Sleepless for more than 12 months

news.bbc.co.uk...

Frank Goodwin, from Sheffield, has not slept properly since April 2008 and feels like a zombie.

Mr Goodwin said he has tried a range of treatments to deal with the problem, but none have worked.

A short video here of somebody from Sheffield who can't sleep for over 12 months!! Sounds impossible, but maybe it isn't. Or has be just got his sleeping pattern messed up over time, and puts too much emphasis on must sleeping at certain odd times in the day for a few short hours, and so his bodyclock has gone awol?

Is the solution to have 10 cans of red-bull, play football for 10 hours, or go jogging, and then collapse and sleep. Maybe caffeine would be dangerous in his condition...



[edit on 10-8-2009 by john124]

12 months without sleep and he would have been dead long ago.

The video does not say if he is sleeping during the day or power napping not only that, the sleep clinic said he was awake for just over 1 hour in a 4 hour period.

Doing a search brings up about 10 days without sleep before you die.

I bet he gets small amounts of sleep through the day and at night.

Also the doctor in the report did not answer the question when he was asked does he believe the guys story.

I have had insomnia I think we all have and have even stayed awake until the point I was halucinating and that was only being up for a full 24hrs.

So I very much doubt he has gone a whole year without sleep

reply to post by jpmail


Everyone's kind of telling half truths here.

The issue is not that he has not slept 1 minute for last 12 months. The issue is that he is unable to go to sleep and have a restful sleep for a good period of time.

People like this are unable to do that, and resort to slipping in and out of sleep at random times. There was a movie about an insomniac a few years ago, can't remember the name for the life of me. But they do sleep, it's just that it is never rejuvenating sleep. It's intermittent and they dont get to choose when it happens or for how long.

Thus after a long period of time like this, their batteries are toast and experience a range of personal problems as a result such as hallucinations.


EDIT: I believe the movie is the machinist.

[edit on 10-8-2009 by king9072]

Well now

Let me tell you what you CAN go 12 DAYS with out sleep! Then you pass out and don't wake up for 28 hours or so.
THAT happened to me last summer when I had a blood vessel leak in my head. It wasn't the blood vessel that did it, it was the PAIN. Being I was in a bad situation they couldn't give me ANYTHING to knock me out they had to wait till I did it naturally.
But as far as going several days without sleep I had lots of practice before hand as I have not slept for more than a few hours at a time for almost 13 years now. (might have led to why I stayed up for 12 days mind you )

After you have been doing it for so long your internal clock gets reset so to say. When you get older you also don't sleep as much either! There is some food for thought.
I have a neurologist due to having epilepsy and I tell you what the ONLY time I have slept more than a few hours at once is when he has had to dose me for a severe seizure. I still heal and function like everyone else. I can exercise, do yard work, garden and even go hiking! The only "not normal" thing about me is I sleep a "maximum" of 4 hours in 24 on a good day! If you can't sleep and don't have a medical reason for it there are plenty of things you can do to supplement for it.
Not every human being is wired the same and more times than not the problem stems from them being constantly told there is a problem! When that stopped for me guess what happened? It didn't bother me in the least and I could function normally. They stopped with the you HAVE to sleep 8+ hours a night and stopped trying to shove DRUGS on me. My neurologist told me I was just wired different and we where going to stop the over kill treatments. I was just fine from that point on!

That poor guy needs to shut them out; get a real good neurologist to make sure he is "okay"; then go about getting a good diet and rest periods going!!!
After about 3-4 months he will be operating just fine and be as normal as the next person. The only thing that will make them different from one another is he DOESN'T need 8+ hours of sleep a night. It really is over rated anyway! We get to see a whole lot more than the average person

reply to post by john124


there was a kid who stayed longer without sleep his parents told he would hit himself etc...
later a doctor found out he a had a problem in his brain...
here: abcnews.go.com...

[edit on 10-8-2009 by Danna]

[edit on 10-8-2009 by Danna]