The Russian Sleep Experiment.

Author: Unknown.

Narrated by Jesse Cornett.

Stalinist Soviet researchers in the late 1940's kept five people awake for 15 days using an

experimental gas-based stimulant. These people, or rather test subjects, were political prisoners

deemed to be enemies of the state during World War II. They were kept in a sealed environment

and carefully monitored. Their oxygen intake was regulated so the gas didn't kill them,

since it was highly toxic mixed with oxygen. The levels were watched closely. This was

before closed-circuit cameras, so the monitoring was achieved through microphones and porthole-sized

windows in the walls of the chamber. These were made with five-inch thick glass. The

chamber was stocked with books. They had running water along with a toilet. There were also

cots to sleep on, but no bedding, along with enough dried food rations to last all five

test subjects for over a month. Everything was fine for the first five days;

the subjects hardly complained, having been promised falsely that they would be freed

if they submitted to the test and did not sleep for 30 days. Their conversations were

listened to. Their activities were watched. The researchers noted that, with each passing

day, the subjects spoke increasingly about traumatic incidents in their past. They discussed

things usually hidden deep within the psyche, not easily revealed to strangers.

After five days, the subjects started to complain about the circumstances and events that led

them to where they were. They increasingly demonstrated severe paranoia. Soon, they stopped

talking to each other and began alternately whispering to the microphones and peeking

through the one-way mirrored portholes in the chamber. Oddly, they all seemed to think

they could win the trust of the researchers by turning over their comrades. They began

betraying the other subjects in captivity with them. At first, the researchers suspected

this was an effect of the gas itself, but more time was needed before they could draw

any conclusions. After nine days, the first of the subjects

started screaming as though he were in mortal danger. He ran the length of the chamber,

repeatedly yelling at the top of his lungs. After this prolonged behavior went on for

what seemed like hours, he continued attempting to scream, but was only able to produce occasional

squeaks. The researchers postulated that he had physically torn his vocal cords. The most

startling thing about this behavior was the other subject's reaction to it, or rather,

lack thereof. They continued whispering to the microphones until another of them started

to scream. The two who remained silent calmly took the books in the chamber apart, smeared

page after page with their own filth, and pasted them carefully over the glass portholes.

The screaming promptly stopped. So did the whispering into the microphones. The chamber

went silent. After three more days passed, the researchers

decided to start checking the microphones hourly to make sure they were working, since

they thought it impossible that no sound could be coming from the chamber with five people

inside of it. When checking an oxygen monitoring device connected to the chamber, the researchers

noted oxygen consumption rates which indicated the subjects were consuming oxygen at the

rate of individuals engaged in strenuous exercise. This worried the researchers immensely.

On the morning of the 14th day, in an attempt to get a reaction from the subjects, the researchers

did something they had initially agreed not to; they used the intercom inside the chamber

to speak directly to the subjects. There was real fear the test subjects may have died

or gone into a vegetative state. That would have been frowned upon by the funder of this

endeavor, who had arrived to see the results of the experiment. The lead researcher nervously

announced, "We are opening the chamber to test the microphones. 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." To the researchers' surprise, a calm voice

responded with a single phrase: "We no longer want to be freed..."

Debate broke out amongst the researchers and the military forces funding the research over

how to handle this development. For the time being, the subjects would remain exposed to

the gas. After finding it impossible to provoke any more responses from the subjects using

the intercom, it was decided that the chamber would be opened at midnight the 15th day.

When the clock struck midnight, the chamber was flushed of the stimulant gas and filled

with fresh air. Immediately, voices from the microphones began to object. Three different

voices began begging, as if pleading for the lives of their loved ones, for the gas to

be turned back on. Undeterred by these protests, the researchers ordered the chamber opened

and soldiers were sent in to remove the subjects, who proceeded to scream louder than ever.

The soldiers, normally extremely disciplined and emotionally neutral, began to scream as

well when they saw what was inside the chamber. Only four of the five subjects were still

alive, and, of those four, what remained made several of the soldiers recoil and vomit.

The food rations past day five had not been touched. The body of the dead subject had

been torn to pieces. There were chunks of flesh from his thighs and chest stuffed into

the drain in the center of the chamber, thoroughly blocking it. This had allowed four inches

of soupy red fluid to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how much of the detritus on the

floor was actually blood was never determined. All four surviving subjects also had large

portions of muscle and skin torn away from their bodies as well. The destruction of flesh

and exposed bone on their finger tips was initially believed to be caused by teeth.

It was later determined to have been caused by using their fingers to pierce their own

flesh. Closer examination of the position and angle of wounds on the dead subject indicated

they were mostly self-inflicted. The heart, lungs and diaphragm of the one

of the subjects remained in place in his chest, but the skin and most of the soft tissue attached

to the ribs had been ripped off. This exposed the lungs through the ribcage. All the blood

vessels and internal organs from below the ribcage remained intact. However, they were

no longer inside his body. His organs had been removed and laid on the floor. They had

been fanned out in random piles around the eviscerated, but still somehow living, body

of the subject. The digestive tract of the unfortunate was spread out across the length

of the chamber. They could be seen to still be digesting food, pulsing and contracting

on the floor. It quickly became apparent that what was being digested was the subject's

own flesh. In spite of most of the soldiers being "spetsoperatsiya,"

Russian Special Operatives, having served in multiple combat operations under the service

of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces during World War 2, many refused orders

to re-enter the chamber. They were exposed to more gore and violence in a few years than

most witness in a lifetime, yet this they could not face.

