Michael Jackson went 60 days without sleep

From CNN. Michael Jackson died while preparing to set a world record for the most successful concert run ever, but he unknowingly set another record that led to his death. Jackson may be the only human ever to go two months without REM -- RapidEye Movement -- sleep, which is vital to keep the brain and body alive. The 60 nights of propofol infusions Dr. Conrad Murray said he gave Jackson to treat his insomnia is something a sleep expert says no one had ever undergone. Propofol disrupts the normalsleep cycle and offers no REM sleep, yet it leaves a patient feeling refreshed as if they had experienced genuine sleep, according to Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert testifying at the wrongful death trial of concert promoter AEG LIve. If the singer had not died onJune 25, 2009, of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic, the lack of REM sleep may have soon taken his life anyway, according toan opinion by Czeisler. Lab rats die after five weeks of getting no REM sleep, he said. It was never tried on a human until Dr. Murray gave Michael Jackson nightly propofol infusions for two months. Czeisler -- who serves as a sleep consultant to NASA, the CIA and the Rolling Stones -- testified Thursday that the "drug induced coma" induced by propofol leaves a patient with the same refreshed feeling of a good sleep, but without the benefits that genuine sleep delivers in repairing brain cells and thebody. "It would be like eating somesort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner," he said. "Your stomach would be fulland you would not be hungry, but it would be zerocalories and not fulfill any ofyour nutrition needs." Depriving someone of REM sleep for a long period of time makes them paranoid, anxiety-filled, depressed, unable to learn, distracted, and sloppy, Czeisler testified. They lose their balance and appetite, while their physical reflexes get 10 times slower and their emotional responses 10 times stronger, he said. Those symptoms are strikingly similar to descriptions of Jackson in his last weeks as described in e-mails from show producers and testimony by witnesses in the trial. Jackson's mother and children are suing AEG Live, contending the company is liable in his death because ithired, retained or supervised Dr. Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. They argue the promoter pressured Dr. Murray to getJackson to rehearsals, whilefailing to get Jackson help despite numerous red flags warning that he was in trouble.