Ahhh, sleep! You can never have enough of it, it seems. But what if you stopped sleeping altogether?

Strangely, science understands relatively little about why we sleep or how it evolved in the first place. After all, lying unconscious for hours on end while predators lurk hardly seems advantageous or smart! (see our article on Why do we need sleep?)

That said, they have discovered a few correlations. For example, adults who sleep 6 to 8 hours a night tend to live longer! Excessive sleep, however, can lead to medical problems including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Similarly, chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to aspects of cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, and even brain damage.

But what would happen if you stopped sleeping right now? –

⇒	After your first sleepless night your mesolimbic system becomes stimulated and dopamine runs rampant. And this may actually trigger some extra energy, motivation, positivity, and even sex drive.
⇒	Sounds appealing, but it’s a slippery slope! Your brain slowly begins to shut off the regions responsible for planning and evaluating decisions, leading to more impulsive behavior.
⇒	Once exhaustion sets in, you’ll find yourself with slower reaction times and reduced perceptual and cognitive functions. After a day or two of no sleep, your body loses its ability to properly metabolize glucose, and the immune system stops working as well.
⇒	In some cases, three days of no sleep has led to hallucinations.
⇒	Care about how you look? Studies have shown a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and a person’s perceived beauty. That is to say, sleepdeprived individuals appeared less healthy and less attractive than when they were well rested.

The longest scientifically documented case of being awake was 264 hours, or 11 days. And while this man did develop problems with concentration, perception, and irritability, the surprising truth is that he suffered no serious long-term health effects.

In fact, no individuals under these documented conditions experienced medical, physiological, neurological, or psychiatric problems. But these are limited studies, and this doesn’t mean permanent damage couldn’t be inflicted with more time.

Sleep deprivation experiments on rats, for example, generally led to death after about two weeks. But scientists aren’t totally sure if they died from lack of sleep or from the stress of constantly being woken up.

Perhaps we should look at fatal familial insomnia for an answer. This is a rare genetic disease of the brain that causes progressively worsening insomnia or sleeplessness, leading to hallucinations, dementia, and, ultimately, death.

This disease has been documented in only around one hundred people in the world, but their average survival span was around eighteen months after symptoms appeared. Over time, the lack of sleep becomes worse, and the body’s organs begin to shut down.

So while lack of sleep will likley kill you it won’t necessarily happen quickly, however continual sleep deprivation will have a negative effect on your body.