They Stayed Awake for 60 Hours: How a 1925 GWU Experiment Helped Spark Modern Sleep Science

How a 60-hour wakefulness experiment helped shape our view of sleep

In late August 1925, George Washington University psychology professor Frederick August Moss recruited seven undergraduates to stay awake for at least 60 hours. Moss — who also originated an early version of the Medical College Admission Test — was testing a provocative idea: was sleep a "tragic waste of a third of the precious hours of a lifetime" or an essential biological need?

The experiment

Under Moss’s supervision in Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC, the students drove through Virginia, played baseball, sang, and performed a series of tests to measure alertness: vital-sign checks, reflex assessments, intelligence tests, and simple practical tasks such as parallel parking a car. Among the volunteers were 17-year-old Louise Omwake and Thelma Hunt, both of whom later had distinguished careers — Omwake in education and Hunt as a psychologist and physician who eventually chaired GWU’s psychology department.

Newton Burke (Popular Science, 1925): "Too much sleep, like too much intoxication, actually may be harmful, deadening the activities of mind and body."

Context: a culture fascinated by sleeplessness

The project reflected broader 1920s cultural currents that prized productivity and endurance. Public figures such as Thomas Edison promoted short sleep as a virtue, and early laboratories began to probe what sleep—or the lack of it—did to mind and body. Yet even then, many scientists were cautious. As Burke observed after surveying contemporary studies, there was no reliable method for most people to substantially reduce sleep without harming health.

What we know now

Modern neuroscience has overturned the idea of sleep as idle time. Over the past two decades, techniques such as optogenetics and advanced imaging (including deep ultrasound and other modalities) have revealed that sleep is an active, biologically necessary state. During sleep the brain consolidates memories, repairs tissue, and clears metabolic waste including beta-amyloid — a protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep also supports immune function and the hormonal regulation of metabolism and cell growth.

Nuance: too little and too much

Large epidemiological studies and systematic reviews describe a U-shaped relationship between nightly sleep duration and health: both short and long sleep are associated with higher risks of disease and premature mortality. For most adults, seven to nine hours a night is associated with the lowest risk. Importantly, associations between long sleep and poor health are not proof of causation; prolonged sleep may be a marker of underlying conditions such as chronic illness, depression, sleep apnea, or other disorders that cause fatigue. Habitual oversleeping deserves medical evaluation.

Timing and hygiene matter

Recent research also emphasizes sleep regularity: consistent bedtimes and wake times are linked to better cardiometabolic and mental-health outcomes, while large day-to-day fluctuations in sleep timing are associated with higher risks of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and mood disorders. Practical sleep hygiene — regular schedules, limiting screens before bed, and keeping the bedroom cool and dark — supports restorative sleep and daytime functioning.

Legacy

The 1925 GWU experiment was an early, attention-grabbing step in a century-long effort to understand sleep. The immediate findings were preliminary and culturally influenced, but they spurred public and scientific interest. A century on, sleep is recognized as essential to health — but Moss’s provocative question lives on in a new form: not whether sleep is wasted time, but whether too much sleep can signal an underlying problem.

Notable follow-up: Thelma Hunt, one of the volunteers, earned both a PhD and an MD and ultimately succeeded Moss as chair of GWU’s psychology department, serving in that role for 25 years.