Randy Gardner who set record for longest time without sleeping suffers from insomnia

Randy Gardner set a record for spending the longest time without sleeping from December 1963 to January 1964. Gardner, who was then 17, spend 11 days and 25 minutes on a science fair project when was in high school in 1964. Gardner and his friend Bruce McAllister had conducted an experiment in which they wanted to study the longer time a human being could stay awake, with or without any side effects.

Gardner (now 74-year-old)  topped the record of Tom Rounds, who slept for about 260 hours. Gardner completed 4 hours 04 minutes of extra time to Rounds. The record was attempted in the presence of Stanford University sleep researcher Dr William C Dement. Randy's health was monitored by Lieutenant Commander John J Ross. The experiment was widely used as the base of other studies among the sleep research community.

Health Effects of the experiment

Humans also tend to exhibit cranky behaviour if they are sleep-deprived for a day. Usually, doctors advise eight hours of sleep a day, and that is for a reason. Gardner's experiment proved that extreme sleep deprivation has a prolonged effect on cognitive and behavioural patterns.

Initially, on the third day, Gardner exhibited tiredness, William Dement mentioned in his report. Later on, Lieutenant Commander Ross reported vivid health issues like moodiness, problems with concentration and short-term memory loss. There were additional problems like hallucinations and paranoia, which are quite grave, remarked Ross. On the last day, Gardner presided over a press conference with commendable confidence. He wanted to prove that he could break the previous record as well predetermined notions about sleep deprivation, he told during the conference.

As per reports, Gardner slept for 14 hours straight and awoke naturally. He stayed awake for a while and again slept for about 10 hours. He seemed to have completed recovered from the experiment then, researchers told a news agency, However, 74-year-old Randy reported suffering from insomnia decades after his sleep experiment.

According to news reports, Gardner's record has been topped quite a few times. Nevertheless, Gardner's case still stands out, however, because it has been so extensively documented. As per reports, it is difficult to determine the accuracy of a sleep deprivation period unless the participant is carefully observed.

Meanwhile, the records for voluntary sleep deprivation have been annulled by Guinness World Records for fear that participants will suffer ill effects.

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