Tony Wright, 42, a qualified horticulturist from Penzance, Cornwall(England) has broken the existing world record for sleeplessness over the last two weeks.

The new world record broken by Tony Wright stands at 266 hours (though it is yet to be confirmed), which he started at 0600 BST on 14 May in Penzance.

The existing world record for 264 hours - 11 days, was undertaken as part of a science study project by a 17 year old, Randy Gardner, in the US in 1964.

According to Mr Wright, it is easy to go on without sleep for a long time without any side effects. However, he felt constrained by having to stay in the same place for the last 11 days at a Studio bar in Penzance. He spent the time playing pool and writing an online diary. At point, he almost fell asleep while writing his online diary.

Mr Wright relied on a raw food diet, including fruit, salad, seeds and nuts, to help keep him awake. He said that his diet, which was based on his research on sleep and herb tea “seemed to make a big difference to my ability to stay awake and remain functional”.

He has conducted 15 years of research into human sleep, and claimed each side of the human brain requires a different amount of sleep. As part of his research, he had conducted over 100 experiments on staying awake ranging from periods of two to eight days.

He said that it has still not sunken in that he has set a new record. Though he does not plan to break his own record, he said that he could not guarantee that he will be able to sleep right away and so may extend his record by another day.

Also BBC.