You can go without eating for weeks without succumbing, but eleven days is tops for going without sleep. After eleven days, you'll be asleep -- forever!

While the sleep deprivation timeline is exaggerated in the second half of the statement, the core comparison is accurate. Humans can survive weeks without food (limited by fat stores, typically 3-6 weeks), but going without sleep for extended periods (beyond 10-11 days) can indeed be fatal due to systemic organ failure and cognitive collapse. The statement captures the critical difference between these two survival limits.