Russian Sleep Experiment

Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five people awake for 
fifteen days using an experimental gas based stimulant. They were kept 
in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the 
gas
didn't kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. This 
was before closed circuit cameras so they had only microphones and 5 
inch thick glass porthole sized windows into the chamber to monitor 
them. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on but no 
bedding, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all 
five for over a month.
The test subjects were political prisoners deemed enemies of the state during World War II.
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 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 4 day mark.
After five days they started to complain about the circumstances 
and events that lead them to where they were and started to demonstrate 
severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began 
alternately whispering to the microphones and one way mirrored 
portholes. Oddly they all seemed to think they could win the trust of 
the experimenters by turning over their comrades, the other subjects in 
captivity with them. At first the researchers suspected this was an 
effect of the gas itself...
After nine days the first of them started screaming. He ran the 
length of the chamber repeatedly yelling at the top of his lungs for 3 
hours straight, 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 surprising thing about this 
behavior is how the other captives reacted to it... or rather didn't 
react to it. They continued whispering to the microphones until the 
second of the captives started to scream. The 2 non-screaming captives 
took the books apart, smeared page after page with their own feces and 
pasted them calmly over the glass portholes. The screaming promptly 
stopped.
So did the whispering to the microphones.
After 3 more days passed. The researchers checked the microphones
 hourly to make sure they were working, since they thought it impossible
 that no sound could be coming with 5 people inside. The oxygen 
consumption in the chamber indicated that all 5 must still be alive. In 
fact it was the amount of oxygen 5 people would consume at a very heavy 
level of strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day the 
researchers did something they said they would not do to get a reaction 
from the captives, they used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping to 
provoke any response from the captives they were afraid were either dead
 or vegetables.
They 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 their surprise they heard a single phrase in a calm voice response: "We no longer want to be freed."
Debate broke out among the researchers and the military forces 
funding the research. Unable to provoke any more response using the 
intercom it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the 
fifteenth day.
The chamber was flushed of the stimulant gas and filled with 
fresh air and immediately voices from the microphones began to object. 3
 different voices began begging, as if pleading for the life of loved 
ones to turn the gas back on. The chamber was opened and soldiers sent 
in to retrieve the test subjects. They began to scream louder than ever,
 and so did the soldiers when they saw what was inside. Four of the five
 subjects were still alive, although no one could rightly call the state
 that any of them in 'life.'
The food rations past day 5 had not been so much as touched. 
There were chunks of meat from the dead test subject's thighs and chest 
stuffed into the drain in the center of the chamber, blocking the drain 
and allowing 4 inches of water to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how
 much of the water on the floor was actually blood was never determined.
 All four 'surviving' test subjects also had large portions of muscle 
and skin torn away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and 
exposed bone on their finger tips indicated that the wounds were 
inflicted by hand, not with teeth as the researchers initially thought. 
Closer examination of the position and angles of the wounds indicated 
that most if not all of them were self-inflicted.
The abdominal organs below the ribcage of all four test subjects 
had been removed. While the heart, lungs and diaphragm remained in 
place, the skin and most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been 
ripped off, exposing the lungs through the ribcage. All the blood 
vessels and organs remained intact, they had just been taken out and 
laid on the floor, fanning out around the eviscerated but still living 
bodies of the subjects. The digestive tract of all four could be seen to
 be working, digesting food. It quickly became apparent that what they 
were digesting was their own flesh that they had ripped off and eaten 
over the course of days.
Most of the soldiers were Russian special operatives at the 
facility, but still many refused to return to the chamber to remove the 
test subjects. They continued to scream to be left in the chamber and 
alternately begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on, lest 
they fall asleep...
To everyone's surprise the test subjects put up a fierce fight in
 the process of being removed from the chamber. One of the Russian 
soldiers died from having his throat ripped out, another was gravely 
injured by having his testicles ripped off and an artery in his leg 
severed by one of the subject's teeth. Another 5 of the soldiers lost 
their lives if you count ones that committed suicide in the weeks 
following the incident.
In the struggle one of the four living subjects had his spleen 
ruptured and he bled out almost immediately. The medical researchers 
attempted to sedate him but this proved impossible. He was injected with
 more than ten times the human dose of a morphine derivative and still 
fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of one doctor. 
