Teen who broke world record for staying awake now suffers insomnia: 'We were idiots'

Randy Gardner broke the world record by staying awake for 264 hours. He eventually had a long sleep of 14 hours after breaking the record and returned to his normal sleeping pattern, soon enough. (Representational Image).

An experiment that began as a means to study and develop better understanding about insomnia and its effects turned horribly wrong for a teenager after he began suffering from sleeplessness and mood swings, many years later.

In 1963, two 17-year-old students Bruce McAllister and Randy Gardner decided to study insomnia and aimed to break the world record for staying awake for the maximum number of hours that was set by a DJ in Honolulu (260 hours).

The initial idea for the two was to understand the impact of sleeplessness on paranormal capabilities, but they decided to not go forward after the idea was not feasible.

Instead, they decided to get an understanding of effects of lack of sleep on the cognitive ability. To decide who would take up the experiment, they did  a toss and Gardner lost the toss and became the person to stay awake.

McAllister said that he, too, remained awake for three nights in a row, but the lack of sleep impacted him to such an extent that he started to write notes on the wall. "We were idiots, you know young idiots and I stayed awake with him to monitor him and after three night of sleeplessness myself I woke up tipped against the wall writing notes on the wall itself," McAllister told BBC.

Gardner broke the world record by staying awake for 264 hours. He eventually had a long sleep of 14 hours after breaking the record and returned to his normal sleeping pattern, soon enough.

But many years later, he began suffering from severe insomnia that affected his normal well-being. McAllister said in the interview that Gardner's parents were apprehensive about the idea and felt it could harm him.