How I did it: This is a very rewarding challenge. It is buckets of fun. You will experience visual and aural hallucinations. A whole new level of conciousness awaits to be explored. All you have to do it sleep not for 48 hours.

I was very, very lucky to complete this goal. The timing was absolutely perfect. I have attempted this challenge once before and was mercilessly defeated by sleep. The second time however I had something to look forward to. I clearly could see where I was going.

To a lot of people this goal has no point. Quite frankly it is hard to see the purpose of depriving oneself of sleep for 48 hours. However for me it's more a case of a challenge. A test of my own will strength. Plus there are the hallucinations and micro-dreams which your brain will project before your eyes to make you go to sleep. I wanted to experience the feelings associated with sleep deprivation. You can read all the articles in the world about something but until you try it you can never truly know what it feels like.

I began the challenge on Wednesday morning. In the mean time I have booked a holiday in Devon on Friday. So between Wednesday and Friday I had time to pack and think about activities I might occupy myself with on this short, weekend, break.

The first night was relatively easy and yet quite interesting. As I was setting up my computer for another film marathon I heard a hissing noise from the cupboard under the stairs. It looked to me like my gas meter was making the noise. I have spent the rest of the night dealing with the gas emergency people (whom I have called), telling me that my water pipe has burst right under the gas meter. You can imagine the rest and probably figure out why I haven't gone to bed that night. However, it didn't turn out to be that bad and I had it fixed by midday so in all a lot of good came out of this.

The second night is usually the hardest. However I was still to come up with an a list of activities for the short break the following day. As I was researching some places we could visit my eyes would start getting heavy. It was hard to click the mouse. My concentration span was the shortest I have ever experienced it. I could not focus my eyes on the text I was reading. You can imagine how relieved I was to see the sun rising.

By midday my 48 hours was up and I was in the car on my way to Devon. I was falling asleep very five or ten minutes and during that time I have experienced some of the wildest and weirdest dreams I have ever had. I have felt a great sense of accomplishment but that might be down to the hallucinations that I was having.

Lessons & tips: A word of warning: this is not an easy challenge (even though some will find it so). It can be very disappointing and aggravating. Just when you are so close to completing it you fall asleep for two hours and you have to start all over again (if you haven't given up yet)

Enough of doom and gloom. If you are seriously thinking about doing this read on:

• The most important thing you can do in order to help yourself achieve this challenge is to set up your all nighters away from your bed. I mean it. Just having it in the same room will make you sleepy.
• If you can't do it in another room, at least face away from your bed.
• WARNING: Do not let yourself think that it's OK to go to bed "just to lie down" or "just for a minute. As soon as you do that and your body is tired enough, you will never get up. All the reasoning you could ever do against falling asleep will be useless because your brain will just switch off. So stay away from the bed as far as you can.
• Keep yourself occupied. You will have a lot of time on your hands. You may choose to use it wisely. Try completing a project you always wanted to do but never had enough time. Just remember that any logical work during the second night might not make any sense to you after the challenge. Try creative writing. Some great stories come out. In the worst and least productive case get yourself a set of films (American Pie works well for me) or watch a complete season of some series (X-Files works well if you want to have scary hallucinations)
• Avoid listening to music on earphones. It will make you very sleepy.
• Do NOT under any circumstances attempt to read a book on your second night. If you are tired you will just read yourself into sleep.

The best time to complete this challenge is when your on holiday, when you have a lot of free time and little obligations, but a weekend will work just as well (Make sure you start of Friday morning as you want the Sunday to rest for work the following day). Try not to drive during this time (on road) as you experiencing hallucinations and having slowed reactions and thinking processes will not help the matter. Staying inside with these symptoms is a lot of fun however. Trying upholding a conversation can be even funnier. So just play with it and have a good time.

I have kept a diary of the 48 hours making an entry it it every couple of hours, recording what you are feeling. You will find that your short term memory will not function as well during this period so it's best to jot things down straight away. I encourage anyone to do the same and look back on your experience.

If anyone is interested in reading this diary just post a request with your email below and I will send it to you.

ON HALLUCINATIONS:

This was past of the reason why I wanted to take this challenge. The hallucinations are really there and they are quite amazing and weird at the same time. If this is why you are doing this challenge read on:

• Make no mistake, the hallucinations will not come until about 35-40 hours into the challenge.
• They will take visual and aural forms. I have for example seen two tarantulas play fighting on my legs. (scared me to death). I have also hear noises behind me and at one point a woman singing.
• In order to experience these you firstly need to be tired enough. Give your body a chance to hallucinate. To do this you need to be on the verge of falling asleep. Sometimes it's enough to just stare into the computer screen as you sit in front of it.
• You need to have stimuli for the hallucinations to occur. Something that I found works well is playing music on the earphones but putting them on the table so you can just about hear the faint noises. These will transform into who know what.
• Do not force yourself to hallucinate as there is no way you can do it. Just relax, sit back and when you are tired enough it will happen.

Resources: Here is a list of things that will help you:

• Interesting films: comedies are the best. Trying to watch a film with a complicated plot line might work for some people but other will just fall asleep.
• Food. Its hard to believe how hungry you will get while doing this. At times you will feel like your stomach is completely empty. (A lot of people forget to eat as they focus so much on not falling asleep) So just stock up on something you like. Apples are a good idea and pot noodles work well.
• WATER. Its important to drink a lot of it through out. Not because its healthy but because it wakes you up.
• Stopwatch. Time yourself. It will help you get through as you will clearly see how much you still have to go.

GOOD LUCK!!!

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Aug 18, 2009, 03:58AM PDT | 0 comments