‘My head is gripped by the most torturous pressure imaginable. My joints, bones and muscles scream with pain. I feel like I’m in an iron suit. My eyes feel like they’re melting out of my skull. I cannot walk in a straight line. My sight is impaired. I can’t digest food properly.
‘I cannot relate to anyone any more. Nothing gives me pleasure or enjoyment; not watching a film, eating, reading a book. And through every day and night, I remain awake, not even drowsy – trapped in a mind that cannot rest, cannot recover, cannot reset. It’s desperately lonely because I feel I’m the only person in the world who suffers like this.’
How long can a human mind and body endure sleeplessness? ‘Total insomnia is considered a fatal condition,’ says consultant neurologist Professor Guy Leschziner, author of The Nocturnal Brain, who specialises in sleep disorders.
‘While we do not have very clear data from humans for ethical reasons, dogs kept awake will invariably die within 17 days, and rats will also die within 32 days.’
And yet Oliver claims he has been living without restorative sleep for nearly two years, confounding the medics he has consulted in the UK, according to documentation seen by the Mail. ‘I’ve begged doctors and emailed sleep experts and scientists around the world, pleading with them to observe me over several weeks. I have offered to pay but my pleas have gone unanswered.
7news.com.au
