Many of us have heard the creepy horrific urban legend the Russian sleep experiment well today I will be posting about whether it is true or fake!
The urban legend..
Toward the end of the 1940s, Soviet researchers sealed five prison inmates in an airtight chamber and dosed them with an experimental stimulant gas to test the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation. Their behavior was observed via two-way mirrors and their conversations monitored electronically. They were promised their freedom if they could go without sleep for 30 days.
The first few days passed uneventfully. By the fifth day, however, the subjects began showing signs of stress and were overheard bemoaning their circumstances. They stopped conversing with their fellow inmates, choosing instead to whisper compromising information about one another into the microphones, apparently in an effort to win the favor of the researchers.
Paranoia set in.
On the ninth day the screaming began. First one subject, then another, was observed running around the chamber screaming for hours on end. Equally disconcerting was the behavior of the quieter subjects, who began ripping apart the books they'd been given to read, smearing the pages with feces and plastering them over the mirrored windows so their actions could no longer be observed.
Then, just as suddenly, the screaming stopped. The subjects ceased communicating altogether. Three days passed without a sound from inside the chamber. Fearing the worst, the researchers addressed them via the intercom. “We are opening the chamber to test the microphones," they said. "Step away from the door and lie flat on the floor or you will be shot. Compliance will earn one of you your immediate freedom."
A voice from inside answered, “We no longer want to be freed."
Two more days passed without contact of any kind as the scientists debated what to do next. Finally, they decided to terminate the experiment. At midnight on the fifteenth day the stimulant gas was flushed from the chamber and replaced with fresh air in preparation for the subjects' release. Far from being pleased at the prospect of leaving, the subjects began screaming as if in fear for their lives. They begged to have the gas turned back on. Instead, the researchers unsealed the door to the chamber and sent armed soldiers inside to retrieve them. Nothing could have prepared them for the carnage they witnessed upon entering.
One subject was found dead, lying face-down in six inches of bloody water. Chunks of his flesh had been torn off and stuffed into the floor drain. All of the subjects had been severely mutilated, in fact. Even worse, the wounds appeared to be self-inflicted. They had ripped open their own abdomens and disemboweled themselves with their bare hands.Some had even eaten their own flesh.
The four who were still alive seemed terrified of falling asleep and refused to leave the chamber, again pleading with the researchers to turn the gas back on. When the soldiers attempted to remove the inmates by force, they fought back so ferociously they couldn't believe their eyes. One suffered a ruptured spleen and lost so much blood there was literally nothing left for his heart to pump, yet continued flailing for a full three minutes until his lifeless body collapsed.
The remaining subjects were restrained and transported to a medical facility for treatment. The first to be operated on fought so furiously against being anesthetized that he tore muscles and broke bones during the struggle. As soon as the anesthetic took effect his heart stopped and he died. The rest underwent surgery without sedation. Far from feeling any pain, however, they laughed hysterically on the operating table — so hysterically that the doctors, perhaps fearing for their own sanity, administered a paralytic agent to immobilize them.
After surgery the survivors were asked why they had mutilated themselves, and why they so desperately wanted to go back on the stimulant gas. Each, in turn, gave the same enigmatic answer: "I must remain awake."
The researchers considered euthanizing them to obliterate every trace of the failed experiment, but were overruled by their commanding officer, who ordered that it be resumed immediately, with three of the researchers joining the inmates in the sealed chamber. Horrified, the chief researcher pulled out a pistol and shot the commanding officer point blank. He then turned and shot one of the two surviving subjects. Aiming his gun at the last one left alive, he asked, “What are you? I must know!"
"Have you forgotten so easily?" the subject said, grinning. “We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at every moment in your deepest animal mind. We are what you hide from in your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralysis when you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread."
The researcher fired a bullet into his heart. The EEG monitor flat-lined as the subject murmured these last words: "So ... nearly ... free.
True or fake what do you believe?
The story of the Russian Sleep Experiment is a work of fiction that can be found on the popular horror microfiction site called
CreepyPasta. however
There are also some interesting modifications on the story, for an example the stimulant gas is named in some accounts as
Nikolayev gas or that the title is sometimes listed as “Orange Soda.”
The earliest story I can find was on the CreepyPasta wiki posted in December 2010. Supposedly the author or the person who uploaded it was named "Ovalh3" but after looking a little further into who this person was the trail ran cold.
Looking and reading other creepy pastas you get used to people using characters which include zombies, paranormal events, demons and other creepy and terrifying events that we cannot understand and also in parts of the story especially near to the end there is defiantly somthing creepy about the words that come out of the past subjects mouth.
