WHAT IT FEELS LIKE...to Stay Awake for 11 Days

It was Christmas vacation, my senior year in high school in San Diego. I was kind of a geek, and I was determined to win the science fair, so this was my experiment. It was fun for the first few days. Then it got to be a real bummer.

The toughest time was always just before sunrise, right from the first day. That's when I'd get that scratchy, sand-in-your-eyes feeling, and every day it got a little worse. Even on day two, I had trouble focusing my eyes. But as soon as the sun came up, I'd feel better.

I got pretty moody and paranoid around day four. I was convinced everyone was talking about me, staring at me. And I was being watched very closely; my friends would monitor me all the time, even in the bathroom. At one point, I hallucinated that ...