Michael Jackson Without Sleep: Singer Didn’t Have REM Sleep For 60 Nights

In this March 5, 2009 file photo, Michael Jackson speaks at a news conference in London. AEG Live LLC CEO Randy Phillips told a jury Wednesday June 12, 2013 that they have heard an inaccurate portrait of Jackson during an ongoing civil trial, and said the entertainer was a sophisticated businessman and not a “drug-addled 5-year-old.” The company and Phillips are being sued by Jackson’s mother, claiming they did not properly investigate the doctor convicted of causing her son’s death in 2009. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

Michael Jackson without sleep: The singer went 60 nights without REM--rapid eye movement--sleep.

“The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period,” Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, testified Friday at the wrongful-death trial of concert promoter AEG Live, according to CNN.

During REM, quick and random movements of the eyes happen, while the muscles stay still. The REM sleep cycle happens four or five times a night with most people. 

What happened after Jackson experienced this stretch of two months without REM sleep.

The singer and dancer couldn’t do standard dances or remember the words to songs he had sang for decades, said Czeisler. He also talked to himself and was hearing voices, and he lost a lot of weight.

Cziesler consults for NASA, the CIA, and the Rolling Stones, according to CNN.

Jackson did sleep during the 60 night time period but it was drug induced (propofol infusions)--the drugs were given by Czeisler--and those drugs enable people to sleep but rob people of the benefits that genuine sleep gives, such as repairing brain cells.

“It would be like eating some sort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner,” Czeisler said. “Your stomach would be full, and you would not be hungry, but it would be zero calories and not fulfill any of your nutrition needs.”