I was going on my seventh day of no sleep. I cannot tell you how god damn fucking awful it is to go that long without sleep. I was in highschool, 11th grade. I suffered from terrible insomnia, an eating disorder and an un-diagnosed (and poorly treated) bipolar disorder. I was on the worst medications possible. Anyway, a combination of insomnia, anxiety and medications caused me to lose sleep for several days. I won't lie, there were periods of time where I laid my head down hoping for sleep that wouldn't come. I'm sure in those few instances I had a few minutes of solace - but overall, I did not actually sleep. I was so stressed out and anxious due to pretty much everything.
It started on a Saturday. My mood was all hyped up and ready for the weekend, ready to pull an all night with friends online. Sunday came and I worked on some art homework which carried into Monday morning. Oh it's time for school? Guess I'm two nights without sleep, no big deal. Monday night rolls around and I'm too anxious to sleep, I have a project due. Tuesday rolls around and I definitely look like I haven't slept for a few days... By Wednesday, one of my teachers starts to show concern for me, saying I look like I haven't slept in days... Oh you don't day? I was too hopped up on energy now, I had a million things to do - organizing every movie in my collection to all the boxes of consumables in my cupboard. Sleep could wait.
Thursday came and my English teacher told me I looked like walking death. I was pretty far gone. I couldn't sleep but I also could not concentrate on school work. It was a miracle I even made it to school. I had never done drugs at that point but I was starting to feel like I was on something. Everything was so surreal, like a dream almost. I couldn't give a flying fuck for reality. On Friday my English teacher actually pulled me out of class to ask me if I was on drugs (I have never done drugs in my life, even up to now). Even after I told him I wasn't on any drugs, he told me to go home and 'sleep it off'... I remember that last day of school feeling like a complete dream. Like none of it was real. I ended up walking home because why the fuck not?
Later that night nothing was making any sense. I don't know how to describe it but I wanted to sleep so desperately. At some point I eventually ended up taking a full bottle of extra strength tylenol because I convinced myself that that was the only way to 'end' the 'nightmare' I was having to endure...
So after just about 7 days of no sleep, I went slightly off the deepend and ended up in ICU because I took enough tylenol to almost permanently fuck over my liver. All because I was too far gone after not sleeping for almost 7 days straight.
I HIGHLY recommend getting sleep after being awake for 72 hours. After that, things start to get VERY fucked up. :|