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Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is a mental state which occurs when one has not received adequate quantities of sleep for extended periods of time. This can occur naturally from insomnia or it can be induced by extended stimulant use; it differs from stimulantpsychosis in its somewhat predictable timeline of deterioration of physical, mental, and visual abilities through predictable subjective effects.
The progression of the sleep deprivation experience can be broken down into hours gone without sleep, excluding micro-sleep sessions which may occur. A microsleep is a short period of time, from 10 to 60 seconds, in which the brain enters a sleep state, regardless of what the person is doing at the time. The affected individual often is not aware of the occurrence of the microsleep, experiencing only a brief skip forward in time.[1]
While humans are physically capable of surviving extended periods of sleep deprivation, it becomes increasingly difficult to remain awake and alert, until the person is inevitably unable to consciously resist falling asleep.
Combining sleep deprivation with psychoactive drugs is highly risky and can lead to severe mental and physical health consequences. Sleep deprivation alone disrupts cognitive functioning, emotional regulation, and self-awareness, often inducing dissociative states or psychotic symptoms. When paired with psychoactive substances, the risks are amplified, as they may exacerbate sleep loss and overstimulate the brain's emotional centers, potentially triggering hallucinations, delusions, or acute psychosis. Additionally, prolonged wakefulness combined with drug use can impair decision-making and increase susceptibility to addiction or other long-term neurological damage.
Practice
Sleep deprivation is employed by shamans in diverse cultures as a method to induce altered states of consciousness (ASC) to facilitate spiritual experiences and healing. Combined with other techniques like fasting, sensory deprivation, and repetitive rituals, it aims to heighten sensitivity and break down normal cognitive barriers. By disrupting normal sleep patterns, shamans seek to facilitate connections with the supernatural realm and gain deeper insights. This practice is a deliberate physical and mental challenge that may enable the practitioner to enter trance-like states conducive to their spiritual work.[2]
Subjective effects
The effects of sleep deprivation intensify as one is subjected to more time without sleep. Up to the 24-48 hour mark, the cognitive effects are manageable and perceptual effects are limited to the peripheral vision and hearing. However, as time goes on, the effects become all consuming and can render normal life impossible.
Sleep deprivation effects are expressed differently through populations including but not limited to age, gender, and occupation[3]. Keeping this in mind, people will have different reactions to different levels of sleep deprivation.
Physical effects
As with other effects, the physical effects intensify as the sleep deprivation experience continues in time. What starts out as:
Sleep deprivation can induce hallucinatory states that most often involve. These visual effects often increase proportionally to the length of time without sleep:
Object activation[4] - These late stage effects can be so intense and all encompassing that they render everyday tasks impossible to complete.
Cognitive effects
As with all the effects of sleep deprivation, cognitive function deteriorates rapidly[3] as the sleep deprivation experience goes on. The decline of cognitive ability may be negligible during the first 1-36 hours of sleep deprivation but becomes increasingly present after this time mark has been passed. This rapid deterioration of cognitive abilities onsets at a faster pace than the physical effects of sleep deprivation. These effects are:
These effects become increasingly present. These late stage effects can be so intense and all encompassing that they render everyday tasks impossible to complete.
Auditory effects
Auditory hallucination - can occur as sleep deprivation progresses, including but not limited to hearing voices, hearing objects move that are stationary, and hearing real life people talking to you when they have been silent.[4]Autonomous entities seen in late stage sleep deprivation may speak to you directly or there might be disembodied voices speaking within ones head. These voices follow the same progression of the leveling effects that are seen in the autonomous entity article.
Auditory distortion - can also occur that make conversing with others more difficult than in a well-rested state.
Neurochemistry
A main neurotransmitter which is involved in the effects of sleep deprivation is adenosine. Adenosine is released and builds up when a person is awake, and with sleep deprivation this can cause high amounts of adenosine to be released. Sleep deprivation increases activation of adenosine A1 receptors[6], which inhibit release of glutamate and acetylcholine[7], which could be involved in hallucinations and delusions caused by sleep deprivation.
During sleep deprivation, increased amounts of dopamine are released in the brain[8]. This is likely responsible for the euphoric and disinhibiting effects from early stage sleep deprivation, and may also have a role in the hallucinogenic effects of sleep deprivation.
↑ 5.05.15.25.3Reeve, Sarah; Emsley, Richard; Sheaves, Bryony; Freeman, Daniel (4 August 2017). "Disrupting Sleep: The Effects of Sleep Loss on Psychotic Experiences Tested in an Experimental Study With Mediation Analysis". Schizophrenia Bulletin. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbx103.
↑Elmenhorst, D., Meyer, P. T., Winz, O. H., Matusch, A., Ermert, J., Coenen, H. H., Basheer, R., Haas, H. L., Zilles, K., Bauer, A. (28 February 2007). "Sleep deprivation increases A1 adenosine receptor binding in the human brain: a positron emission tomography study". The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 27 (9): 2410–2415. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5066-06.2007. ISSN1529-2401.
Freeman, D., Sheaves, B., Goodwin, G. M., Yu, L.-M., Nickless, A., Harrison, P. J., Emsley, R., Luik, A. I., Foster, R. G., Wadekar, V., Hinds, C., Gumley, A., Jones, R., Lightman, S., Jones, S., Bentall, R., Kinderman, P., Rowse, G., Brugha, T., Blagrove, M., Gregory, A. M., Fleming, L., Walklet, E., Glazebrook, C., Davies, E. B., Hollis, C., Haddock, G., John, B., Coulson, M., Fowler, D., Pugh, K., Cape, J., Moseley, P., Brown, G., Hughes, C., Obonsawin, M., Coker, S., Watkins, E., Schwannauer, M., MacMahon, K., Siriwardena, A. N., Espie, C. A. (October 2017). "The effects of improving sleep on mental health (OASIS): a randomised controlled trial with mediation analysis". The Lancet Psychiatry. 4 (10): 749–758. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30328-0. ISSN2215-0366.
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