I think the most I have ever gone without sleep was around 36 hours. It was the day and night of the senior class play. After the play, we went to the river cabin of one of the cast members and had an all-night party. We never went to sleep, and when I got back home around 1 or 2 p.m., I fell into bed and slept the rest of that Saturday and on into Sunday.
I never had to pull all nighters in college. I was one of those nerds who always did papers ahead of time (started doing research the day the papers were assigned) and kept up with homework daily so that when tests came around, I studied a couple of hours the night before in the library and then came back to the dorm and went to bed.
I remember some of my fellow English majors never read the assigned novels until the night before quizzes. I could NEVER have done that. First, I wouldn't have been able to participate in class discussions of the books, and second, I just liked to read (why else be an English major?) so I WANTED to read classics I wasn't familiar with.