Health, Longevity & Biohacking
Bipolar disorder patients can go seven days with zero sleep during manic episodes
Huberman Lab
The Science & Treatment of Bipolar Disorder | Huberman Lab Essentials
"People who are in a manic episode can often go 7 days or more with zero sleep. And a key feature of this zero sleep is that they're not troubled by it. They are just going and going and going with no sleep, up all hours, shopping, talking, running, doing all sorts of different things, and it doesn't bother them that they're not sleeping."
Huberman describes one of the most extreme symptoms of bipolar manic episodes: patients can remain awake for a week or longer without distress, continuing high-energy activities throughout. This is a clinical diagnostic criterion and represents the severity of neural disruption in the disorder, which affects 1% of the population and carries 20-30 times greater suicide risk.
From this episode
Huberman Lab