So, studying for finals I just came across this disease I've never heard of before - which makes sense since according to wiki there's been less than 10 documented cases - and I thought I should share the horror with you guys.
It's called Fatal Familial Insomnia, and it's a prion disease. What's a prion? It's basically an infective protein, the same kind of infective agent that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease); this certain prion gradually takes away your ability to sleep. That doesn't sounds so bad, one could argue, but let's change your mind about that.
It takes up to 36 months to die from this disease, with gradually increasing insomnia (inability to sleep). From what I can gather the complete inability to sleep happens about half-way into the process. Oh, and did I mention it's untreatable? And that sleeping pills make it worse?
What happens is, through your inability to sleep, you become more and more unstable as your mind isn't getting the rest it needs; this includes panic attacks, paranoia, phobic behaviour, hallucinations and rapid loss of weight - the harshness/frequency of all theseincrease the longer you go without sleep.
During the last 6 months or so, your brain has gotten so messed up that you're now in a dement, unresponsible, vegetable state after which you die (I presume) from suffocation or whatever happens first when your brain is so broken it can't even get your most basic bodily functions running (metabolism, breathing, involuntary muscle movement etc).
Now, being unable to sleep while your mind is slowly deteriorating for up to 36 months, sounds like a pretty hellish experience to me. I mean, I get cranky and grouchy after just 36+ hours of no sleep, imagine how you would feel after a week, a month, a year...? You're obviously also quite aware of the process in which you're - oh so slowly - going insane.
In addition, the end of the wikipage states (about prions) "Until recently prion diseases were only thought to be transmissible via direct contact with infected tissue, such as from eating infected tissue, transfusion or transplantation; new research now suggests that prion diseases can be transmitted via aerosols". Now, mind you, this doesn't mean that it's airbourne but basically that it could be bourne by on aerosols (very dispersed liquids in a cloud, sort of like fog).
This disaease kills you after up to 3 years of no sleep, at which your brain shuts down.
Lovely disease, right?!
BRB NEED TO CALL MY MOM AND WEEP