A Nightmare comes true

Russian Sleep experiment

Hello everyone and welcome to Creepy Café, where I tell you a creepy story while we drink together a cup of coffee.

Today’s drink is a cold brew coffee because just like today’s story it is cold, bitter, and dark. Todays's story answers the question, what would happen if someone was forced to stay up? Lack of sleep can reportedly be fatal. The longest a human had stayed awake before reaching a breaking point is 11 days.  But, what happens if they were forced to push their limit?

    

The alleged scientist in the Russian Sleep Experiement
Source: Gabe Hash

What is the Russian Sleep Experiment?

The Russian Sleep Experiment is an experience that allegedly occurred in the late 1940s. Russian researchers kept five people awake for 15 days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment. Since cameras were not used often, they only had microphones and five-inch-thick glass porthole windows to monitor them. The chamber had books, cots with no bedding to sleep on, running water, toilets, and enough dried food to last all five people over a month.

The Chamber of the Russian Sleep Experiment
Source: Conyers in the house blog

The test subjects were political prisoners deemed enemies of the state during World War II. Everything was fine for the first five days. Their conversations and activities were monitored, and it was noted that they continued to talk about increasingly traumatic incidents in their past. And the general tone of their conversations took on a darker aspect after the four-day mark.

After five days, they started to complain about the circumstances and started to demonstrate severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began whispering to the microphones and the one-way mirror portholes. Oddly, they all seemed to think they could win the trust of the experimenters by turning over their comrades.

The start of the downfall

After nine days, one of them started yelling at the top of his lungs and continued for three hours straight until he had physically torn his vocal cords. The other captives didn't react to him and continued whispering to the microphones until another captive started to scream. The other captives tore the books apart and stuck them calmly over the glass portholes. The screaming promptly stopped after.  After three more days with no visibility into the chamber, the researchers checked the microphones hourly to make sure they were working. It seemed impossible that no sound could be coming from a room with five people inside. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive.

Photos of the alleged Russian Sleep Experiment
Source: Meduim

On the morning of the 14th day, the researchers used the intercom to announce: "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." The captives replied simultaneously: "We no longer want to be freed." Researchers and the military forces decided to open the chamber on the 15th day. Immediately, voices from the microphones began to object. Three different voices began begging, to turn the gas back on. Soldiers were sent in to retrieve the test subjects, and they began to scream, once they saw what was inside the chamber.

The horror awaiting inside the camber

Four of the five subjects were still alive. Food rations past day five had not been touched. All four surviving test subjects had large portions of muscle and skin torn away from their bodies. Closer examination of the wounds indicated that most, if not all of them, were self-inflicted by their hands. The test subjects put up a fight in the process of being removed from the chamber. A Russian soldier died from having his throat ripped out. Another five of the soldiers committed suicide in the weeks following the incident.

A captive after 15 days in the Chamber
Source: Screen Geek

In the struggle, one of the four living subjects had his spleen ruptured, and he bled out almost immediately. He was injected with more than 10 times the human dose of a morphine derivative and was not sedated. He continued to scream and flail for another three minutes after his heart stopped. The remaining two subjects' restraints were reinforced, and they were placed back into the chamber, awaiting determination as to what should be done with them. The researchers wanted to euthanize the surviving subjects. The commanding officer instead saw potential and wanted to see what would happen if they were put back on the gas. The researchers strongly objected but were overruled.

The End of The End

Soon after, one of the researchers immediately drew his gun and shot the commander, the one who was supervising the experiment, point-blank between the eyes. He pointed his gun at the remaining subject, still restrained to a bed, as the remaining members of the medical and research team fled the room. "What are you? I must know!" he screamed at the man strapped to the table. The subject smiled: "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 paused, then aimed at the subject's heart and fired.

This brings us to the end of this spook story. Do you think this actually happened? Let me know what you think in the comments and what other story you would like to hear next!

Tune in to the next episode for another creepy story and another cup of coffee. Have a safe spooky day!