[NikC14]

Has anyone ever died from lack of sleep?

Has anyone ever stayed awake for 3 or 4 days straight?

Will your body eventually shut down and force sleep?

[hiker]

Hi NikC14, it sounds like you are going through it right now. I should start off by saying I am not a medical professional. I think the longest I stayed awake was 60-70 hours at some point. There also have been times when I thought I was awake, eventually getting up, feeling like I had not slept at all, only to be told I was snoring periodically. As far as I can tell, the body does shut down to some extent, even if it is not restful sleep.

Perhaps more to the point, there were plenty of times when I wished I would die rather than continue with insomnia. This stemmed from my thoughts going haywire from exhaustion—and worse, buying into the thoughts, again from exhaustion.

Sleep meds can help short term, though doctors often will write a prescription and not want to address underlying emotional causes. And no medication will guarantee good sleep long term, and they can be dangerous if abused.

I hope you can stay with this site to check out Martin’s materials, and also to see that you are not alone. Any given morning, millions of people are hammered from poor sleep the night before. I dealt with insomnia for decades (doesn’t mean you will, had to work through early trauma, etc.), but even now, sometimes I don’t sleep all that great. It happens, and it can continue on into a nasty stretch when my brain gets scrambled and I forget all I have learned about letting thoughts just be, instead of buying into them.

It is easy to buy into the idea that I haven’t slept well night after night, therefore I am condemned to a lifetime like this. ……even though it isn’t true.

[Martin Reed]

The world record for continuous wakefulness is 11 days — but that took someone immense effort and was extremely difficult to achieve. Most of us aren’t trying to stay awake so sleep usually happens a lot sooner than that!

Sleep always happens in the end, no matter what. You might find this video helpful: Even if you have chronic insomnia, sleep drive always wins — you can sleep and you will sleep!

Finally, not a single study has found that chronic insomnia increases the risk of death or causes any health problem.

I hope this helps.

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If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

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