> Non REM Stages 1 and 2: Light sleep NREM-sleep
> Non REM Stages 3 and 4: Deep slow wave sleep (SWS)
> REM-sleep when dreams occur
> FFI patients cannot go past stage 1
It appears they are getting sleep, but only stage 1 sleep. That might be what keeps them alive for 9 months. If stage 1 was blocked, I venture to guess their survival duration would be much lower.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20...
some would say once experiments were done and over, there isn't much that can be done to countless victims. albeit true, using these further gives some sort of approval on all of it (ie becessary evil BS).
Debunked here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6568961
A small percentage of people with fatal familial insomnia don't experience insomnia, yet they still die.
In other words, they die from the disease, not the insomnia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_prog...
I've got no clue how people stay awake for more than 48h; just last week I fell asleep in front of the computer after being awake for 24h. For me, it requires mental gymnastics to be able to go beyond that.
Sleep Lets Brain File Memories
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sleep-lets-brain-f...
Sometimes my friends say I'm forgetful, but I usually put it down to being trolled because I am sure the event or whatever didn't happen. But I do wonder if I have a random "Alzheimer moment".
It would be interesting to know if my sleeping problems were connected to my potential forgetfulness.
A quick search on YouTube reveals some (somewhat old) videos on the topic of fatal familial insomnia https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fatal+familial+...
I thought this one was particularly good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co94aQDs3ek
Sometimes my friends say I'm forgetful, but I usually put it
down to being trolled because I am sure the event or whatever
didn't happen.
Do you have sibling or other close relative or friend who remembers your life with more clarity than you do?
If so, consider speaking with a medical professional.
It would be interesting to know if my sleeping problems were
connected to my potential forgetfulness.
They may not know shit about programming, but in my personal experience, they tend to know more than me about what's considered "normal."
[1] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_(record_holder...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_%28record_holder...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Wright_%28sleep_deprivati...
My "high score" is 3 days without sleeping. Think young, healthy, pretty physical, 1st year in university, while red alert 1 was hot. And I "kind of liked" red alert.
Outcome:
After that time, I layed on bed about noon, and woke up next day early afternoon. ~24+h later. Btw, I hadn't eaten the previous time. I managed to go to the uni restaurant with a friend, and there I semi collapsed, laying flat on 2 chairs, closed eyes, open mouth, slow breath. I was half a step from being rushed to the hospital, and one and a half steps from some serious life threatening situations. Didn't even have the energy to eat the food in front of me. What "saved" me, was that a concerned manager came, asked what's going on, and I asked for salted olive oils. He brought them in a hurry. I had barely enough energy to scrap the skin of the first one, and taste the juice. The first, took some time. And the second. After the third, I ate around 10 like there was no tomorrow. And then I had the energy to eat the food in front of me.
So, basically, IMHMO, no way you can survive 9 months without sleeping.
http://www.amazon.com/Krinos-Olives-Italian-Style-Cured/dp/B...
Initially, I held the position that sleep was probably more important than eating food, and that you would die from sleep deprivation before you died from starvation. We looked it up, and learned about a disease called fatal familial insomnia. A mutated protein causes the onset of permanent insomnia, and there is no cure. It affects about 100 individuals worldwide. [1]
The average life expectancy of a patient is 18 months after the onset of symptoms. The first 9 months is a worsening case of insomnia, where the patient will experience paranoia, panic attacks, and hallucinations. Sleeping pills and barbiturates have been shown to worsen the clinical manifestations and hasten the onset of the disease. The individual then becomes completely unable to sleep, and will enter a state of dementia before becoming completely mute and unresponsive. This second state of permanent insomnia lasts for 9 months.
So ultimately, we learned that you can go for 9 months without sleeping before you die. I'm not sure at what point you'll suffer irreversible brain damage, but that was an interesting finding for me nonetheless.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia