle wears out, which is manifested by pain, immunity ceases to resist viruses due to the passivity of T-lymphocytes, the liver also begins to experience huge loads.

Oddly enough, after such a long state of not sleeping, all symptoms will disappear literally after the first 8 hours of sleep. That is, a person can oversleep for 24 hours after a long wakefulness, but even if he is awakened after 8 hours, the body will almost completely restore its functions. This, of course, is the case if the experiments with sleep are one-time. If you constantly force your body, not letting it rest for two or three days, then it will end with a whole bunch of diseases, including the cardiovascular and hormonal systems, the gastrointestinal tract and, of course, the psychiatric plan.

List of used literature:

Kovrov G.V. (ed.) Brief guide to clinical somnology M: “MEDpress-inform”, 2018.
Poluektov M.G. (ed.) Somnology and sleep medicine. National leadership in memory of A.N. Wayne and Ya.I. Levina M.: "Medforum", 2016.
A.M. Petrov, A.R. Giniatullin Neurobiology of sleep: a modern view (textbook) Kazan, GKMU, 2012