The British programme about sleep deprivation, which bears similarities to the Russian sleep experiment, ran for seven episodes and was filmed in a “laboratory” in an abandoned shopping centre and was hosted by Dermot O’Leary.

The participants lived in a Big Brother-style environment where they were monitored around the clock and had to complete daily performance tests and various challenges.

Each day, one person was chosen to take part in a challenge called “He who sleeps loses.” The goal was to put participants to sleep by having them cuddle stuffed animals, sit in a warm room, and even lie in an armchair and watch paint dry.

The final challenge involved an intense sleep competition, with the last person to fall asleep winning the cash prize. 19-year-old Clare Southern won after staying awake for a total of 178 hours, and went home with £97,000.

Some unusual health effects have been reported: one contestant experienced severe hallucinations and believed he was the Prime Minister of Australia, while another left the show after consulting the show’s psychologists.

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator and competition authority, received 34 complaints from the public about Shattered.

However, after examining the “intention behind the programme” and the “opinions of medical experts”, they concluded that Channel 4 had not breached its programming guidelines.