The Psychological Effects of 205 Hours of Sleep Deprivation

Hallucinatory experience: A personal account.

“…It is true that sleep deprivation may result in hallucinatory experiences (e.g., Pasnau, Naitoh, Stier, & Kollar, 1968), but in my case sleep deprivation was not total and for this reason alone may not be comparable to controlled sleep deprivation studies. The facts associated with this aspect of the whole episode are the least reliable; subjective evaluation of the number of hours of sleep is notori-This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

“…My misperceptions were almost always of relatively long durations, and even one of the shortest episodes (children's voices) lasted for approximately 2 minutes. Although Pasnau et al (1968) do not report exact durations of the lapses (and presumably the misperceptions) in their study, it is clear from the context that the lapses were brief. In addition, on at least two occasions I was fully awake and talking to another individual while experiencing the hallucinations (e.g., the two men in the hall episode).…”

Changes in Psychopathological Symptoms in Sleep Apnea Patients After Treatment with Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure

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Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis With Increasing Time Awake

“…Perceptual changes start with blurred vision and diplopia, with the visual complaint progressing gradually from distortions to illusions, and finally hallucinations (Figure 4 , ( 18 , 25 , 26 , 28 – 30 , 32 – 38 , 42 , 45 – 47 )].…”

“…After one night without sleep, the progression starts with visual distortions (depth, size, and shape), and changes in the sense of body ( 18 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 33 , 37 ), followed by visual illusions and simple hallucinations (30–48 h) ( 18 , 28 , 33 , 35 , 36 , 42 , 45 , 46 ). After 50 h without sleep, there is a progression toward complex visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, and multimodal hallucinations ( 28 – 30 , 32 , 34 – 37 , 42 , 48 ) (Figure 4 ). These continue to increase gradually in complexity, severity, and persistence over time.…”