When heart was seen to beat for a full two minutes after he had bled out
 to the point there was more air in his vascular system than blood. Even
 after it stopped he continued to scream and flail for another 3 
minutes, struggling to attack anyone in reach and just repeating the 
word "MORE" over and over, weaker and weaker, until he finally fell 
silent.
The surviving three test subjects were heavily restrained and 
moved to a medical facility, the two with intact vocal cords 
continuously begging for the gas demanding to be kept awake...
The most injured of the three was taken to the only surgical 
operating room that the facility had. In the process of preparing the 
subject to have his organs placed back within his body it was found that
 he was effectively immune to the sedative they had given him to prepare
 him for the surgery. He fought furiously against his restraints when 
the anesthetic gas was brought out to put him under. He managed to tear 
most of the way through a 4 inch wide leather strap on one wrist, even 
through the weight of a 200 pound soldier holding that wrist as well. It
 took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under, and 
the instant his eyelids fluttered and closed, his heart stopped. In the 
autopsy of the test subject that died on the operating table it was 
found that his blood had triple the normal level of oxygen. His muscles 
that were still attached to his skeleton were badly torn and he had 
broken 9 bones in his struggle to not be subdued. Most of them were from
 the force his own muscles had exerted on them.
The second survivor had been the first of the group of five to 
start screaming. His vocal cords destroyed he was unable to beg or 
object to surgery, and he only reacted by shaking his head violently in 
disapproval when the anesthetic gas was brought near him. He shook his 
head yes when someone suggested, reluctantly, they try the surgery 
without anesthetic, and did not react for the entire 6 hour procedure of
 replacing his abdominal organs and attempting to cover them with what 
remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it 
should be medically possible for the patient to still be alive. One 
terrified nurse assisting the surgery stated that she had seen the 
patients mouth curl into a smile several times, whenever his eyes met 
hers.
When the surgery ended the subject looked at the surgeon and 
began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling. Assuming 
this must be something of drastic importance the surgeon had a pen and 
pad fetched so the patient could write his message. It was simple. "Keep
 cutting."
The other two test subjects were given the same surgery, both 
without anesthetic as well. Although they had to be injected with a 
paralytic for the duration of the operation. The surgeon found it 
impossible to perform the operation while the patients laughed 
continuously. Once paralyzed the subjects could only follow the 
attending researchers with their eyes. The paralytic cleared their 
system in an abnormally short period of time and they were soon trying 
to escape their bonds. The moment they could speak they were again 
asking for the stimulant gas. The researchers tried asking why they had 
injured themselves, why they had ripped out their own guts and why they 
wanted to be given the gas again.
Only one response was given: "I must remain awake."
All three subject's restraints were reinforced and they were 
placed back into the chamber awaiting determination as to what should be
 done with them. The researchers, facing the wrath of their military 
'benefactors' for having failed the stated goals of their project 
considered euthanizing the surviving subjects. The commanding officer, 
an ex-KGB 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.
In preparation for being sealed in the chamber again the subjects
 were connected to an EEG monitor and had their restraints padded for 
long term confinement. To everyone's surprise all three stopped 
struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the 
gas. It was obvious that at this point all three were putting up a great
 struggle to stay awake. One of subjects that could speak was humming 
loudly and continuously; 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. The remaining subject was holding his 
head off his pillow and blinking rapidly. Having been the first to be 
wired for EEG most of the researchers were monitoring his brain waves in
 surprise. They were normal most of the time but sometimes flat lined 
inexplicably. It looked as if he were repeatedly suffering brain death, 
before returning to normal. As they focused on paper scrolling out of 
the brainwave monitor only one nurse saw his eyes slip shut at the same 
moment his head hit the pillow. His brainwaves immediately changed to 
that of deep sleep, then flatlined for the last time as his heart 
simultaneously stopped.
The only remaining subject that could speak started screaming to 
be sealed in now. His brainwaves showed the same flatlines as one who 
had just died from falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal 
the chamber with both subjects inside, as well as 3 researchers. One of 
the named three immediately drew his gun and shot the commander point 
blank between the eyes, then turned the gun on the mute subject and blew
 his brains out as well.
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. "I won't be locked in here with these things! Not with you!" he 
screamed at the man strapped to the table. "WHAT ARE YOU?" he demanded. 
"I must know!"
The subject smiled.
"Have you forgotten so easily?" The subject asked. "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. The EEG flatlined as the subject weakly choked out, "So... 
nearly... free..."
Original author unknown