60hrs sleep deprivation - Personal experience
I gave myself many long thoughts before of my own future, initially to be a doctor, then a pharmacist, and lastly to be a researcher. Researching is sometimes fun and sometimes stressful, usually the latter. But the thought of where I stand in the Life Science cohort now makes me so inferior of my position as a visionary award winner. However, it still feels good to discover and invent new stuff.
I couldn't get interns because I handed my resume too late and of course, inconsiderate people just refuse to allow die hard life science fans from gaining more experience in their own field. Anyway, I happen to come across a clinical trial in my yahoo group that sounded quite interesting. It was a study on the effects of caffeine and how concentrations vary one's alertness. Many people discouraged themselves from taking clinical trials because of certain risks in life that cannot be explained most of the time. In the name of Science, there is always a substantial level of risk, only thing is how much and it differs from one person to another. To me, it's a challenge and a good experience on how would a patient would feel when undergoing such experiments. Who knows, I might be the one who would BE the researcher in the end. So.... I went for the meeting to get the letter of consent. The experiment was simple, you can't take caffeine, that includes coffee, chocolate (yup chocolate has a very little amount of caffeine inside, much lesser than coffee), tea, coke, mountain dew (the carbonated drink), and sprite. Meals will be given to you, 3 meals per day PLUS tit bits and biscuits for in-betweens. There will be drawing of 4mL of blood (so we'll be on a cannula) and saliva every 8 hours, and quizzes every 4 hours as well as caffeine pills given every 2-6 hours each. The only downfall of the experiment was to stay awake for 60hrs, at one stretch. After which, you'll sleep for 12 hours before attempting 2 last quizzes. AND you can't bring in electronics that can storage memory, including laptops and PSP!!! ARRRRHHHHH!!!!! That's as loooooooooooooooong as the first Subaru challenge winner. There were cases where patients vomitted and pulled out some time around 40-60hrs. Hallucinations are also one of the cases. Risks such as these can be discouraging, yet, I'm willing to take up the challenge and do what's necessary for my future. Went for the screening and passed it flawlessly.
On the first day of the trial, 8 of us, Jia Hao, Wei Ming, Teck Lee, Johnathon, Eugene, Nathan, Auguste and I arrived in the laboratory. We were subjected to a cost room for adaption night, to adapt to the coldness of the place as well as to the food then. The food will be similar throughout all three days. The lounge is where we had to be throughout the 60hrs, had TV, DVD players, board games, pool table (with no balls -_- what the hell), table soccer (but no one wants to play it -_- what the hell) and wonderful cushions. So the night came and we were all not so keen to sleep that night, but who knows that we should have had more of sleep.
The first 20 - 30 hours was probably alright, everything was smooth and we did the test with much confident. From 35 - 50 hrs, time passed so slow as if every minute it was like a hammer driving a stock across our minds. It was draining up more energy trying to keep awake then trying to eat or watch the television. The only thing that could keep us awake as a game of Pictionary and Taboo. Only these two games could make us laugh ourselves awake. Was a good strategy and so that was the next 30 hrs of laughter, but the quizzes were still a terror. You can see bloodshot eyes and zombified faces every time we were pulled awake from the games. The quizzes were testing on the level of concentration at that moment. Believe me, it was REALLY hard to focus your mind and keep your eyes open during the quizzes. You will manage to see people facing awake or falling asleep during the quizzes. Not to mention zombified faces. Hahaha... Then you'll even hear beepings from one terminal to indicate that someone is pressing on a key for too long. Haha.. The feeling of wanting to complete the quiz is very very high but have reduced your confidence in performing well for the quiz to a very low percentage. Every time I do the test, I would have predicted what the researchers would have interpreted the data. It became clearer and clearer to me on what could have came out from the study itself. To me 60 hours is something really hard to accomplish with mere tactics such as watching TV or reading your favourite book, quite impossible. I develop headaches and severe dry lips. Drinking of water did not help since it's the air-conditioning that is causing the dryness. I took out my cannula after 40+ hours because it became painful and itchy. It probably caused internal injury in the area since I'm still having some pain now. Subsequent draws had to be punctured but were all done smoothly and with minimal/no pain.