A few of the soldiers, after being threatened, gave in to their superiors' demands and began

to remove the subjects one-by-one. All the while, the subjects continued to scream to

be left in the chamber. They alternately begged and then demanded that the gas be turned back

on, lest they fall asleep. To everyone's surprise, the subjects put up

a fierce fight in the process of being removed. One of the soldiers died from throat injuries

and another was gravely injured when a subject attacked his groin, severing an artery in

the soldier's leg with his teeth. In total, seven soldiers lost their lives. Two were

massacred that day and five more followed, committing suicide in the weeks following

the incident. In the struggle, the spleen of one of the

subjects was ruptured, and he began to bleed out faster because of his trauma. The medical

team attempted to sedate him, but this proved impossible. The subject was injected with

more than 10 times the dose of a morphine derivative considered to be lethal to humans

and he continued to fight like a cornered animal. His feral thrashings broke the ribs

and arm of an attending doctor. Technically, he bled to death, yet the subject's heart

still continued to beat for another two full minutes. When the subject's heart finally

stopped beating, he began to scream and flail wildly, struggling to attack anyone within

his reach. He repeated the word "more" over and over, becoming weaker and weaker, until

he finally fell silent minutes later. The surviving three subjects were heavily

restrained and moved to a medical facility. The two with the intact vocal cords continued

begging for the gas, demanding to be kept awake.

When they arrived, the most severely injured of the three were taken immediately to the

only surgical operating room the facility had. In the process of preparing the subject

to have his organs placed back inside his body, it was found that he was effectively

immune to the sedative they had given him in preparation for surgery. He fought furiously

against his restraints when the anesthetic gas was applied to put him under. He managed

to tear most of the way through a four-inch-wide leather strap on one wrist, even with a 100-kilogram

soldier adding his weight atop his chest. It took quite a bit more tranquilizer than

normal to calm the subject. The instant his eyelids fluttered and closed his heart stopped

and he seized wildly. The autopsy would later show that his blood had highly toxic levels

of oxygen. His muscles were badly torn, and he had broken nine bones in his struggle to

not be put to sleep. Most of the breaks in his bones were from the force his own muscles

had exerted on them. The second survivor had been the first of

the five subjects to start screaming in the beginning of the experiment. His vocal cords

destroyed, he was unable to verbally object to the surgery. He reacted by shaking his

head violently in disapproval when the anesthetic gas was brought near him. He shook his head

yes when a surgeon suggested reluctantly that they try to operate without anesthetic. Over

the entire course of a six-hour procedure to repair damage due to self-mutilation, he

didn't even blink. The head surgeon remarked repeatedly that it should be medically impossible

for the patient to still be alive. One terrified nurse who assisted the surgery stated that

she had seen the patient's mouth curl into a smile several times, whenever his eyes met

hers. When the surgery ended, the subject looked

at his saviors and began to wheeze loudly, struggling to talk. Assuming the subject must

have something of drastic importance to say, the surgeon had one his assistants fetch him

a pen and pad so the patient could write it down. The message was simple: "Keep cutting."

The last remaining subject was given the same surgery, also without anesthetic. The surgeon

found it impossible to perform the operation due to the patient laughing continuously.

The decision was made to inject him with a paralytic to prevent his muscles from moving.

Once paralyzed, the subject could only follow the medical team with his eyes; however, the

calm did not last, as the epidural cleared the subjects' system in an abnormally short

period of time. He was soon trying to escape his bonds once again and motioning for the

stimulant gas. The researchers and military officials, who

had arrived and were observing outside the surgical room, tried communicating via intercom

with the surviving subjects. The researchers asked why they had injured themselves, why

they had eviscerated themselves. The military officials asked why they wanted to be given

the gas again. Only one response was given: "I must remain

awake." Both subjects' restraints were reinforced,

and they were placed into a holding chamber to await a determination as to what should

be done with them. The researchers, facing the wrath of their military benefactors for

having failed to achieve the stated goals of their project, considered euthanizing the

surviving monstrosities. The commanding military officer instead saw potential and wanted to

see what would happen if the subjects were put back on the gas. The researchers strongly

objected, but were overruled. In preparation for being sealed in the chamber

again, the subjects were connected to an EEG monitor and their restraints were padded for

long-term confinement. To everyone's surprise, both stopped struggling the moment it was

let slip that they were going back on the gas. It was obvious at this point that they

were extremely desperate to stay awake. The subject that could speak was humming loudly

and continuously smiling, his reddish yellow teeth glistening with small bits of flesh.

The mute subject was straining his legs against the leather bonds with all his might, first

left, then right, then left again for something to focus on. This subject was holding his

head off his pillow and blinking rapidly. Having been the first to be wired for EEG,

the researchers were monitoring the rapidly-blinking, mute subject's brainwaves with great interest.

The waves were normal most of the time, but would flat-line inexplicably, making it appear

as if the subject was repeatedly suffering brain death just before returning to normal.

As the researchers focused on the peaks and troughs on the paper scrolling out of the

brainwave monitor, a single nurse saw the subject's eyes slip shut one final time. At

this point the subject's brainwaves immediately changed to that of deep sleep. This was followed

by a surge and then silence from the machine as his heartbeat ceased. As soon as his brain

waves subsided his seizure began, and he was suddenly spraying blood from every open wound.

The remaining subject that could speak started screaming to be sealed in immediately. His

brainwaves showed the same flat lines as the recently dead subject. To the horror of the

researchers, the attending military commander gave an order to his subordinate to seal the

chamber with both the live and dead subjects inside, as well as the three researchers.

The lead researcher immediately drew a pistol and shot at the commander through the thick

porthole glass, but the bullet ricocheted and struck the mute subject, ending his suffering

immediately. The armed researcher pointed his gun at the

remaining subject, still restrained to the bed. The remaining members of the research

team began beating on the sealed door. "I won't be locked in here with these things!

Not with you!" screamed the now trembling armed researcher at the remaining subject

strapped to the table. "What are you?" he demanded. "I must know!"