Russian Scientists Kept 5 People Awake For 30 Days And The Results Were Absolutely Terrifying

According to sleep experts, sleeping seven to nine hours per night is ideal for a healthy adult. A good nights sleep really does wonders for your body and mind- it can refresh your brain, give your muscles a rest, and kick your immune system into high gear.

However, that didn’t stop Russian scientists in the 1940s from discovering a gas mixture that they believed would eradicate the need for humans to sleep. To test the solution, researchers gathered a few enemies of the Russian State and locked them in a chamber for a 30-day period while they pumped the gas into the chamber.

The results? Let’s just say that things began to take a horrifying turn for the worse.

Here’s the full story of what happened, courtesy of BordomTherapy…

In the late 1940s, five men the Russian State considered enemies were chosen to take part in an experiment involving sleep deprivation. The goal was to use small doses of an experimental gas that could supposedly eliminate the need for sleep in humans.

The subjects were kept in a sealed environment so that the researchers wouldn’t be exposed to the gas, and the prisoners only had microphones to communicate with. They were provided with books, a toilet, running water, enough food to last each of them a full month, and a cot with no bedding.

For the first three days, everything went well: researchers promised the prisoners that if they cooperated and didn’t sleep for 30 days, they would be freed. To pass the time, strangely, the prisoners opened up about past traumas to one another. After four days, the conversations turned darker…

By the fifth day, the prisoners started exhibiting paranoia and complained about the past circumstances and decisions that brought them there. Instead of conversing with each other, they began to whisper into their microphones. Apparently, they thought that they could win the trust of the researchers by revealing past crimes of their prison mates.

By the ninth day, the screaming started. For three hours straight, a prisoner ran back and forth across the length of the room, screaming loudly. After his voice began to weaken, he only produced squeaks, which doctors attributed to the tearing of his vocal cords. Oddly, the other prisoners did not even appear to respond to the screaming…

By the fourteenth day, when the chamber had grown eerily silent, researchers did something unplanned. They used an intercom to try to incite some sort of a response from the quiet prisoners.

They explained that they needed to open the chamber door, and if the prisoners did not try to flee, one of them would earn his freedom. Surprisingly, a calm voice responded through the intercom: “We no longer wish to be freed.

On the fifteenth day, the researchers removed the gas-stimulant from the chamber and replaced it with fresh air. In response, the prisoners begged for the gas to be turned back on.

Soldiers arrived to retrieve the prisoners, but soon discovered that only four of the five test subjects were still breathing. The food hadn’t been touched in five days. Pieces of flesh were missing from the dead man’s thighs and chest, later found clogging the drain and flooding the room with four inches of water.

Those subjects who were still alive were missing skin and flesh—wounds that appeared to be mostly self-inflicted. Even the most experienced soldiers were afraid to bring their bodies outside.

Unspeakable acts of violence ensued when soldiers attempted to provide the prisoners with medical attention. Medical professionals finally managed to strap one prisoner to a table and give him morphine, but to no effect. Eventually, the prisoner’s heart stopped beating, but he continued to flail, shouting “more!” until finally, he passed away.

Researchers laid another prisoner—the man whose vocal chords had burst—on a medical table. Doctors attempted to put him under anesthesia to repair cracked bones and failing organs, but the man refused, opting instead to have the surgery performed while he was awake.

The other still-living prisoners received the similar operations while awake. Doctors asked why they had inflicted these horrific wounds on themselves and why they wanted the gas so badly. One prisoner provided a simple answer: “I must remain awake.”

Researchers placed the prisoners back in the chamber and then debated what to do next. The experiment had failed. Could the prisoners be euthanized? Instead, the researchers decided to turn the gas back on. When they did so, the prisoners stopped struggling.

Desperate to make something of this study, researchers monitored the brain waves of one patient, but when his head hit the pillow, his brain activity ceased—he went brain dead. Shortly after, he died.

Finally, a researcher entered the chamber and shot the remaining prisoners, save the last one who’d been strapped to the bed. “What are you?” asked the researcher. The subject smiled and replied. “Have you forgotten so easily?”

“We are you,” he continued. The researcher could only watch on in horror as the prisoner explained what he had become. Watch to the end of this video to hear the conclusion that will give you nightmares for weeks…

Pretty terrifying stuff, right? The moral of the story? Get your eight hours a night and make sure you rest- or who knows what will happen- an awful sleep demon may take over your body!

What do you think of this story- do you believe it’s historically accurate or perhaps just an elaborate myth? Either way, you have to admit that it is freakin’ scary! Let us know your thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to share this with your friends!