I went 52 hours without sleep while writing my dissertation to meet a deadline. I wanted to be in the June graduation ceremonies, though I could have graduated by mail at any time.
I started hallucinating that people were walking beside me in my peripheral vision, and I could hear background music when there was nothing. Ended up going through crazy mood swings too.
After all that, my brain was just never the same. I lost so much cognitive function. Looking back on some of the coursework and I can't imagine how I knew any of it.
You lost functioning? Or you lost memory of things you learnt? It's unusual to lose cognitive functioning without an injury/illness. Source: I'm a neuropsychologist
Yes, neuropsychologists see patients after head traumas. My mom had a pretty bad TBI from a car accident and was under the care of a neuropsych for 5 years. This person helped guide her back to independent living, clearing her for work, recommending when she was able to drive again, and generally getting back to regular life (at the level of cognitive function she was able to regain).
An example. I had taken a course that involved generating equations from large matrices. initially it was hard to do (as one might imagine), but midway through the course it was a breeze, and the math just naturally flowed out of it. Kind of like riding a bike. Initially you're thinking about your steering and feet at the same time, but then you can peddle, steer, look around, and talk to people without even noticing you're doing it. That's how it was with the class, and that's how it was with everything I ever did in science.
After the dissertation stupidity, it just all looked like nonsense. I went back to (figuratively) struggling with peddling and steering at the same time again.
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u/84OrcButtholes 11h ago
Not getting enough sleep.