What actually happens if you force yourself to never sleep? Well, a teenager actually tried this for 11 days straight, and the results were genuinely terrifying. It wasn't just about being tired.
His brain essentially began to eat itself. Within just the first 24 hours, his reaction time plummeted, becoming worse than someone legally drunk. But day two is when the real nightmare started.
He began suffering from micro sleeps, moments where his brain forcefully shut down consciousness for 15 seconds while his eyes were still wide open. By day three, the barrier between reality and dreaming completely dissolved. He started hallucinating, seeing shadows morph into people, and hearing whispers that weren't there.
His brain was literally forcing REM sleep onto his waking vision. By the end, he couldn't identify simple objects, failed at basic math, and lost almost all memory of the final days. It turns out if you don't sleep your mind eventually breaks.
