YouTuber, Norme Breaks Guinness World Record For Longest Time Without Sleep

A man has broken the Guinness World Record for the longest time without sleep.

YouTuber Norme’s viral stream showed the 19-year-old star complete his vigil of 12 days, with police constantly checking in on him.
Throughout the 12-day long stint, Norme’s fans called the authorities to check on him because of concerns for his health while social media admins carried out multiple platform bans on him.

When he broke the record with 264 hours and 24 minutes, Norme had 9,000 viewers on ‘Rumble’, alternative platform to YouTube. Towards the end of the 12-days, ambulances and police cars lined the streets outside his house, where Norme was competing as friends watched on.

The previous record for no sleep was held by a man called Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for 11 straight days when he was 17 in 1964. Randy reportedly experienced hallucinations and extreme confusion during the attempt, while scientists documented his every move.

Since Randy took the record, there have been two other people to stay up over 400 hours – McDonald and Maureen Weston, but Guinness does not recognise the attempt.

All previous attempts at the record had medical professionals on board to monitor them. Norme didn’t, which prompted concerns for his welfare.

After just 24 hours of no sleep, people experience impaired coordination, memory and judgement. Stretch that to 36 and your physical health starts to deteriorate, with increased heart rate and blood pressure being forced by the body to keep you alert.

After two days of sleep deprivation, the body starts to “go offline” according to health professional Dr Drerup. Your eyes don’t close and you might be aware of what’s occurring, but your brain essentially switches off for a “microsleep” – up to 15 seconds of rest where your body tries to compensate.

Any longer than three days awake, and people can start to experience psychosis. It is unclear at this time how Norme felt when he broke the record, apart from the intense joy he and his friends displayed when he overtook Randy.