How long can you go without sleep? | James May's Q&A (Ep 14) | Head Squeeze

James May talks us through how long you can go for without any sleep.

 

With his own unique spin, James May asks and answers the oddball questions we've all wondered about from 'What Exactly Is One Second?' to 'Is Invisibility Possible?'

[MartyBuuu]

"Sleep is essential for all complex animals, even and in fact specially the Spanish" LOL I love James May's humor

[invicta]

Where I come from, there are lots of people who don't sleep for days, weeks, even months at a time. They're called "crystal meth addicts."

[battmarn]

i like how im watching this at 1am when i need to be up in 7 hours. damn it internet

[noahwhite]

I don't care who you are or what you do, but we can all agree here, that James May is, The Man!

[gnawershreth]

I went without sleep for something like 78 hours once when I was younger. Wanted to break a record at an internet cafe. It's not recommended at all. It feels horrible. Obviously all the coffee and cola might have had something to do with that as well.. 

When I went home (On my bike.. Stupidly enough. That could have gone very wrong.) dinner was ready. My family thought I was on drugs, cause I didn't have a clue what they were talking about, my short term memory was pretty much gone (I had three glasses of water, cause I kept forgetting I had one already.), I wanted to get a glass of water from the kitchen and fell asleep standing in the doorway and finally my head smashed into the food cause I fell asleep at the table as well.
It was like the gaming was what had kept me awake. As soon as I was "bored", everything well to shit.
Eventually I gave up on trying to finish dinner and went to bed. I slept for 27 hours. While everything was fine again after that, I'm pretty sure it wasn't good for my health at all. Everything about it just felt wrong. :)

[USAltefore]

It's 4 a.m. and now I want a kebab. Regrettably, I don't know of any kebab shops within walking distance, let alone one that would be open now.

[Arkevorkhat]

as a teenaged boy, i detest your assumptions about teenagers.

[jackharty]

Is it ironic I'm up at 6am watching this

[PicturesqueGames]

Sleep deprivation kinda messes up your brain's "core dump" process, which happens during sleep, and brain starts emitting visual info all over the place, you start seeing shapes of faces and objects in even mildest of patterns all over the place.

[loopysausage]

2:15, James, how do you know my life style? O.o xD

[josephhoward]

Anybody else already know the answer before clicking on the video, but clicked anyways because it’s James May? That’s because James May is awesome.

[PhilipZilfo]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH James may epic moment
4:27 "No.... but anyway.. for the answer to other more comprehensible questions..."

[Ardianax]

I have really bad sleeping habits. I could sleep for 22 hours a day, to none at all or more. Like right now, the other night I woke up fairly normal amount of sleep at 4pm, I slept around 9pm up to 5am and I'm still wide awake now at 3am... 

Extreme sleeping habits, really. I don't think I have insomnia.

[Ganbalf]

02:43 It is confirmed, James May is not a cat person.

[stupidburp]

Done it many times when I had insomnia. No sleep plus an hour of meditation left me much more alert than no sleep and no meditation. I was in school at the time and my test scores in classes also reflected my increased alertness when I tried meditation. Not a full replacement for sleep by any means, but it did help a bit.

[malmstring]

I regularly did 36-48 hours without problems in my youth and decided at one time I would continue after the 48 hours. I was maybe around 30 y/o and it was a job week at a Postal production facility and I decided to go on like normal. No problem really. I went to an even 100 hours because that what I set my mind on and then I would stop. I've read a person can get permanent brain damages going too long without sleep. I didn't use any drugs or helpers, just some coffee when needed. It's perfectly doable. The brain sort off shuts down a bit after 48 hours and you go into a number, laconic, melancholic state. I felt no different at 48 hours as to 100 hours. But I've read that for some people the brain can shut down all of a sudden, and I didn't want to risk getting to that point. I'm probably a guy that naturally could go towards a record try, but what is the point since the risk is there? If sleep deprivation wasn't so dangerous to experiment with, more would obviously do it.

[Missboo]

I can listen to James May talk about any subject for hours! I would love to record his voice reciting poetry so I can go to sleep at night listening to him.

[ImpakaWarrior]

its ironic i found this by mistake right now since i just pulled off a 37 hour stint with no sleep

[MrStabby]

I've done a week before then I as starting to see flashes of light in the corners of my vision was scary.

[notarealhandle]

I just did break a record - watched the entire James May show through, without falling asleep!