But it is 12 hours shorter than the record included in that year's edition of the Guinness Book of Records of 276 hours, achieved by Toimi Soini in Hamina, Finland.

A qualified horticulturist, he relied on a raw food diet, including fruit, salad, seeds and nuts, to help keep him awake.

After setting the record just after 6am today, he said: "I feel pretty good but a bit shaky. It has not really sunk in yet that I have beaten the record.

He has conducted 15 years of research into human sleep, and claimed each side of the human brain requires a different amount of sleep.

Before his record attempt, he had carried out more than 100 experiments with sleep deprivation lasting between two and eight days.