If you want to know what really happens to someone deprived of sleep, search for “Fatal Familial Insomnia”. It’s an inherited condition that results in the inability to sleep. These poor people go months without sleep before dying.
Wow, where’s Dr. Conrad Murray when he’s really needed?
There was a Nova or a Nature about that family. The research they did on them was part of what showed the 24 hour cycle of Melatonin/Serotonin feedback loop.
Very interesting. You might be able to find it online somewhere.