Sleepless

Prompt: Write about the longest amount of time you've ever gone without sleeping.

About four hours, give or take, into my 31 hour marathon of sleeplessness

I don't like to sleep. I'm not a napper. And I'd prefer to stay up late every night if I could. Even sleeping in is something I "like" only because I need it.  I've often wished there was a pill I could take that would give me a good 8 hours worth of rest on an hour or two of sleep.  The longest time I've ever gone without sleep I got to live that dream for two days, and while I was absolutely wiped out and mentally and emotionally a bit off my rocker, it actually was pretty awesome.  If you're going to stay awake for two days straight, this was the way to do it: Doing awesome things and spending time with treasured friends--not slaving away at some work project.

When I sat down to write I couldn't remember the longest amount of time I'd gone without sleeping.  I've pulled a few all-nighters, usually long drives between Michigan and Florida in college, but in all those cases I usually went to sleep in the morning.  I was all set to write about the late nights in Tampa I spent during my high school days running around with Chris Cotta, Greg Wedel, Carissa Berard (now Cotta) and Heather Dunkel (now Rice) because that was the first time that I stayed up all night. But then I was in the middle of writing this sentence: "But I don't think I've ever stayed up for more than 24 hours" and I realized that I had.  And I've already written about it here.  But I'm going to go ahead and take a few minutes to recap and reflect on that time again.

It was the summer of 2008, nine and a half years ago. It was Farewell Season in Saipan, that time of year when the student missionaries were wrapping up their experience in Saipan and returning to "normal life" on the Mainland.  That year my regular running buddies were Jessica Lee, Judith Edwards, and Mai-Rhea Odiyar.  Lee and Jude were student missionaries going back to college, and Mai was an AVS teacher who had a two year contract and was transitioning to another mission field in Thailand in 2008, after some additional training in Florida.  All three were leaving the same morning and we developed a plan for what we expected would be our final run together. (And so far it has been.  Judith, Mai-Rhea, and I ran together during Thanksgiving Break in 2009 in Oregon but it wasn't the same without Jessica.  I don't believe I've run with any of these women since then.)

I woke up on the morning of June 9 around 2 A.M. and the clock started. I had risen early to see off another SM, Veronyka Perez, who was leaving on an early morning flight a day earlier than my running crew.  I spent the early morning hours  working on a playlist of music we were loading on to an iPod Judith, Jessica and I had pooled our funds together to buy for Mai.

At 4:00 A.M. we gathered at the airport to watch Vero take her Long Walk.  After that our plan was to head out Banzai Cliff to watch the sunrise and then run up Suicide Cliff.  We carried out our plan fueled by some highly potent (and also highly sketchy) knock-off of Red Bull. Twenty-four hours after I'd last slept, I was powering my way up Suicide Cliff.  We spent the rest of the morning checking off a few Saipan bucket list highlights-- watching the waves at Cowtown, exploring San Juan Beach, kayaking and swimming out to the tanks.  The afternoon and evening the women spent packing up.  I don't remember what I did but despite having gone sleepless for 18 hours  I didn't sleep.

By the time we saw Jess off, checked in Mai and Jude in for their flight and then headed over to J's Restaurant for an early morning breakfast I'd been awake for 26 hours. I was physically exhausted and an emotional wreck. 

I finally went to bed around 9 A.M.,  after I'd watched my fellow runners fly away, having gone approximately 31 hours without sleep.  I was 34 years old.  Ten years later, I don't think I could pull that off again. I'm certain I wouldn't want to.  I'm also certain that I'm glad I did. It was a special time and I have wonderful memories of my sleepless season that I'll always treasure.