# Sleep deprivation

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Sleep deprivation," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A CIA interrogation technique used against high-value detainees post-9/11; the agency was authorized to deny prisoners sleep for up to 12 days continuously; people died; at least one detainee was rendered permanently clinically insane.*

- **Maximum CIA authorization:** 12 to 14 days continuous
- **Maximum Senate Torture Report disclosure:** 180 hours (~7.5 days), hands shackled above the head
- **Onset of insanity (per American Psychological Association):** Approximately 7 days
- **Onset of organ failure/death (per American Psychological Association):** Approximately 9 days
- **Documented fatalities:** Multiple; at least one prisoner killed via this technique, per Kiriakou
- **Documented permanent psychiatric injury:** [Ramzi bin al-Shibh](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ramzi-bin-al-shibh)

**Sleep deprivation** was among the techniques approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and applied by the [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) to high-value detainees as part of the post-September 11 [enhanced interrogation](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation) program. It is considered, in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s assessment, *"clearly worse than waterboarding"* — a view he had already stated the day he was sentenced in 2013, ranking sleep deprivation and the [cold cell](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell) as worse than waterboarding.[1][2][3]

## The physiological timeline

Research by the American Psychological Association on sleep deprivation found that humans *"begin to go insane at seven days with no sleep"* and begin to die of organ failure around day nine.[3] Kiriakou has cited that seven-day/nine-day timeline repeatedly and consistently across interviews, in one telling extending it to a third threshold: by day eleven, organ systems begin shutting down.[4]

The authorized ceiling he gives sometimes as 12 days and elsewhere as 14, in one account, *"14 days beyond the point of death"* some prisoners were already suffering.[5][6][7][8] A May 2026 account restates the physiological threshold consistently with the long-standing figure, set against how long the technique takes to work: sleep deprivation breaks a prisoner far more slowly than the [cold cell](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell) does, because *"you need to go 8, 9 days without sleep. Then he goes into organ failure."*[9]

## Authorization and documented use

The CIA was authorized to keep prisoners awake for up to **12 days**, well past the seven-day onset of clinical insanity established by the APA literature.[4] *"People died from sleep deprivation."*[10] The technique killed at least one prisoner outright.[7][11]

The 2014 [Senate Torture Report](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-torture-report) documented sleep deprivation of up to **180 hours** (approximately 7.5 days) with prisoners *"hands shackled above their heads"* in stress positions throughout.[12]

## Mechanics

The prisoner is chained to an eyebolt in the ceiling, unable to sit, lie down, or otherwise get comfortable, while strong industrial-strength lights are kept on continuously and music, Kiriakou has variously described it as death metal, hard rock, or loops alternated with children's jingles, plays at high volume twenty-four hours a day.[13][14][15][16] In a separate description of the same setup, the explicit purpose was to drive the prisoner insane: *"That's exactly what happened. We made them crazy."*[17]

## Effects on prisoners

In some cases the insanity became permanent, leaving prisoners unable to participate in their own legal defense.[18] [Ramzi bin al-Shibh](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ramzi-bin-al-shibh), a September 11 co-conspirator, was rendered **permanently clinically insane** by CIA sleep deprivation. The diagnosis is the Pentagon's own, *"the Pentagon's psychiatrist who's saying he's insane, not his defense attorneys"*, and bin al-Shibh has been declared by the Department of Defense as unable to be tried.[19][20]

## Kiriakou's assessment

Kiriakou's placement of sleep deprivation above waterboarding dates at least to January 2013. Listing the roughly ten techniques in the program, he moved from waterboarding to *"what I think is worse, sleep deprivation, or the [cold cell](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell) … I actually think those last two are worse than waterboarding."* The judgement is offered as his own assessment of severity rather than as a legal distinction; all of them, he said in the same breath, belonged to a class of conduct the United States had spent a century calling crimes against humanity when other governments used it.[21][22]

Holding a prisoner to the point of organ failure, on his reading, collapses the distinction between interrogation and killing, *"you might as well just kill the guy at that point"*, and when an interviewer took that as hyperbole, he did not soften it: that was *"kind of the end result half the time."*[9]

Against that, [Donald Rumsfeld](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-rumsfeld), who worked at a standup desk and would go 24 to 36 hours without sitting down, famously claimed he did not believe sleep deprivation was even a real form of punishment, missing what the program actually did: keeping prisoners chained upright and awake for up to 12 days, past the point where people begin losing their minds at day seven and dying of organ failure by day nine.[23][24][25]

