has anyone ever stayed awake for over 72 hours?
I do believe I can accurately state from experience that you are nearly reaching the starting gate.
how long before you keel over and die if you deprive yourself of sleep, im curious.
Most reasonably sound of mind people will be enlightened and recognize the signs and hints from the experience until they realize that you are at the point of no return before death occurs.
Sometimes you will wonder "Is this the point I have to stop or will I be revealed more hidden, alter deminsions of reality and wisdom by continuing on?"
I can give you some personal examples of stages I went through on my quest for the answers.
After numerous days without sleep, around 2:30 or 3:00 A.M. in the rolling hills between Snyder Texas and Post Texas I suddenly realized how perfectly crystal clear the landscape around me, the sky, any colors, senses and sensations had became. It was quite exhilerating until I topped a hill to see a herd of horses covering the pavement a short distance ahead. Immediate adrenaline accompanied with the total lockup of all air brakes. This was followed with a sense of wonderment and dismay as I slid through a great number of unavoidable horses without any impact. It soon became evident that here were actual no horses.
I asked myself..."Is this the sign?" I decided it wasn`t.
A similar experience with a truck wreck with a load of strawberries strewn across the pavement followed later. No truck wreck. No strawberries.
The same question came to mind. I continued in my quest for knowledge.
Many, many more memorable experiences came through the years.
I left a fuel stop one night on the far side of Houston by about 25 miles heading in to hit 610 around to 45 and on north. I suddenly became aware of a sense of loss of time and location. I was puzzled due to the fact that I thought I should be seeing the glow of city lights before I entered Astrodummy. I quickly ruled out an alien abduction due to a quick check for any soreness due to probes. I settled into waiting until I reached a landmark. Shortly thereafter I did. A roadsign stating "Huntsville 17 miles". I had aboslutely no recollection of either entering, passing throug or exiting the city. I was at a real loss of whether this was THE sign or not. I finaly decided it was not. My nearing Ninja driving skills had been granted. I carried on.
It was some time before I finaly reached the stopping point and the end of the quest.
I was pretty amused some years later when I was reading an article in a biker magazine written by a participant in the Ironbutt Rally.
He stated in the article that he knew it was time to stop when in a flash he was revealed all the answers to all the unsolved questions of the universe. Revealed the meaning of life. Total enlightenment and knowledge.
The problem was that before he could stop and get a pen and pad out of his saddlebags to document his findings..............he had forgotten it all.
I felt pretty smug and honored to know that I too had the knowledge and became part of a very elite group of travelers who had made the journey to seek the answers of the vast land of the netherworld of the human mind.
I hope that helps.