Vietnam man handles three decades without sleep

[Roon]

You’d think going without sleep for that long may have its drawbacks, but not for the man in central Quang Nam province who has never been ill after decades of insomnia.

His inability to sleep has not only made him famous, but also represents a “miraculous” phenomenon worthy of scientific study.

Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=12673

[barb162]

1. I think I don't believe this. It doesn't make sense

and I think he really is sleeping or nodding off but maybe for very short periods

[stpalm]

2. I call BS on this

You die without 5 days of sleep... and go insane.

[dysfunctional press]

3. i don't believe it...but it sure would be cool to not require sleep.

i have pretty bad insomnia, and i rarely get more than 4 hours of sleep a night, and have at least one night every 2 weeks where i get absolutely no sleep.

it's a great way to get at some of those household chores that always seem to get put off.

[AmyDeLune]

4. He probably has "microsleep" episodes

something severe insomniacs get. They nod off for a few seconds or a few minutes at a time and don't remember doing so. Sleep deprivation is murder on short-term memory.

[Catchawave]

5. He shattered the current Guiness record of 11 days!

From Wiki:

Randy Gardner holds the Guinness world record for the longest period of time a human being has gone without sleep. In 1964, as a 17-year-old high school student, Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days) with the help of friends, TV reporters, and games of pinball. On his final day without sleep, Gardner presided over a press conference where he spoke without slurring or stumbling his words and in general appeared to be in excellent health. "I wanted to prove that bad things didn't happen if you went without sleep," said Gardner. "I thought, 'I can break that (Peter Tripp's 1959 record) and I don't think it would be a negative experience.'" Sleep experts now believe that such sleep deprivation stunts are dangerous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_%28sleep_deprived%29

[pitohui]

6. sez him

there is always some dude in the orient who doesn't have to eat or sleep but somehow it never pans out when the scientific instruments come out

[Metta]

7. When I was a monk in Thailand,

I visited a Thai nun who lived in a rural cemetary and also didn't sleep. I also was at a Tibetan monastery just south of Darjeeling where monks were cloistered in meditation and used the twilight not quite asleep state to meditate in, apparently part of the tradition.