In 1959, a famous DJ named Peter Tripp decided to raise money for charity in an unusual way. The 32-year-old entered a glass room right in the middle of Times Square. From there, he would work on his radio show for eight days straight without any sleep in what was called a “wakeathon.”

During the first two days, Tripp entertained his audience with flawless broadcasts. He seemed to be in good spirits, joking and laughing. On the third day, Tripp’s jovial mood changed dramatically. He became abusive towards his peers.

As time went on, Tripp started to hallucinate: His shoes were full of tangled cobwebs. People were made up of furry worms. By the 120-hour mark, he frantically ran out of a building after hallucinating a fire. He didn’t believe doctors when they told him it was just his imagination.

Suddenly, he began to accuse people of trying to murder him. He could no longer remember the alphabet. “On the last morning, he mistook one of his doctors for an undertaker that had come to collect his body,” writes Geoff Rolls in Classical Case Studies in Psychology.

He was awake for “merely” eight days. Yet according to doctors, that was enough time to trigger “nocturnal psychosis.” After sleeping for 13-hours straight, Tripp’s sanity was returned.

What happened after 24-hours

Even though Tripp was seemingly fine after the first night, not sleeping for 24-hours is comparable to having a .10 percent blood alcohol concentration, according to a 2010 study. In other words, that’s considered legally drunk in most of the United States.

36-hours

By the 36-hour mark, Tripp’s memory was impaired. In a study published in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, researchers found that test subjects who stayed awake this long had trouble remembering faces properly. And, much like Tripp, they were confident they were correct (even when they were wrong).

48-hours

Keep in mind, Tripp had only been awake for two days at this point. Yet being awake that long makes you more susceptible to microsleep, says sleep educator Terry Cralle. It’s sort of like blacking out, according to her interview in Everyday Health. The desire to sleep overwhelms you so much that you nod off without realizing it. This is how drowsy drivers unfortunately end up in car accidents.

Death from sleep deprivation?

While a prolonged lack of sleep can can make you more prone to several ailments (diabetes, obesity, cancer, depression), can staying awake a certain number of days actually cause death?

It’s difficult to say. In 2014, a 25-year-old man died after staying awake for 48-hours to watch the world cup, the International Business Times reported. Ultimately, he suffered from a stroke which may have been related to sleep deprivation.

And some people suffer from a rare inherited disease—called fatal familial insomnia—that can cause prolonged insomnia. People with this disorder might suffer from vivid dreams, high blood pressure, and breathing problems. Most patients end up dying within two years after contracting the disease.

In a related study, rats which were sleep deprived for 11 to 32 days died.

Case in point: It’s not a good idea to stay awake for 24-hours. While there hasn’t been a documented case of someone dying from total sleep deprivation alone, not getting enough sleep can lead to all sorts of problems.