After David Blaine successfully broke a world record holding his breath in a sphere of water without turning blue on Oprah Winfrey’s show (and any Oprah show without Dr. Oz on it has to be a show out of the ordinary), people probably wondered how we was going to pull of his next announced stunt: Going without sleep for 11 days or more. Just the thought of having to stay awake for over 11 days makes me want to go take a catnap. But I believe it when Blaine says that all his physical endurance stunts are without any tricks. Certainly holding his breath was something he had to be conditioned for and in no way involved illusory tricks that would paint him as a charlatan who duped Oprah for the second time (hello, James Frey).
When it comes to breaking world records in sleep deprivation, though, there are some things that can be done to cheat–even with Guinness Book of World Records officials standing by. The only documented case that was carefully checked is the one that David Blaine will have to officially beat: Randy Gardner in 1964. This guy from San Diego was 17 years old at the time and managed to stay awake for 264 hours (which is 11 days). Blaine mentioned on Oprah’s show that he has to beat 11 days, which just might kill some people.
The interesting thing about Gardner above was that, despite a lot of the symptoms you’d expect from staying up for 11 days, he seemed to be able to think and talk logically when holding his press conference the day he broke the record. A lot of sleep researchers were on hand, though, who monitored every little reaction he’d have to forcing himself awake. They noticed Gardner having hallucinations (or basically dreaming while you’re awake) during certain moments, particularly when he was active. And that was one of the secrets to his staying awake: Playing basketball or keeping his mind active by talking to friends or TV reporters.
Unlike the deep concentration and avoidance of thinking too much about the press when holding your breath in a tank of water, staying awake obviously helps by reveling in the excitement of the attempt and getting psyched by all the media in the room…if you don’t get blasé about curious reporters after a week and a half.
After the record was beaten (previously in 1959 by a radio broadcaster named Peter Tripp who stayed up for 201 hours doing a March of Dimes telethon), Gardner was noted to be completely healthy. He noted in his press conference that he wanted to prove to the world that you don’t necessarily harm your body if you go without sleep for prolonged periods. I guess he didn’t include his brain as part of his body. Well, a lot of people–including myself–disagree with what Gardner said, even though he meant it as a one-shot thing and not on a recurring basis. His sleeping patterns afterward reportedly and amazingly shifted right into normalcy.
Ways to cheat at sleep deprivation...
There have been other attempts to break Gardner’s record, though they were discounted because the people weren’t carefully monitored. If you’ve ever benefited from what’s called micro sleep (otherwise known as those 1-minute naps), then you’ve just seen one little secret to how a person staying up for 11 days can possibly cheat if Guinness Book decided to get careless in observing someone. Guinness won’t be there anyway, because they’ve stopped honoring those who do sleep deprivation stunts due to the health risks.
But most sleep researchers say that even nodding off for a few seconds can refresh you enough where you can keep going for long hours. I’ve noticed this effect myself at rare times when I’ve been extra tired while working. Those little micro power naps usually wake you up after a few seconds anyway thanks to our inability to keep our head upright when nodding off while at your work desk. It wouldn’t surprise me, too, if people could train themselves to have those power naps while keeping their eyes open. As long as you’re sitting in a chair, nobody would know the difference. In fact, it has to be argued that the hallucinations sleep deprivers experience (and what Blaine explained already happened to him while already practicing his new stunt) could be technically called falling asleep with your eyes open.
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Perhaps that’s the new technique David Blaine will use to create a new world record at sleep deprivation later this year. If you’re reading this after it occurred, then I’ll assume that he was carefully observed to see what little nuanced things he could do to help him keep going. The man is already a master of nuance, psychology and personality magnet who can easily manipulate the masses if he really wanted to. I know from my own observations and inside knowledge of magic effects that his stunts at least don’t use illusionary techniques.
Training the body, however, to do things that people might not expect actually gives a whole new, fascinating perspective to what we’re truly capable of doing. It may not be useful to think that we can sleep while our eyes are open, but Blaine just may figure out how to use that to keep himself going if or when he tries breaking Gardner’s above record.
Blaine may want to think otherwise if one unproven record in the U.K. from a student named Jonathan Daley at John Moore University (who supposedly stayed up for 20 days) is verified. You also have other cases that claim to have beaten Gardner’s record, including one in 2007 by Tony Wright, which is unofficially the one that Blaine says he’ll attempt to beat.
In those cases, most people contend that the power of the micro power nap may have really pulled the wool over people’s eyes…
