Boat problems at sea produce an adrenaline effect that kills the urge to sleep

Lauren Landers Sailing observed that when something goes wrong on a boat, sleep becomes almost impossible, no matter how tired you are. She described it as being like having a million cups of coffee. Under normal circumstances on a night passage she would have taken three or four naps by that point in the trip, but the engine trouble kept her fully alert all night. The flip side, she noted, is that the exhaustion hits hard the next day once the immediate crisis is resolved.