My sleep debt is easily 5000+ hours.

by Chris
(Tennessee )

Roughly every week since junior year of high school (2008) I have stayed up for a consecutive 48 hours or 72 every couple months. I only get about 8-9 hours of sleep the rest of the week. After reading several pages and sites on sleep deprivation the past hour or so I can't help but strongly disagree with a few of the common effects that have been on every single article I have read.

Where to start... well just keep in mind how large my sleep debt is and I will explain the parts of my everyday life that conflicts with the oh so terrible effects I should be experiencing.(It's probably just gonna seem like i'm bragging because of the point i'm trying to get across and I know it's not very reassuring but you will just have to believe me.)

1)Driving:
I became the Lead Driver at my Papa Johns within 4 months of employment.
I have never been in a single wreck yet have actively avoided 6 wrecks, two of them I had to maneuver into the opposing lane.

2)Alertness:
As far back as I can remember, my parents, relatives, friends, teachers, and strangers have all been baffled and curious about how I am able to notice practically everything you are doing and half the time what you are contemplating to do. I assume I just have good insight for that, but regardless if you are able to do something while I am just facing your way(having a conversation with someone else, on my phone, or not even really trying to pay attention.) Every single person that knows me half way decent will be pretty damn impressed with you.

3)Reflexes/Control/Coordination:
I was starting point guard from 6th-12th grade I catch everything that's thrown at me, if it's too low I can easily kick it up to grabbing reach. I have a ridiculously good reaction time and my control is extremely good.

The part that makes sense according to what I have read:
I do get extremely random head aches, my right wrist is typically in a lot of pain over half of my day, and my knees and ankles will pop so often I don't even notice it anymore.(Unless its a hard pop which will make the joint hurt for about the next hour.)

Energy and motivation are a toss up for me though. Yes I tend to seem like I have less of both. As long as I can remember if I want to do something I will always be the most motivated and energetic when it comes to that certain topic, but something that i'm truly interested in comes so few, far, and in between, I seem like a lazy individual. When in reality I have always thought that if i'm not truly interested in what i'm doing there is no point in focusing on it as hard as I would something I cared about. If I do not NEED to do something or if i'm not intrigued by it, my mind will always been wondering off about things I am interested in.

Now with all of this finally said. What I truly wrote all this for was to try to find out why am I able to have such an insane sleep debt yet always be the highest performer in anything I feel worthy of my time. Why do I have the best mental/physical reactions out of every single person i've spent considerable time around? Even without my sleep debt I would like to know why I am always "so much better than everyone else at everything I try at." (I've heard 6 people that do not know each other say this to me right after I beat them at what they think they're extremely good at in 2-3 tries.) If anyone has some legitimate answers for me that would be greatly appreciated. I don't plan to change my sleeping habits as long as I am able to perform the best out of everyone around me. I don't see why I should.