39 replies to this topic

[4AssedMonkey]

From about 1990 to 2007 I was a very keen mountain biker and almost every year I'd do 1 or 2 "24 hour" race events (Think Le Mans with mountain bikes and a 10 mile loop as the track).  The exertion coupled with going pretty much 48 hours straight without sleep is a real challenge.  It's not just the tiredness, it derails your biorhythms so you don't feel tired, you just feel a bit out of phase - as if you're seeing reality through a TV screen.  As such, certain chemicals can assist as you feel that way anyway so don't notice.

I'm pretty good at avoiding sleep generally and will go 36 - 48 hours without and it's not usually too much of a problem.  HOWEVER I can't do it at Glasto as after too much exertion + alcohol + fresh air/sunshine etc. my system rebels and the homing device kicks in.  I often get to a point where the immortal sentence " Bladdered, knackered, going." is uttered and then I bounce off and somehow wake up in the tent.

Beer, don't do it kids.

[ktej]

I tend to stay up as late as possible and get up around 10ish  I think I average about 3-4 hours a night, with maybe a nap come Saturday afternoon. You can always sleep when you got get home afterall.

[BlackHole2006]

4AssedMonkey, on 11 May 2011 - 08:23 PM, said:

Beer, don't do it kids.

That's why I drink cider.

[TwistedReligion]

I'll sleep when I'm dead!!!

(probably as a result of collapsing from physical exhaustion after the whole 5 days, but hey!)

No, seriously anyone saying they have gone the entire 120 hours is a liar!


Sleep Deprivation in the right doses gives you an amazing and quite indescribable view on the world!

[Luke The Lersh]

I done 72 hours at Global Gathering last year and I haven't been the same since, I struggle to stay up 24 hours now, after so much I need to sleep.

[markeee]

I try and get some sleep each day, although sometimes I get to that stage where I find it hard to sleep, too ruined by that point, feel wide awake, plus when the tents boiling hot etc

try for 4-5hours

i get really bad hangovers/comedowns these days, which is a bit annoying, cant stand waking up feeling like s***

[LondonTom]

Never gone that long at a festival, usually getting in 4/5 hours at least but I have for a few projects at Uni where we've done rapid development(and some because I am a typical leave it to the last minute student). Its killer I think my best is around 60 hours, its not to bad if you keep doing things, don't let your self do nothing and get past that first 24 hours to overcome tiredness is key I think. Then I can keep myself up with energy drinks and pro plus but eventually I just go into a zombiefied state that I wouldn't think would be great for enjoying myself at glasto.

Might try and do one all nighter and get some sleep around 8/9 in the morning though.

[markeee]

Tom, why 8/9/ just do shangri-la?arcadia at night then stone circle fo a bit then sleep?

4/5 hrs sleep..feel a bit better when you get up

as to staying awake past 24hrs, I just find doing anything hard work..I could stay up, but doing anything feels like such an effort, and I seem to get really hot, like when Im overtireed suddenly I find myself hot and sweaty just walking somewhere, not sure why?

Edited by markeee, 12 May 2011 - 01:57 AM.

[amfy]

I never really feel actually "tired" because I am enjoying everything so much and always feel fully engaged with whatever is happenning, but I do reach a point where my feet hurt so much that lying down for a few hours is the only thing that will help! Sitting just doesn't cut it. Once I'm lying down - the sleep thing can't be far behind!

[Badlands]

spikytom, on 11 May 2011 - 02:17 PM, said:

I'm embarrased to admit that last year due to not getting any sleep the night before, i was tucked up in my tent by about 11:30pm on the wednesday!   the bastard early morning sunshine made sure i was up by about 6 or 7 every morning though.

Cloudy mornings this year please!

Wednesday this year was something daft like 10 o clock for me.

We hired a minibus and drove down over night and I got no sleep whatsoever, I was just knackered and stroppy so went to bed. Best thing I could have done, I was fighting fit on the Thursday onwards and put in decent sesh's for the rest of the fest.

