What is one thing you can’t live without? | Teen Ink

What is one thing you can’t live without?

September 29, 2023
By Anonymous

There are so many obvious answers like water, air, and food, but people often forget to sleep. Without air, a person can live for 4-6 minutes, without water for about 3 days, and without food for about 1 week. How much can someone survive without sleep? Scientists don’t know exactly, but about 264 hours, a little over 10 days. What exactly happens when you don’t get enough sleep?

  A creepypasta story has an interesting theory of what might happen without sleep. Scientists put gas stimulants to prevent subjects from falling asleep. Soon enough people started to behave differently, practicing cannibalism and hurting themselves. Scientists soon found out that if subjects fall asleep, they’ll die. In the end before dying last of the subjects said that the innate evil within the human mind is restrained by the act of sleep, without sleep it comes out.

       Pretty interesting, right? But what actually happens?

 Processes during sleep: restoration and rest of the whole body, immune function, antibody production, memory formation, cognitive development, development of stress resistance, accumulation of energy and strength.

     A sleepless day entails fatigue, changeable mood, impaired coordination and memory, drowsiness, irritability, decreased concentration, increased stress hormones, and blood sugar levels. 

   2 days, cognitive abilities deteriorate, severe fatigue appears, vigilance decreases, the ability to judge is impaired, and is capable of micro-sleeping. 

 3 days, the symptoms of sleep deprivation intensify: mood becomes more unstable, and cognitive abilities deteriorate even more. In the worst case, paranoia sets in, a depressed mood appears, and difficulties in communication appear.

  4-5 days, the appearance of hallucinations and severe irritability, a pronounced slowdown in the functioning of areas of the brain, and accordingly, neural activity will be very weak, disruptions in the functioning of the parietal zone.

 6-7 days, behavior changes greatly, and auditory hallucinations are added to visual hallucinations. Mental disorders acquire a pronounced character - paranoia, hallucinations, signs of Alzheimer's disease, mania, and signs of schizophrenia. Randy Gardner, who lasted 11 days without sleep, had severe tremors in his limbs, suggesting significant nervous system deterioration. In the morning he spoke coherently, solving a problem - this was no longer for him, he for a long time forgot the question that was asked to him. For seven days, the human body experiences severe stress. Immunity will seriously decline, and brain activity will be somewhat weak, this will affect the functioning of the liver, kidneys, and other systems. Soon enough you wouldn’t be able to function well and die due to all the damages. Sleep is undoubtedly one of the things you cannot live without.

  As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Stay safe.


       Citations:

Championat.com-championat.com/lifestyle/article-4421489-skolko-mozhno-ne-spat-kak-dolgo-poluchitsya-ne-spat-chto-budet-esli-ne-spat-sutki.html

Wikipedia-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Sleep_Experiment

BBC-bbc.com/russian/science/2015/03/150303_vert_fut_stay_awake

Podolsk city- podolskcity.ru/mag/view/nespat/#


The author's comments:

We all love to sleep, now we know why.


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