When seven students spent 60 hours without sleep in the name of science. Not everyone is like Thomas Edison and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
It was 100 years ago, in 1925, that a group of seven university students from George Washington University (GWU), in Washington DC, spent 60 hours awake to participate in a scientific experiment that aimed to answer a very controversial question: was sleep just a waste of time?
The person responsible for the experiment, Frederick August Moss, professor of Psychology at GWU and creator of the first medical school admission test, was perfectly convinced that sleeping was a useless habit. I wanted to prove it and also prove that human beings could be trained to live without sleep.
It was precisely in this month, November, 1925, that Popular Science magazine reported the experiment, presenting it as an attempt to find out whether sleep represented a “tragic loss of a third of the precious hours of life”.
60 hours of wakefulness
At the end of August of that year, Moss gathered seven students in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, close to the White House and Georgetown. The mission was both simple and challenging: stay awake for at least 60 hours while the teacher assessed vital signs, reflexes and mental performance through tests and practical tasks.
For two and a half days, the group tried to resist sleep with car rides through the Virginia countryside, baseball games and songs. In the end, everyone managed to achieve their objective. According to Popular Science, Moss concluded that “Too much sleep, like too much intoxication, can be harmful, dulling mental and physical activities.”
The 1920s fascination with sleep deprivation
The 1920s, marked by industrialization and the cult of productivity, saw sleep as an obstacle to progress. Figures like Thomas Edison — and, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa — boasted about sleeping just four hours a night, claiming that rest was an unnecessary limitation. The culture of efficiency dominated scientific and business thinking, and sleep deprivation became synonymous with ambition.
Despite this, journalist Newton Burke, author of the article in Popular Science, remained skeptical. He referred to other similar experiments, such as those carried out at the first sleep research laboratory at the University of Chicago, and concluded that “there is no way to substantially reduce sleep without negative effects on health”.
100 years later, science confirms: sleep is vital
Today we know that sleep is anything but wasted time. In the last two decades, technological advances have made it possible to better understand what happens in the brain during rest. Techniques such as optogenetics — which uses lasers to measure and activate neuronal pathways — and deep brain ultrasound have revealed that sleep is an active process: the brain consolidates memories, eliminates toxins such as beta-amyloid (associated with Alzheimer’s disease), repairs tissues and regulates hormones essential to metabolism and cell growth.
In addition to the brain, the immune system is also strengthened during sleeppreparing the body to fight infections. Far from being a luxury, sleep is a biological need central to health and longevity.
Sleeping too much can also be a sign of a problem.
Interestingly, recent studies indicate that sleep has a balance point: both lack and excess hours of sleep are associated with increased risks of disease and early mortality. Epidemiological analyzes show a “U” shaped relationship — sleeping too little or too much can be harmful.
For adults, the ideal range is between seven and nine hours per night. Sleeping more than this does not necessarily cause problems, but it can be a symptom of underlying conditions such as depression, sleep apnea or chronic illnesses that cause fatigue.
More recently, importance has been given to sleep. Going to bed and waking up at a consistent time helps reduce the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and mood disorders. Good practices include avoiding screens before bed, keeping the room dark and cool and following routines that encourage relaxation.
