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July 9, 2010

Strange But True!

Q. What was different about healthy 17-year-old San Diego schoolboy Randy Gardner when he awoke at 6 a.m. on Dec. 28, 1963?

A. He didn't go back to sleep again until the morning of Jan. 8, 1964 — that's 11 days without sleep! These 264 hours remain the longest scientifically verified period without sleep, breaking the previous record of 260 hours. For the final three days, Stanford University's William Dement stayed awake with Gardner, who experienced mood swings, memory and attention lapses, loss of coordination, slurred speech and hallucinations. “Otherwise, he was just fine. His first sleep after the 11 days lasted just 14 hours,” says Graham Lawton in New Scientist magazine.


 
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