Death from lack of sleep: the results of experiments

Apparently, the human brain is adapted to episodic periods of sleep deprivation. But the fact that we are able to survive one or more sleepless nights does not mean that sleep can be constantly neglected without harm to health. Sleep is essential for life, but what happens when we don’t get enough of it? Can lack of sleep actually kill us? At the age of seventeen, Randy Gardner set a world record – 264 hours without sleep. 17-year-old Gardner stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes in the company of Stanford University somnologist William Dement, who closely monitored the…