What happens when human beings are deprived of sleep for long periods of time? To answer this question, a New Yorker, Peter Tripp, offered to stay awake 200 hours. During that time Tripp was observed by a group of doctors, who reported on his progress. After three days of staying awake, he began to show signs of mental breakdown. He laughed at things that were not funny, and wept at things that were not sad. Complaining of pressure caused by a hat on his head, he tried repeatedly to take it off. Tripp, of course, was not wearing a hat. On the fifth day he cried out that a doctor's jacket looked like crawling worms. Then he imagined he was in another city he tried to run away from the building, insisting it was on fire and he thought the 200-hour mark had been passed but that doctors were 'suffering from mental illness.' He was nearly mad! Barely able to stand, Tripp was helped across the street to a room in a hotel. There, after being awake for 201 hours and thirteen minutes, he fell asleep. The doctors predicted he would sleep for twenty or thirty hours. 'Peter Tripp will sleep in history. ' said the doctors. But he didn't sleep that long, and his first words were, 'I feel fine.' After a medical check, his greatly surprised watchers pronounced him fit. The next day he was back to work. What is the main idea of the passage?