Man Claims No Sleep Record

Thursday, 04 November 2010 | by Pat's Picks

As someone who has to regularly squeeze in naps to get a decent amount of sleep, I’ve got to wonder what this guy was thinking. According to the UK’s Daily Mail, a 28-year-old photographer is claiming he’s set the world record for staying awake after going without sleep for 40 days. That would be 968 hours.

Tyler Shields wasn’t really motivated by anything but think his record is “pretty awesome.” Too bad the Guinness Book of World Records won’t acknowledge his feat—they say it’s too hard to verify and too dangerous to recreate. Shields is from Los Angeles, but none of the US papers have picked up his story yet—or maybe he’s slept though all his interviews.

Shields’ official website has several posts chronicling his sleepless adventures, as well as some work that he produced while awake. It’s….strange.