Sleep News

5 Sleep World Records

An image of Danielle Mowbray
30 Mar 20183 min read
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Sometimes, after a particularly tough week at work or a really eventful night out on the tiles, you feel like you could sleep for a week. However, if things were switched round and you were asked to stay awake for the longest time possible, how long do you think you’d last?

While we’re not sure we’d like to attempt to smash the world record for staying awake the longest and those around us may be a little peeved if we had the world’s loudest snore, the team at Mattress Online is open to taking part in the next world's biggest pyjamas party attempt. Are you in? Are there any other sleep world records you’d like to try for? Let’s take a look…

1. Longest time without sleep

Girl with eyes wide open.

The record for the longest ever drug-free time without sleeping is held by American Randy Gardner. In 1964 he kept himself awake for 11 consecutive days, all in the name of his school science project. Aged just 17 at the time, Randy reported that it was fun for the first few days. After that, not so much!

2. Pyjama party

Sleepovers don’t always involve a lot of sleep. We’re betting that not every one of the 2,004 participants in the biggest-ever pyjama party organised had a lot of quality sleep. But we're pretty sure it was a fun event to be part of all the same! The event was organised by Girlguiding North West in Cheshire, 2014.

3. Loudest snore

Think your partner’s snoring would score highly on the decibel scale? Chances are it’s not quite as painfully loud as that of Kare Walkert from Sweden. He is unlucky enough to suffer from a rare breathing disorder that contributed to him reaching the dizzying snore level of 93 dBA (decibels) on May 24th 1993 during a hospital stay.

Read our blog post on how to stop your partner snoring to avoid breaking this record.

4. Largest sleeping bag

While it’s still apparently awaiting official confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest ever sleeping bag was actually manufactured on UK soil by Yorkshire manufacturer Snugpak. The bag stretched out an incredible 20 metres in length. It was made to launch the charity Centrepoint’s annual sleep out event.

5. Breakfast in bed

A big breakfast.

It’s not strictly speaking a sleep world record but waking up to breakfast in bed is always a great treat. That said, would you want to share it with four hundred plus strangers around you? The most people recorded as eating breakfast in bed at the same time according to the Guinness Book of World Records online took place at the Sheraton Langfant Chaobai River Hotel in Langfang, Hebel, China back in August 2015. Although some children accompanied their parents dining, they were not counted towards the total.

We think someone might be missing an opportunity here – surely breakfast in the biggest-ever sleeping bag after the world’s largest pyjama party is an event that needs to be planned?

For more weird sleep experiments, read our blog post.