Amy Bruni (5:30)

Are you prepared to venture to the darkest, most haunted locations in the world.

Erin Menke (5:36)

There's no question you always feel like there's something around you. You hear noises that you shouldn't hear. You think you see somebody duck around a corner, but you go run to see who it is. There's nobody there.

Amy Bruni (5:48)

As your host, Amy Bruni, I'm ready to take you on a spine tingling journey through the unknown where where the line between the living and the dead blurs. He said he saw black fingers curl up over the edge of the end of the footboard and then a head pop up. Brace yourself for a supernatural journey unlike any other. Whether you count yourself as a believer or skeptic, Haunted Road is the journey for you.

Erin Menke (6:13)

And there was a man sitting in a corner at a table. She saw him and then it was gone.

Amy Bruni (6:19)

Listen to new episodes of Haunted road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

Aaron Manke (6:34)

Randy was roughly four days into the experiment when he started to think that he had made a terrible mistake. The high school student from San Diego was out for a midnight stroll when he saw something that just about broke his brain. As he approached an intersection with a pedestrian crossing sign at the corner, the stick figure man at the center of the sign moved. Randy froze and rubbed his eyes. Now the stick figure man was sliding down the signpost. He reached the pavement, turned, and strode away across the intersection, whistling as he went. Randy, of course, almost ran screaming in the opposite direction. Fortunately, his friend Bruce was on hand to calm him down. When Randy described later what he had seen, Bruce explained that it wasn't real. The man in the sign had not moved. Randy was just hallucinating. But he wasn't on psychedelics. The only drug in his system was the caffeine from the Coca Colas that he had downed. The 17 year old, you see, hadn't slept in over four days, and unfortunately he still had seven more to go. It was December of 1963, and at that point the record for the longest time spent awake was 11 days or 240 hours. Randy and Bruce had decided to try and break the record as part of an experiment for their school science fair. Randy lost the coin toss to determine who would stay awake, which meant that Bruce and their friend Joe would take turns monitoring him. Even before they began, though, the experiment started attracting attention. Randy was interviewed by a San Diego newspaper and contacted by scientists who offered to monitor his recovery after the experiment was complete. Meanwhile, his parents deliberately tried to convince him to choose another project. They had a good reason to be concerned, too. At that point, no one knew the impact of staying awake so long. But a few years earlier, scientists had conducted an experiment where some cats were kept awake for 15 days straight. In that case, there hadn't been any long term side effects to study because the cats all died from stress. Despite this potential danger, Randy and his friends were determined to go through with their plan. The first 36 hours passed with only minor changes. Randy had difficulty focusing his eyes and he stumbled over tongue twisters, but otherwise he felt okay. The next day, though, his body temperature dropped and he struggled to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. He also grew increasingly irritable, which made monitoring him a lot less fun. It wasn't until the hallucinations began on day four that the boys started to worry and things got more serious from there. On day five, Randy spent several hours convinced that he was a famous football player. Later, he screamed at Joe to turn off the radio because he thought the DJ was laughing at him. Even when Randy was not hallucinating, he was always at risk of falling asleep. Bruce or Joe had to accompany him to the bathroom out of fear that he would pass out while on the toilet. They kept him alert through frequent walks or games of basketball. And while these distractions worked temporarily, Randy would always start to fade once again when he was back home. By the final day, Randy was a zombie. His speech became slurred and he couldn't complete basic math problems or recite the Alphabet without forgetting what he was doing. Oddly, his basketball skills kept improving, though, probably thanks to all the practice. On January 8th, Randy finally crossed the finish line. And after setting a new record for 246 hours awake, he passed out and slept for 14 hours straight. His brain waves were monitored by those scientists who had volunteered to help. And what they found was startling. It seemed that different sections of Randy's brain had been taking turns shutting down for brief periods. So while he had never been completely asleep, parts of him had literally been dreaming. To everyone's surprise, Randy. Randy's sleep patterns were back to normal within just a few days, with no signs of any lasting side effects. And as you'd imagine, his story became a national headline. While the data that Bruce and Joe had gathered was circulated throughout the scientific community. Randy's swift recovery in 1964 seemed to suggest that people were capable of staying awake for long periods without suffering long term side effects. At least that's what they thought at the time. By 2017, though, Randy Gardner was once again lying awake each night. Although this time it wasn't by choice. 53 years after beating the world record, he had developed a horrible case of insomnia. Perhaps it was his brain having revenge on him, or maybe Randy's body had simply gotten used to staying up later than most. Either way, the boy who dared to stay awake was now desperate to fall asleep. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting curiositiespodcast.com the show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of lore.com and until next time, stay curious.

Amy Bruni (11:54)

Are you prepared to venture to the darkest, most haunted locations in the world? It was all solid black like shadow. As your host, Amy Bruni, I'm ready to take you on a spine tingling journey through the unknown.

Erin Menke (12:09)

There was a man sitting in a corner. She saw him and then it was gone.

Amy Bruni (12:13)

Listen to new episodes of Haunted road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.