Yawn

Source: Catriona Ward

I made a point last week of getting a decent amount of sleep each night. I didn't quite get eight hours a night, but I came pretty close. This was partly because I wanted to improve my sleep schedule, but it was also partly because, over the weekend, I decided that I was going to stay awake for 40 hours straight.

Now, I'd pulled all-nighters before. I knew what it meant to stay up into the wee hours of the morning. But every time I did that, I would get to sleep pretty quickly the day after. Before this past weekend, I don't think I'd ever stayed up for more than maybe 20 hours at a time.

Oh, before I really begin, I should tell you: please don't do this. It's not good for you. Get some sleep!

So, I woke up at around 8 AM on Saturday, and I spent the day doing, well, not much of anything. Most of my friends had gone home over the weekend, so I spent the day mostly just hanging out. I'd read a book, play some video games, check the news, intermittently do Calc homework; just the usual things I do when I'm bored. It was an almost entirely uneventful day, and I hadn't been awake for long enough to start to feel tired yet.

That night was (as expected) pretty normal too. I did some Comp Sci homework, and tried for probably the ninth or tenth time to learn to use Blender (a 3D modeling program like 3DS Max or Maya). Maybe this time it'll stick. By about midnight, I was finally starting to feel tired; this actually happened later than I thought it would. It's amazing what a few good nights' sleep can do.

As the morning hours ticked by, I realized I needed something to do that would keep me occupied for quite some time. After all, almost a full 24 hours remained before I was allowed to fall back asleep, and I certainly wouldn't make it sitting in one place. So I decided to clean.

I started with my backpack and desk: organizing papers, throwing out trash, sorting loose change into neat piles. Then I moved on to my closet, dresser, and shelves. Once I was all done sorting books and dusting surfaces, I did my laundry. By this point it was about 7 AM. Interestingly, I didn't feel tired anymore. It's something that seems to happen if I stay up for more than 24 hours; I'm full of energy, but with all the clumsiness and lack of focus caused by sleep deprivation.

Once my laundry was done (I took a break to eat while waiting), I cleaned up the rest of the detritus on my half of the floor and vacuumed. That took me to about noon. By this point, I was starting to zone out quite a bit. It's like, when you're working on homework, and you're just writing without thinking, except it would just happen as I was walking around my room.

After a shower and some lunch, I decided to take a walk over to Target. I didn't actually end up buying anything, I just needed to get outside and moving. It was an interesting walk; I kept having to take off and put on my jacket, because my body temperature was being really weird.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly uneventful. I studied a bit for Physics (tried to, anyway), and listened to some podcasts. Nothing much changed in how I felt.

I ate dinner, and then came the moment I dreaded: at 8:00 PM on Sunday, I had to video chat with my parents. It was an... interesting experience. They obviously wouldn't like me staying up for so long, intentionally or unintentionally, so I did my best to hide it. They still noticed I was tired, but I don't think they caught on to how tired I actually was in the relatively short conversation we had (Google Hangouts glitched out after only 10 minutes or so).

Then, at 10, came the hallucinations.These were auditory hallucinations, mind you. My vision was still fine, if a bit hard to focus. But I would hear my name called out of the corner of my ear, or hear a musical note where there obviously was none. It was a really weird experience, and it freaked me out a bit the first few times I thought I heard someone from the hallway, but overall it wasn't too bad.

And then, finally, at 12 AM on Sunday night, I collapsed into my bed.