Wake up to the facts: You could easily set a record ...in your sleep
I’ve been doing a lot more during lockdown than normal – sometimes for nine, almost 10 hours a day.
I’m talking about sleeping, of course.
However, my drowsiness has made me wonder about snoozing – I mean, what is the longest time anyone has ever slept for? And do you have any other interesting sleep-related titbits? – H.
Apart from people in comas, or sufferers of Kleine-Levin syndrome, a rare neurological illness that can put a person to sleep for up to three weeks, the longest period of sleep, perhaps not unsurprisingly, came after a long period of sleep deprivation.
In 1964, student Randy Gardner stayed awake for 264 consecutive hours – 11 days – without the use of any stimulants.
After the experiment into the effects of sleep deprivation – in which Randy suffered bouts of paranoia and hallucinations – he slept for 14 hours and 40 minutes. He woke up naturally and stayed awake for 23 hours before sleeping for another 10 hours.
Within a few days, he was back to sleeping normally and suffered no long-term health problems.
The Australian hypnotist, Peter Powers, claimed to have slept for eight days straight after putting himself in a hypnotic trance.
But for a lengthy kip, you really need a comfy bed, and where better to lay your head than India, where a company made the deepest bed ever by piling 45 mattresses on top of each other to give you a 22ft-deep sleep.
In 2013, the city of Jefferson, Georgia, unveiled a mattress measuring 38ft wide by 80ft long, created as a publicity stunt.
It is the world’s largest mattress, but it probably still isn’t large enough if you have to share it with a snorer.
And the world’s loudest snorer? That would be Swede Kare Walkert, who was recorded to snore at 93 decibels – that’s louder that a train’s horn.
Sweet dreams!