A Man Who Didn't Sleep record 11 days, suffered from the consequences for many years (4 photos)

In 1964, high school students Randy Gardner and Bruce McAllister of San Diego, California, set a world record for the longest time without sleep. They took on the monumental task as part of a high school science project led by Stanford University sleep researcher Dr. William C. Dement.





Although both boys took part in the challenge, it was 17-year-old Gardner who lasted 11 days and 25 minutes, which at the time was a world record.

McAllister later explained to the BBC: "We were idiots, you know, young idiots, and I was awake to watch him. And after three sleepless nights, I woke up writing notes on the wall."



The experiment was supervised by Dr. Dement and US Navy Lieutenant Commander John J. Ross, and they said the effects began to show on the second day of sleep deprivation.

Gardner began to stutter when asked to repeat the tongue twisters to see how he was feeling.

After three days without sleep, the student's health worsened, he faced a number of problems: a bad mood, difficulty concentrating, short-term memory loss, as well as paranoia and hallucinations.





"He was very strong physically," says Dement. "We could always keep him busy: play basketball, go bowling. If he closed his eyes, he would fall asleep right away."

Amazingly, by the end of the experiment, Randy had been awake for 264.4 hours. After the grueling experience, he slept for 14 hours and then woke up naturally.



However, he had trouble sleeping for many years. In his later years, Gardner began to suffer from insomnia and was convinced that the experiment was to blame.

“I would lie in bed for five or six hours, sleep for maybe 15 minutes, and wake up again. It was like an extension of what I had been doing 50 years earlier. You have to get enough sleep. It’s as important as the other key ingredients, which I call the ‘big three.’ Water, food, sleep — you have to have enough of all of those.”