It came to the end of the 60th hour, YES!!!! We had our bath and dinner before our sleep on the 61st hour for 12 solid hours. I thought I wouldn't sleep that much but to my surprise, I was really sleeping like a log. I didn't wake up at all and it felt like the 12 hours flew pass like a breeze. Too me some time before I could manage to lift myself from the bed, my body ached all over. Everyone woke up full of enthusiasm to come the 2 last quizzes and drew the last sample of blood and saliva. I really wonder whether the nurse is really a qualified one or not. She drew the last 4mL of blood but somehow pierced half of the needle slowly, then went in the 2nd half quite fast. I was shocked and I think it was very very close to a nerve because ofter that there is a bruising pain around the area. Quite scary... Eeyer... Fortunately was only that very last time... I wouldn't want her to keep drawing from me numerous times.
That 60 hours made us 8 people become close friends, it was more like a mutual friendship that we understand each other's feelings. Unfortunately, Eugene dropped out on the 50th hour because he had a fever. Was sad for him, WeiMing nearly dropped out too for he had a slight temperature. Good thing his will power was much stronger than his immune system. I also found out that I lack a lot of general knowledge. I didn't know some basic things that we see/hear everyday like a turnover or hickey (which is actually a love bite). And just for laughs, I've gotten to know that the Emu is extinct, the ostrich can fly and lives only in Africa, our mother will definitely give us breast milk when we're young and there's a character called Crusty the Snowman. Hahaha... Oh well, time flies when you are enjoying yourself. That's what happened in the trial, everyone comes and goes with a blink of an eye. Before you know it, you're back in the bus heading for home. It's a wonderful yet excruciating experience. I probably wouldn't want to experience such an ordeal again but I look forward to other forms of experiment that would feed on my hungry mind.
I couldn't get interns because I handed my resume too late and of course, inconsiderate people just refuse to allow die hard life science fans from gaining more experience in their own field. Anyway, I happen to come across a clinical trial in my yahoo group that sounded quite interesting. It was a study on the effects of caffeine and how concentrations vary one's alertness. Many people discouraged themselves from taking clinical trials because of certain risks in life that cannot be explained most of the time. In the name of Science, there is always a substantial level of risk, only thing is how much and it differs from one person to another. To me, it's a challenge and a good experience on how would a patient would feel when undergoing such experiments. Who knows, I might be the one who would BE the researcher in the end. So.... I went for the meeting to get the letter of consent. The experiment was simple, you can't take caffeine, that includes coffee, chocolate (yup chocolate has a very little amount of caffeine inside, much lesser than coffee), tea, coke, mountain dew (the carbonated drink), and sprite. Meals will be given to you, 3 meals per day PLUS tit bits and biscuits for in-betweens. There will be drawing of 4mL of blood (so we'll be on a cannula) and saliva every 8 hours, and quizzes every 4 hours as well as caffeine pills given every 2-6 hours each. The only downfall of the experiment was to stay awake for 60hrs, at one stretch. After which, you'll sleep for 12 hours before attempting 2 last quizzes. AND you can't bring in electronics that can storage memory, including laptops and PSP!!! ARRRRHHHHH!!!!! That's as loooooooooooooooong as the first Subaru challenge winner. There were cases where patients vomitted and pulled out some time around 40-60hrs. Hallucinations are also one of the cases. Risks such as these can be discouraging, yet, I'm willing to take up the challenge and do what's necessary for my future. Went for the screening and passed it flawlessly.
On the first day of the trial, 8 of us, Jia Hao, Wei Ming, Teck Lee, Johnathon, Eugene, Nathan, Auguste and I arrived in the laboratory. We were subjected to a cost room for adaption night, to adapt to the coldness of the place as well as to the food then. The food will be similar throughout all three days. The lounge is where we had to be throughout the 60hrs, had TV, DVD players, board games, pool table (with no balls -_- what the hell), table soccer (but no one wants to play it -_- what the hell) and wonderful cushions. So the night came and we were all not so keen to sleep that night, but who knows that we should have had more of sleep.
