Between a Rock and a Hard Place

On Monday evening, approaching 57 hours without sleep, Ralston struggles to clear his mind of the fragment from an Austin Powers song, along with other images. He reflects, “I can’t sleep, but neither am I fully awake—this mental miasma has put me well on my way toward madness” (188).

Ralston compares the feeling to an earlier experience he had during a 48-hour hike with his endurance trainer, Theresa Daus-Weber several months earlier. Repeatedly falling asleep for seconds at a time while waiting for Theresa to catch up, Ralston came to feel that he was trapped in a time loop, which Theresa attributed to his sleep-deprived mind.

That night, in between wondering whether and when he should drink his urine, Ralston follows the same sleeping-waking pattern of the previous night, though the cycles are shorter since he becomes cold more quickly now. At midnight, he takes a sip of his urine, which he finds disgusting but drinkable, and then plans to save the rest until he runs out of water.

Taking small, hourly sips of water throughout the night, Ralston recognizes the early signs of dehydration, including sunken eyes and an erratic heart rate. During his sip of water at five o’clock in the morning, he becomes frustrated after spilling a few drops.