And then there were the hallucinations. There were reports that Gardner deluded himself an imaginary hat, claiming to have felt the pressure of it around his head. He often saw fog around street lights for the duration of the endeavor, regardless of weather. As early as the fourth day of not sleeping, he thought a street sign was a person, and then straight up believed that he, a lanky white teenager, was a large black professional football player.
This, it turns out, is pretty much what anyone can expect. After about three days of not sleeping, you absolutely will start hallucinating, and rarely in a fun way. Going long enough without sleep means your nightmares will simply come out to find you in the real world.
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