Exhaustion
It's funny how the body responds to exhaustion. I spend a lot of time in a state of minor to extreme exhaustion, so I have a lot of experience with the phenomenon of my senses kind of fading out as my energy winds down.
Right now I'm experiencing minor tunnel vision and decreased touch sensitivity. I can't feel the 3 pound gun on my belt, when normally the weight is obvious, though not bothersome. My hands feel detached, almost.
When I get to around 26-30 hours awake, my hearing starts cutting out. I'll randomly realize that I have no memory of ANY sound for the previous several minutes, even if I'm watching TV or a movie.
Also, after I get past about 20 hours awake, I enter this zone where I can push my body VERY hard, performing feats of strength and endurance that are difficult enough when I'm fully rested. For example, I did over 200 dips in sets of 10, 15, or 20 over the course of an hour one morning before going on a 3 mile ruckmarch with a 70 pound pack. That same morning I did a couple sets of 30+ pushups with the 70 pound pack on. Mind you, I max out at 60 some odd pushups with just my body weight. That's maybe 40% of the stuff I did that morning, and that was after I had a full workout during the normal day.
The downside is I messed up my body clock really bad and didn't even know what day it was for like 10 days, staying up for over 22 hours at a time between sleeping 10-16 hours straight. I tried to fix my sleep schedule, but I just couldn't do it. I'd lay there reading, my eyes blurry and dry, my body just ACHING to sleep, but the relief wouldn't come.
It's good I can push myself above and beyond when I'm exhausted, but I have to wonder if I'm going to drive myself crazy (or break my body pushing too hard). It's not good to wake up at 9 PM and think 'hey, why is everyone still here, they're going to be late for work.'
