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how can you guys manage to stay awake more than 20 hours

Alcohol side-effect, friends, Coke, games.

[Edited by Ratchet_Expert, 6/15/2010 6:04:22 AM]

Howdy!

I have insomnia. Diagnosis fact and treatment ongoing. Even though I have other, worse disabilities (YES, SLEEP PROBLEMS ARE A DISABILITY) I'd have to say this sucks the most as you get older. Some people could argue that point because you would have more time for gaming but I assure you that after a few days with no sleep you can't brush your teeth, make a cup of coffee, or even speak properly let alone participate in an activity that involves hand-eye coordination.
I had a documented stint of 195.5 hours (Just over 8 straight days and 3 days shy of the world record and DEATH) and let me tell you it was the strangest and most wonderful time of my life up to that point. I really only remember up to day 6 and the video taken started exactly on day 3 so the rest of the time I know about was from the clinic doctor and the video.
Day 3 I started to hear voices and was strongly inclined to talk back to them. This was the reason I went to the clinic in the first place which was documenting legit cases of sleep disorders. Anyway, by the end of day 3 I had some really great conversations considering the benzodiazsepines given to me and the small fact it was all a pure monologue in my head.
By day 4 I was also seeing things but the meds I got cleared it up for about 9 hours. After that though I was talking to former presidents, myself as a sperm, and was living on the Titanic while stripping off all my clothes and... ah... trying to relax... the natural way if you know what I mean. Day 5 gets blurry but I do remember not caring I was going to the bathroom on myself while talking to the doctor and screaming at gargoyles stealing my hair and blood to feed gumby lord von weininstroker. Keeping my sanity was not in the cards.
I was told I got destructive and disgusting, one example being I was playing with my food and the next minute smearing all over my head a face calling it caca parfume. I needed to be heavily sedated and strapped down to the bed after that. When I was knocked out they told me my brain waves were still way too active to be entering any form of rest and the consideration for emergency surgery was very close by. My brain finally cycled into REM sleep and then the restful sleep that replaces the chemicals in the mush that resides in your skull. I only got about 7 hours rest before I started to show signs of waking and they pumped me full of lorazepam and thorazine. That put me out for near 36 hours and I remember getting up having to pee really bad, needing something to drink desperately and being very sore like I had been run over by a car. They kept me for observation near a week and then I went home. I have times where I can't sleep but nothing that crazy anymore.
No moral to this story just an anecdote to share with y'all. One of the few that is really stranger then fiction.