Once, early in my career I did a 48+ hour “shift”, also on a boiler repair. This was a utility boiler forced outage, however, and I was the only supervisor who could be sent on short notice. I hired a small crew of boilermakers after driving six hours to get to the site, worked through the night with them, then hired a new crew for the day shift, and worked with them through the next day. Night shift again. Day shift again. By the end of the second day a new supervisor was sent in to take the next night shift. (I had tried to stretch out and sleep in the office space I was given, but I was “thinking too hard” – this was my first ever job as the HMFIC, and I was having a blast.)
By the time I tried to check into the hotel that night I looked like I had been crawling through a pigsty, but it was just wet coal ash from the furnace bottom. (They didn’t want to let me into the hotel room until I promised them that the very first thing I was going to do was to shower. Twice. Next morning was a joy, since I had come without luggage and had to put those clothes back on … to go shop for new clothes.) Ahh, fun times.
Even now, though, when I fly to Asia I usually stay awake for around 36 hours or more at a stretch. What I do is spend a normal day at home or at the office the day before the flight, then stay up at home all night and spend it finalizing plans and packing, and take a limo for a couple hours to the airport. Then around 24 hours in flying and layovers, a four-hour taxi ride to the jobsite, and I sleep like a baby that first night (which would be noon here in the US East Coast). I’d sleep on the plane if I could, but I just can’t manage that, and it does help to get me fully ready for sleeping through the night in Asia!