> Randy Gardner was "awake" but basically cognitively dysfunctional at the end of his ordeal.

Reading this bit about a 17 yo HS student at a 1965 science fair was something else! Wow.

I tried some different experiments of my own during times when sleep was difficult, and one thing I discovered was that sleep-related subjective experimenting is one of the best uses of that time. Well, for me it was anyway...