In an effort to bring attention to the importance of sleep, astronomer Mark Thompson attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Lecture between 11 and 17th September 2021. The existing record is 139 hours 42 minutes and 56 seconds and, amazingly, Mark spoke for 140 hours and 42 minutes. He is now waiting to hear from Guinness on whether his attempt has been validated. During the attempt Mark raised almost £13k for Barnardo’s, engaged with schools around the world through some prepared lesson plans and worked with sleep scientists to explore the impacts of extreme sleep deprivation. The attempt pushed Mark to his psychological limit as he suffered memory loss and hallucinations having just had 3 hours sleep across the 140 hours.
To learn more about Mark Thompson's work, visit his website here. A Just Giving page has been set up for this fundraiser. Please click here if you wish to give to Barnardo's. |
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