The latest in never-ending saga that is the Michael Jackson wrongful-death trial is that the King of Pop went 60 days without rapid eye movement (REM). Pumped with propofol by Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael would have felt “refreshed,” but would not have fallen into true sleep cycles.
“It would be like eating some sort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner,” said Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, at the wrongful-death trial of concert promoter AEG Live. “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.”
Delirious from lack of sleep, Michael’s close companions testified he talked to himself and claimed to hear voices. He also couldn’t remember basic choreography or lyrics.
“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,” Czeisler said at the trial today.
If he did indeed go two months without REM, M.J. would have set a world-record. Although, it’s not the type the Guinness Book would condone: Czeisler said lab rats die after five weeks of getting no REM sleep. He added that Michael would have died in a matter of days from sleep deprivation if the surgical anesthetic cocktail hadn’t claimed his life first.
