I read some weird fanfiction a friend dared me to read (which I now regret) it involved a man holding his girlfriend in his lap with her back to his chest. the man was on cocaine which allowed him to stay awake for much longer than normal. The man started flexing his pecs up against her back constantly, changing up the pattern so her brain couldn’t get used to it. she did something bad, so he was doing it to kill her via sleep deprivation. he kept this up for over a week and she ended up dying of sleep deprivation.
If that happened irl, would it be possible? This article seems to suggest it’s possible to voluntarily stay awake until you die but it’s from the Dailymail so who knows if it’s even a true story xD
Yep, that is a very weird fanfiction.
Sleep deprivation can kill, although the mechanisms aren’t well understood. Some recent research with fruit flies has suggested it might actually be the gut that is injured by it. IIRC it takes more like two or three weeks for a rat.
You could probably sleep through flexing if you were tired enough. For the poor rats they use a device that dumps them in water too deep to stand it. And cocaine helps keep you awake, but probably doesn’t protect you from the health effects.