Chasing Sleepless Nights: A Tale of Endurance and Hallucination
In the late 19th century, the boundaries of human endurance were tested in peculiar and often grueling public spectacles. One such event, a "sleep-fasting" contest in San Francisco, pushed participants to their physical and mental limits, captivating audiences with the raw drama of human resilience. William E. Woodford, an Englishman and contestant in this extraordinary challenge, documented his harrowing experience of staying awake for over six days, offering a vivid glimpse into the surreal and disorienting effects of extreme sleep deprivation. His account, originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle and reprinted in The Irish Standard on July 4, 1891, captures the psychological toll and strange hallucinations that accompanied his feat. As a high school student, I undertook a similar, albeit less ambitious, experiment, staying awake for 72 hours to test my own limits, inspired by a role-playing game character’s ability to endure sleepless nights. Woodford’s story, far more extreme, resonates with my own memories of pacing an empty house, battling drowsiness, and encountering fleeting visions. His narrative not only illuminates the physical and mental strain of such an endeavor but also serves as a historical curiosity, reflecting a time when human endurance was a public spectacle. Below is a full transcript of Woodford’s account, preserving its original language, misspellings, and grammatical quirks, as it appeared in The Irish Standard.1
WITHOUT SLEEP.
How It Feels to Remain Awake for Six Days.
A Contestant in a Sleep-Fasting Match Describes Some of the Strange Sensations He Experienced.
William E. Woodford, the Englishman who recently attempted to keep awake seven days in San Francisco as an attraction for a dime museum, has written the story of how it feels to be actually sleepy. Woodford succeeded in keeping awake over six days, says the San Francisco Chronicle, when the physician in charge compelled the management to stop the cruel exhibition. Woodford, who is a bright, well-educated fellow, says:
“I entered the sleep-fasting match with the intention of staying till the end. I never undertook anything in my life unless I had first determined to see it through. The only time I had ever remained up for any length of time was on one occasion when my ship encountered a typhoon in the China sea. I was awake for four nights and days. I thought of that when I went in and I felt that I could remain awake longer under the favorable conditions that were guaranteed, but, I must say, not fulfilled.
“The first night of the contest seemed rather long, and I had been without sleep for thirty-six hours preceding and felt rather drowsy when the affair began. Friday night did pass more rapidly, but as it grew near morning I felt rather sleepy. I grew to be afraid of myself and was hoping that I would not be the first to be rung out.
“I kept my eyes open by telling myself that I couldn’t be the first to quit in the face of all those other contestants. In other words, I felt just like a man who was ‘way out in the country and had to walk home with the rest or be left behind.
“One by one the contestants were rung out, but the time seemed a month. The hours grew longer and longer. Saturday afternoon I had an idea that my reason was going to leave me and that I was going to be a maniac. For an hour I didn’t know where I was. I was walking about the hall, but didn’t know it. Once I nearly fell, but one of the contestants caught me and held me up. This was the worst sensation I experienced during all the seven days and six nights that I remained awake. It was simply awful, and I would not go through it again for thousands of dollars. The large crowd Sunday aroused me somewhat and assisted in making the afternoon and evening pass more pleasantly than usual.
“Monday morning at three or four o’clock, my ghost hours, I had a rather peculiar experience. I had a waking dream which lasted several hours. The audience seemed to be enacting a scene in my early life, and although I knew I was seeing double, I could not get rid of the second view or sight. I saw everything as it was occurring in reality in the hall, but at the same time I saw before me the other scene. Men seemed to going through the sports that I used to enjoy at school and I saw the faces of many of my old schoolmates.
“About this time I began to notice that the old man who claimed on entering to have remained awake an almost incredible length of time, and who, together with Jackson, I thought most likely to win, was showing signs of weariness. Then it was that I thought I really had some show. It was too late now to give in. Unless that I felt that it was injuring my health in some way I determined to stick it out. I started out almost like a new man. Then I had more waking dreams, especially just before daybreak.
“These hours were my mauvais quart d’heure (a brief unpleasant period). Then only I felt real sleepy.
“Sleepy is a mild name for it. I couldn’t keep my eyes open at all, and to prevent myself falling asleep in dead earnest I ran about the hall for more than an hour at a time. Sometimes my eyes were closed.
“It was only by repeated sponge baths that I managed to keep my eyelids from coming together and staying so.
“Toward eight o’clock in the morning the sleepiness passed away and I felt as if I had just awaked from a refreshing sleep. Expecting to feel the same way every morning I became prepared.
“Often I thought I was wandering about the streets taking in the sights, and then I would return and mingle with the crowds at the door.
“On these wanderings I often felt puzzled that I was not missed. While I was perfectly that I was not missed. While I was perfectly aware that these were all vagaries of the brain I was unable to restrain myself. I think it benefited me, though. It relieved my brain of real work.
“ Thursday morning I had a kind of waking dream. I imagined I has home in my room looking at the birds.
“A little paroquet is my favorite, and, I always played with it. I dreamed it had had no food and was starving. I wanted to go and feed it, but I was assured, of course, that the birds were receiving the best of care from the ladies of the house. It passed away after awhile, but I had the vision before me.
“When I got home on Thursday afternoon I found things just as they appeared in the dream. Through some oversight the birds had not been fed and were nearly famished. The paroquet was biting away at the woodwork. I think that is the strangest thing about the whole contest.”
“Without Sleep,” The Irish Standard (Minneapolis, Minn.), July 4, 1891, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059959/1891-07-04/ed-1/seq-3/.