Answer: People can only stay awake for so long before it does severe damage to the bodyit does depend on the person and their health problemsa person can only stay awake for 8 to 12 days before they will diemost of the time from a heart attackit messes up their bodies chemistry and with the increases and decreases of certain hormones they can no longer regulate their body functionThere is also a condition that some one thinks they are not sleeping but they do fall asleep for few secs or Min's and they do not know it and they do not have any memory of it so if they are doing this while they are mostly staying awake it can add several days to the 8 - 12 days