Eleven Days Without Sleep: The Haunting Effects Of A Record-Breaking Stunt

By Parth Shah,

Shankar Vedantam, Jennifer Schmidt, Tara Boyle, Renee Klahr

Published November 6, 2017 at 9:00 PM EST

Staying up until the early hours of the morning with friends. Skipping sleep to prepare for an exam. These are fairly standard aspects of student life for many young people.

But these sorts of all-nighters pale in comparison to the stunt Randy Gardner pulled when he was 17.

"You don't need sleep. That was the thinking in the 1960s, and that was the thinking I had," said Randy Gardner.

In 1963, Randy stayed awake for eleven days — breaking the world record for going without sleep. Today, at 71, he offers his wisdom about staying up past your bedtime — and describes how his teenage stunt came back to haunt him decades later.

Hidden Brain is hosted by Shankar Vedantam and produced by Maggie Penman, Jennifer Schmidt, Rhaina Cohen, Parth Shah, and Renee Klahr. Our supervising producer is Tara Boyle. You can also follow us on Twitter @hiddenbrain, and listen for Hidden Brain stories each week on your local public radio station.

Parth Shah

Parth Shah is a producer and reporter in the Programming department at NPR. He came to NPR in 2016 as a Kroc Fellow.

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Shankar Vedantam

Shankar Vedantam is the host and creator of Hidden Brain. The Hidden Brain podcast receives more than three million downloads per week. The Hidden Brain radio show is distributed by NPR and featured on nearly 400 public radio stations around the United States.

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Jennifer Schmidt

Jennifer Schmidt is a senior producer for Hidden Brain. She is responsible for crafting the complex stories that are told on the show. She researches, writes, gathers field tape, and develops story structures. Some highlights of her work on Hidden Brain include episodes about the causes of the #MeToo movement, how diversity drives creativity, and the complex psychology of addiction.

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Tara Boyle

Tara Boyle is the supervising producer of NPR's Hidden Brain. In this role, Boyle oversees the production of both the Hidden Brain radio show and podcast, providing editorial guidance and support to host Shankar Vedantam and the shows' producers. Boyle also coordinates Shankar's Hidden Brain segments on Morning Edition and other NPR shows, and oversees collaborations with partners both internal and external to NPR. Previously, Boyle spent a decade at WAMU, the NPR station in Washington, D.C. She has reported for The Boston Globe, and began her career in public radio at WBUR in Boston.

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Renee Klahr

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