## See also

- [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation)
- [Ramzi bin al-Shibh](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ramzi-bin-al-shibh)
- [Walling](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/walling)
- [Cold cell](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell)
- [Senate Torture Report](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-torture-report)

## Sources

1. Sentenced to Prison While Torturers Walk Free (2013-01-30), at 11:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeBIRH9VlBQ&t=693s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2013-01-30-democracy-now-sentenced-to-prison-while-torturers-walk-free/
2. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 00:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=0s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
3. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 03:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=218s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
4. John Kiriakou: CIA's Secret Torture Programs, Mk-Ultra, 9-11, and Why Obama Threw Him in Jail (2025-06-04), at 27:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwBMKwt14IU&t=1630s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-04-tucker-carlson-cia-torture-mk-ultra-911/
5. Ex CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks Torture, Terrorism, U (2023-12-07), at 08:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9miDzcUT9U&t=534s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-12-07-truthovercomfort/
6. Scheer Intelligence: John Kiriakou Interview 9/10/21 (2022-05-19), at 27:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4cW71vcS_o&t=1677s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-19-scheerpost/
7. John Kiriakou, CIA Whistleblower, Doing Time Like a Spy, (2017-05-23), at 24:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twDSUsMh2ws&t=1484s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-23-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
8. John Kiriakou Addresses the 2016 NHLA Liberty Dinner (2016-07-11), at 18:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Un-IY3vlc&t=1139s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-07-11-adventures-in-the-free-sta/
9. Matan Confronts Kiriakou (Israel) (2026-05-17), at 19:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZH5_d9Xg0&t=1177s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-17-the-matan-show-matan-confronts-kiriakou-israel/
10. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 04:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=249s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
11. John Kiriakou Addresses the 2016 NHLA Liberty Dinner (2016-07-11), at 19:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Un-IY3vlc&t=1171s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-07-11-adventures-in-the-free-sta/
12. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou on Torture Report: Investigate & Prosecute Those who Flouted the Law (2015-02-09), at 00:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Dos1XxrYM&t=13s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-02-09-democracy-now-torture-report/
13. John Kiriakou: CIA's Secret Torture Programs, Mk-Ultra, 9-11, and Why Obama Threw Him in Jail (2025-06-04), at 27:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwBMKwt14IU&t=1650s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-06-04-tucker-carlson-cia-torture-mk-ultra-911/
14. Ex CIA Officer John Kiriakou Talks Torture, Terrorism, U (2023-12-07), at 09:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9miDzcUT9U&t=567s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-12-07-truthovercomfort/
15. Scheer Intelligence: John Kiriakou Interview 9/10/21 (2022-05-19), at 26:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4cW71vcS_o&t=1616s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-19-scheerpost/
16. John Kiriakou, CIA Whistleblower, Doing Time Like a Spy, (2017-05-23), at 25:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twDSUsMh2ws&t=1546s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-05-23-podcast-ufo-live-shows/
17. S1E24 Moment Of Truth (2026-04-20), at 08:30. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69e4199dabe143da5bb4bae6/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-20-dead-drop-s1e24-moment-of-truth/
18. Tackling Torture at the Top John Kiriakou and Bradley Ol (2015-11-14), at 08:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFTwPrTyY2Q&t=534s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-11-14-robin-hensel/
19. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 05:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=343s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
20. Inside CIA's Highly Controversial Enhanced Interrogation Program (2023-11-26), at 06:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy1T6iJH61g&t=376s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-11-26-dalton-fischer-enhanced-interrogation/
21. aggregator channel — likely re-upload (2015-01-09), at 35:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tUetLWC54&t=2144s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-01-09-terrorpedia-video-center-aggregator-channel-likely-re-upload/
22. aggregator channel — likely re-upload (2015-01-09), at 36:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tUetLWC54&t=2175s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-01-09-terrorpedia-video-center-aggregator-channel-likely-re-upload/
23. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 1:24:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=5069s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
24. John Kiriakou: Exposing Epstein, Mossad, CIA Torture & the Blackmail Playbook (2025-10-02), at 1:24:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kiHYQC6SXM&t=5099s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-02-truth-hurts-epstein-mossad-blackmail-playbook/
25. Inside the CIA and the Cost of Speaking Out (2026-02-13), at 31:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtonZWE2JWA&t=1890s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-13-o-keefe-media-group/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sleep-deprivation/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt