How Sleep Deprivation Drove One Man Out Of His Mind

In 1959, 32-year old popular radio personality Peter Tripp decided to stay awake for 8 days and nights as part of a publicity stunt aimed at raising money for charity. It was the most daring sleep deprivation ever attempted, and virtually every researcher and physician warned Tripp against the idea. But Tripp was determined, and so on a cold January morning, he placed himself in a glass booth in the middle of Times Square so that curious onlookers and fascinated scientists alike could observe his activity as he went for 201 consecutive hours without sleep.

Trip beginning to feel effect of sleep deprivation

At first, Tripp seemed to cope well without sleep. He was, after all, considered to be a normal and well-to-do man by his family, friends, and listeners. His initial broadcasts during his experiment were entertaining as he remained cheerful and humorous as usual. By day four, however, Tripp began experiencing terrifying hallucinations, imagining spiders crawling in his shoes and mice scampering around him.

Trip experiencing visual hallucinations.

At times, his psychotic symptoms were so severe that physicians were unable to test his physiological functioning. Tripp also grew increasingly hostile; for example, he became convinced that the physicians monitoring him were conspiring against him, and would experience angry outbursts during which he would attack them. By day eight, Peter Tripp could not differentiate between his hallucinations and delusions, and reality. He had in fact, essentially “lost his mind”.

Attendants putting Peter Tripp to bed at the end of his “wake-a-thon”

Eventually, Tripp was able to endure over eight days of sleep deprivation — thereby breaking the world record — and upon completing his feat, slept for twenty-two hours straight.

He awoke seeming to have recovered from the wake-a-thon and resumed his radio job; however, it was later evident that this experience did not come without long-term consequences. Tripp continued to show psychotic symptoms beyond the charity event, lost his job, divorced his wife, and was rarely heard of by the public ever again.

What was the reason underlying some of Tripp’s psychotic symptoms? As psychologists studied Tripp’s downward spiral, they realized that his visual hallucinations were following a pattern of occurring roughly every 90 minutes, a cycle that mimics the timing of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. As we enter REM sleep, our brains become very active as it synthesizes and interprets different signals, and it is during this stage that we dream. Tripp experienced what psychologists believe were “waking dreams”, when his mind followed a regular pattern of dreaming while the body remained awake.

What can we take away from Peter Tripp’s story? Sleep deprivation can have irreversible, damaging, and long-lasting consequences on one’s social, cognitive, and behavioral functioning

Our hope is that you can wake up to the truth: Sleep is worth your time.