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Randy Gardner
Longest documented time awake (11 days, 1963-64)
Over the turn of 1963 into 1964 a California high-school student, Randy Gardner, stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days) for a science fair project, while sleep researcher William Dement of Stanford looked on. He later recovered with normal sleep.
Gardner, then 17, began on 28 December 1963 and stopped on 8 January 1964. Two classmates helped keep him awake with games, conversation and walks, and a Navy doctor and later Dement monitored him. He was reported to have slept about 14 hours after the stunt, then returned to normal sleep patterns within a few days.
During the stay-awake period, observers noted problems with concentration, memory and mood, along with some odd perceptions, though he still managed tasks such as beating Dement at pinball. It became a famous case in sleep research even though it involved only one person and was not a controlled experiment.
Decades later Gardner told reporters he had struggled with serious insomnia in later life, though no one can say for sure whether the stunt contributed. Guinness stopped recognizing sleep-deprivation records because of the risks, so the 264-hour mark is treated as a historical milestone, not a goal. His case is still cited in sleep textbooks as an example of how prolonged wakefulness affects thinking and behavior.