Streamer goes sleepless for nearly 12 days to try to break discontinued Guinness World Record
Warning: The actions mentioned in this article pose a serious risk to life. We strongly advise against doing a similar stunt.
A streamer from Australia went live for nearly 12 days straight in a bid to surpass the now-discontinued Guinness World Record for the longest time to stay awake, raising health and safety concerns among viewers.
Multiple outlets, including The Express Tribune and Ladbible, reported that Norme, 19, stayed awake for 264 hours and 56 minutes (11 days and 56 minutes).
But Norme's stream on platforms YouTube and Kick was removed. He continued it on Rumble and eventually achieved his goal.
There were interruptions during his attempts. On X, he posted photos of a police welfare check in his neighborhood to ensure his safety.
An ambulance also arrived to assess his condition.
Norme is known for remixing memes and doing viral ranking videos on YouTube.
The dangers of sleep deprivation
In a blog post, Guinness World Records said it stopped monitoring the record in 1997 "due to the inherent dangers associated with sleep deprivation."
"Scientific studies suggest that even small amounts of missed sleep can negatively impact our mental and physical health," it said.
The last record holder was Robert McDonald, who went 453 hours and 40 minutes (18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes) without sleep.
Aside from that, it noted sleep researchers' observations during the '60s to '70s that there are "microsleeps," or momentary lapses into sleep that last for just a few seconds.
"These are impossible to accurately monitor without continuous physiological recording equipment," Guinness World Records said.
The organization also cited the existence of people who suffer fatal familial insomnia, an extremely rare genetic disorder.
Victims, it noted, initially experience trouble sleeping, and over time this evolves into total insomnia, causing speech problems, hallucinations, dementia, and eventually death.
The Cleveland Clinic also said that sleep deprivation causes fatigue, poor balance and coordination, mood changes, forgetfulness, a weakened immune system, higher stress levels, and risk for hypertension and other diseases.
"It's likely that one unfortunate victim of this condition would be the unwitting holder of the record if we still monitored it," Guinness World Records said.
As far as the organization is concerned, nobody is known to have broken McDonald's record.
The first time that Guinness World Records awarded the sleeplessness record was in the '50s.
