text: how long can we go without sleep?   the longest i've ever stayed up is about 36 hours, but people can stay up a lot longer than that.  even staying up just a few hours later than you normally go to bed you start to have decreased cognitive function, blurry vision, etc.  that stuff increases the longer you stay up.    there's never been a documented case of a healthy person dying from sleep deprivation, but rats die after about 28 days without sleep.  people with a certain type of genetic insomnia sometimes die after several months without sleep.  the longest people have stayed up in monitored experiments is 10 days, and they had less memory and concentration and stuff after a long time without sleep, but no serious health problems.