Does anyone know anything about sleep deprivation?

How little sleep do you have to get in order to be officially considered sleep deprived and what are some of the side effects of sleep deprivation?

Your question intrigued me, so I Googled it and found a good page on Wikipedia to answer your question more thoroughly than I could.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation

Sleep deprivation can literally drive you insane, including causing hallucinations. I lived with insomnia for years, the only thing I've found to cure it is reading in bed.

If only that worked for me.I read in bed, but it only keeps me up for hours. I usually get around 3 hours of sleep. I'm almost positive I'm an insomniac, but I don't really mind.

The average adult is supposed to get 7-8 hours and the average kid or teen should get 9 1/2-10 hours. Anything under that and you are technically considered sleep deprived.

praisedfire999 is right, insanity, personality change, all kinds of bad things can result from sleep deprivation.
your health will start to get worse.
the human body is not designed to go without sleeping, amounts of sleep vary by person, but we all need sleep.
I heard of a DJ once that was going for the world record for staying awake, his friends said that the man they knew going into the contest, wasn't teh one that came out- they could tell he had changed, I believe he committed suicide from the ordeal.
so yes- lack of sleep can lead to MANY other problems.