Christmas vacation, 1963. Randy Gardner and Bruce McAllister, two American teenagers, decide to use the holiday season for scientific purposes. Their project: to find out how long a human can go without sleeping. After losing a coin toss, it’s Randy who stays awake as long as possible.
El País returned to the first experience of sleep deprivation, publishing an excerpt from the book published in May 2024 ¿Por qué soñamos? Y otras grandes preguntas sobre dormir y el sueño (“Why do we dream? And other big questions about sleep and dreams”), by Pablo Barrecheguren, who holds a doctorate in biomedicine and specializes in neurobiology.
The two associates have no training in neuroscience. They are joined by William Dement, from Stanford University (United States), one of the pioneers of the clinical study of sleep. The researcher is responsible for supervising the experiment, monitoring Randy and reassuring everyone.
“Lethargic, expressionless and monotonous”
To keep Randy on his feet, his colleagues keep him active through physical activity, particularly basketball. The adolescent undergoes tests to assess his cognitive abilities. Although he initially reacted well, Randy began to have hallucinations on the third day without sleeping. Then his condition deteriorated very quickly. “There were no more ups, only downs. It felt like someone had run sandpaper over my brain. My body was dragging itself and my spirit was breaking,” writes the young man.
“He suffered changes in sense of smell, memory problems, attention problems, mood swings, he gradually lost his verbal agility, his memory deteriorated and his speech was also affected. He was so distracted that he was unable to hold a conversation. In the last…
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