The first 20 - 30 hours was probably alright, everything was smooth and we did the test with much confident. From 35 - 50 hrs, time passed so slow as if every minute it was like a hammer driving a stock across our minds. It was draining up more energy trying to keep awake then trying to eat or watch the television. The only thing that could keep us awake as a game of Pictionary and Taboo. Only these two games could make us laugh ourselves awake. Was a good strategy and so that was the next 30 hrs of laughter, but the quizzes were still a terror. You can see bloodshot eyes and zombified faces every time we were pulled awake from the games. The quizzes were testing on the level of concentration at that moment. Believe me, it was REALLY hard to focus your mind and keep your eyes open during the quizzes. You will manage to see people facing awake or falling asleep during the quizzes. Not to mention zombified faces. Hahaha... Then you'll even hear beepings from one terminal to indicate that someone is pressing on a key for too long. Haha.. The feeling of wanting to complete the quiz is very very high but have reduced your confidence in performing well for the quiz to a very low percentage. Every time I do the test, I would have predicted what the researchers would have interpreted the data. It became clearer and clearer to me on what could have came out from the study itself. To me 60 hours is something really hard to accomplish with mere tactics such as watching TV or reading your favourite book, quite impossible. I develop headaches and severe dry lips. Drinking of water did not help since it's the air-conditioning that is causing the dryness. I took out my cannula after 40+ hours because it became painful and itchy. It probably caused internal injury in the area since I'm still having some pain now. Subsequent draws had to be punctured but were all done smoothly and with minimal/no pain.
It came to the end of the 60th hour, YES!!!! We had our bath and dinner before our sleep on the 61st hour for 12 solid hours. I thought I wouldn't sleep that much but to my surprise, I was really sleeping like a log. I didn't wake up at all and it felt like the 12 hours flew pass like a breeze. Too me some time before I could manage to lift myself from the bed, my body ached all over. Everyone woke up full of enthusiasm to come the 2 last quizzes and drew the last sample of blood and saliva. I really wonder whether the nurse is really a qualified one or not. She drew the last 4mL of blood but somehow pierced half of the needle slowly, then went in the 2nd half quite fast. I was shocked and I think it was very very close to a nerve because ofter that there is a bruising pain around the area. Quite scary... Eeyer... Fortunately was only that very last time... I wouldn't want her to keep drawing from me numerous times.
That 60 hours made us 8 people become close friends, it was more like a mutual friendship that we understand each other's feelings. Unfortunately, Eugene dropped out on the 50th hour because he had a fever. Was sad for him, WeiMing nearly dropped out too for he had a slight temperature. Good thing his will power was much stronger than his immune system. I also found out that I lack a lot of general knowledge. I didn't know some basic things that we see/hear everyday like a turnover or hickey (which is actually a love bite). And just for laughs, I've gotten to know that the Emu is extinct, the ostrich can fly and lives only in Africa, our mother will definitely give us breast milk when we're young and there's a character called Crusty the Snowman. Hahaha... Oh well, time flies when you are enjoying yourself. That's what happened in the trial, everyone comes and goes with a blink of an eye. Before you know it, you're back in the bus heading for home. It's a wonderful yet excruciating experience. I probably wouldn't want to experience such an ordeal again but I look forward to other forms of experiment that would feed on my hungry mind.
Cannula - A flexible tube, usually containing a trocar at one end, that is inserted into a bodily cavity, duct, or vessel to drain fluid or administer a substance such as a medication.
Adapted from www.Answers.com
Sleep Deprived
The Mixed Boy
Adapted from www.Answers.com
Sleep Deprived
The Mixed Boy
posted by -=The Mixed Boy=- at 5/29/2007 09:01:00 PM
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