[spikytom]

Yeah, I agree that it's not really worth hitting it too hard over the first two days, I've seen people do it and end up crashing out and missing half of the main bit of the festival.

Judging by the state of some people in the stone circle at 9am on sunday last year, I'm still convinced there must be a crazy acid casualty somewhere who's had a damn good go at staying awake for the full 5 days... but they're probably too busy pointing and shouting at imaginary things in the sky to make themselves known on this forum!

[LondonTom]

markeee, on 12 May 2011 - 01:55 AM, said:

Tom, why 8/9/ just do shangri-la?arcadia at night then stone circle fo a bit then sleep?

4/5 hrs sleep..feel a bit better when you get up

as to staying awake past 24hrs, I just find doing anything hard work..I could stay up, but doing anything feels like such an effort, and I seem to get really hot, like when Im overtireed suddenly I find myself hot and sweaty just walking somewhere, not sure why?

Just what usually happens, person I go with gets tired very quickly so normally had back to the tent with her after headliners (Was going to do a latter one after Muse this year but being in the front and then she hurt her ankles, they had all swolen up, so being a gent got us back to the tent just cba ). This year I defo want at least two nights out late at night and maybe even stay up for the sun rise at stone circle then go back to tent for a few hours .

Altough its kind of nice getting up early and going for a bimble to, I often go on a morning bimble by myself just taking it all in and watching people coming back/getting up for the day

[Helsbels]

hashcity, on 11 May 2011 - 06:50 PM, said:

Although with a bag full of Es there's no reason the whole festy couldn't be done

A friend of mine did the whole festie in 2009 by this method, had the time of his life and managed to do a festival in Germany the following weekend.

I need to have say four hours a night minimum if I'm going to be of any use. Last year I stayed up Friday night, couldn't get to sleep due to the heat and then stayed up all day Saturday but ended up missing Saturday night due to being totally knackered. Not something I plan to repeat this year.

[bennyboi]

Last year I didnt get my head down until 6-7am wens, thurs, fri and then I didnt really sleep and the heat ment I was out of the tent by 9. But on saturday I was out cold by 11pm and up at 7am didnt sleep again until I got home at 2pm monday.

[ian the worm]

My first year was 2008 when I worked 4 night shifts from 9pm to 5am on Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun along with 2 x 6 hour day shifts inbetween.  Not wanting to miss ANYTHING of my first Glasto, I would escape to the festival for as much of each day as I could.  By the end of the weekend this meant that I'd...

Worked 44 hours (38%)
Bimbled n banded 60 hours (50%)
Slept 15 hours (12%) (of which 8 were the monday night   )

Needless to say, I loved every single minute of it!

[eoinca]

Last year, I got a few hours on wednesday and thursday, stayed up all night friday but slept during the day saturday, another few hours saturday night and the same sunday, had to get up at stupid o clock to catch a train back to london on monday morning so didn't sleep too well.

I felt grand on the plane home that night though.

I've done festivals before without sleep and its usually a nasty comedown for a few days afterwards.

[annax]

Zopiclone

[hannahlmoore]

In 2008 I didn't go to sleep from the Thurs - Mon. Not on purpose, but I am terrible with sleeping on class A's as it is, especially when I sleeping on the hard ground with loads of noise around me!  

At the time I thought it was quite funny, but it really kind of wasn't towards the end. On the Sunday night I keep hearing people whispering my name around me, and I couldn't take my sunglasses off even when it was dark. And I'd have these sudden panics like I'd forgotten to get dressed or something. Worst paranoia ever.

Went I went to Bestival the following year I really toned it down, and also invested on a blow up matress and it really did have a great effect on things, I felt so much more refreshed and I didn't have any emotional / mental break down moments!

You will never hear me saying 'there's plenty of time for sleep when you're dead' again.

[spikytom]

Thursday - Monday... impressive! you're in the lead so far!

[clockworkpurple]

I'm in my thirties: I need my sleep.