US Marine with insomnia plays World of Warcraft for three days straight to smash record

A US Marine veteran with insomnia has achieved the world’s longest videogame marathon playing World of Warcraft.

Justin O'Donnell, who also suffers from PTSD and rheumatoid arthritis, played for 78 hours 30 minutes, beating the previous record by just over 19 hours.

His three-day gaming session was also the overall longest videogame marathon playing an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game).

Justin streams full time on Twitch (averaging 250 hours per month) and donates 100% of the proceeds to charity, whilst doing part-time development work to pay his bills.

He’s personally donated over $100,000 since 2020, and his viewers have raised an additional $45,000 for various charities.

During the record attempt, they raised over $3,000 for Husky House in New Jersey, where Justin rescued his two huskies from.

Another reason he livestreamed his game-a-thon was so that his viewers “could see what happens to someone as they struggle with insomnia”.

He said: “I got physically tired, not so much mentally. I don’t suffer from a lot of the typical issues when I’m awake for so long, like lethargy and hearing things. Some people start to slur their words and might even be mistaken for intoxicated – I typically don’t get any of that.”

Justin’s troubles with sleeping began in 2005 after he became homeless.

He later joined the Marines and served until 2010, but he says his time in the military made his insomnia “so much worse”.

He sometimes used to be awake for 200 hours straight, sleeping for only 15 hours per week.

With new treatments, he now gets around 2-4 hours per night.

As per the rules of all ‘longest marathon’ records, Justin accumulated five minutes of rest time after each hour of gaming – only during these breaks could he nap, eat or use the bathroom.

Justin didn’t sleep at all and said he didn’t really need the breaks, but he used the time to stretch, play with his dogs and cook burgers. He finished the record attempt with 80 minutes of unused rest time.

“I personally don’t need much break, but the community was adamant I take them,” he revealed.

“They are right to suggest it. Sitting for so long without standing puts you at higher risk of things like a blood clot.”

The hardest part for Justin, who takes medication for “pretty bad” ADHD, was remaining focussed on the game, which he grew bored of after playing for so long.

He initially thought of attempting this in 2021, but he didn’t want to be perceived as promoting sleep deprivation, of which the health consequences can be severe.

But with thousands of dollars raised for charity, not to mention two Guinness World Records titles to his name, Justin is happy that his online community convinced him to go ahead with it.

If you love watching records being broken you should check out our Records Weekly series on YouTube…