I don't know whether I believe in this urban legend because for me I need alot more evidence but who knows right.
The experimental setup doesn’t seem legitimate, even if unethical, experiment. The chamber in which the subjects were housed would be far more observable. There are no control groups. At one point in the story the author hinges on the requirement that the subjects who take part in the experiment become unobservable for some period of time so that the reveal of their state can have more impact. If the purpose is to observe the effects of sleep deprivation, why allow the subjects to “hide” away or be left alone for so long with out any kind of contact or observation what would be the point in continuing the actual experiment if no one was watching them? The author then had to cover for that by adding in the oxygen consumption meters, so that they could verify the subject’s life and activity.
Alot of things in this story do not add up especially if we're talking Medically, very little makes sense or seems consistent with what we know about human physiology.
One: Blood los ripping out there own internal organs would have ended the lives of the subjects long before the end of the story.so how did they survive ???
2: it's a highly suspicious matter of any stimulant, gas or otherwise, that could overcome the desire to sleep. Researching further into sleep deprivation studies (almost all animals) show that chemical stimulants lose effectiveness over time. (So how could they want more of the substance or why does it still effect them still after 15 days?)
"Sleep has been, and continues to be, heavily studied. Extreme sleep deprivation in all animal testing has resulted, ultimately, in the deaths of the animals. It has been shown that humans will also die of sleep deprivation, through the rare disorder
fatal familial insomnia. According to wiki the longest recorded time without sleep for a human is 449 hours, over 18 days."The
Guinness World Record stands at 449 hours (18 days, 17 hours), held by Maureen Weston.
Many people believe that the creepy pasta is based off a true story however is exaggerated to the point wear it becomes fictional due to the fact it's so gory and graphic.
Here are some people's opinions on the matter taken from (http://www.debate.org/)
""It's very possible
It's very easy to take the ruthlessness of this story and call it fiction. Mainly because nobody answering on this website could comprehend in reality the gravity of anything that happened in this story. I have no doubt there are many things in this story that were embellished but there is a good chance something like this did happen. The gas, the test, the people going insane and possibly being immune to any form of pain given the 15 day lack of sleep, food and exposure to this 'Nikolayev' gas. I'm pretty confident in saying no one on this website has any idea a gas like this existed cause I'm sure it wouldn't be something Russia would just given out knowledge about. It is also possible to live without many internal organs for a period of time and considering in this story the patience probably ripped out most of their organs around the 10th day really gives them 4 days of survival without their organs which is possible. Though I'm sure no one on this website could understand that considering I'm sure none of them have ever attempted it. A lot of this story no one can tell for sure if it's real or not they just make assumptions off the common sense they know in their own lives. I'm not going to go as far as to say this story is complete truth but I'm sure in some way this story has some truth to it and given the fact most of the things Russia did during WW2 weren't exactly world wide news i don't think anyone on this website could say to a certainty that all of this is false. It is very possible something like this happened and happened similarly to the way the story tells it. The only thing that makes this story seem like fiction is the way it was written and some inconsistencies with patient information. We'll never know, all i know is everyone on the internet thinks their genius's and they never open their minds to the possibility of something they don't understand happening. If nothing else this story would make for a chilling, creepy and disgusting movie that i would watch in an instant." Written by unknown
"Not entirely but something like it could of happened
The fact that people go paranoid if they haven't gotten enough sleep is true. To some extent i think it was kind do extreme but it was done in the late 1940s by Russia, which is a rather secretive country. There wasnt as good of technology or saftey precautions then so who knows?"
Written by Bruinshockeyfan
"
Come on make ur brains work a bit!! You believe everything they feed you!
A. Removing organs without damaging them is tough even on cadavers. Living Human....Not so easy and especially not without tools.
B. Simply Digging into their abdomen with their hands would have caused enough blood loss to kill them. And even so, they would die from infection very quickly.
C. Since blood vessels can't really stretch much, removal of the GastroIntestinal Organs from the body would surely destroy the hepatic portal system (not to mention A WHOLE LOT ELSE).
D. "Paralytics" AKA Neuromuscular-Blocking Drugs would also stop eye movement, which conflicts with part of the operation report.
E. Cameras didn't exist that time
F. KGB didn't exist that time
G. Even that time the name of a researcher would be given that what archives mean...
H. Thats not even a proper site its creepypasta!!"
Written by
ekeltion
What do you think???? If I find more evidence I will post some more thanks!