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What was the 'Russian sleep experiment' and did it really happen?
Russian sleep experiment was performed in1940s in which five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental gas. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them. This was before closed circuit cameras were there so they had to install microphones and five inch thick glass windows into the chamber to monitor their activities. The chamber was filled with books, iron cots to rest on but no bedding was provided, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all five for over a month.
The test subjects were political prisoners who were considered 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 did not sleep for 30 days. 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 nine days the one of them started screaming. He ran In the chamber repeatedly yelling at the top of his lungs for three hours straight, he continued attempting to scream but was not able to produce much noice. The researchers concluded that he had physically torn his vocal cords. The most surprising thing about this behavior is how other subjects didn't react to it. They continued whispering to the microphones until the second of the captives started to scream. The two non-screaming captives took the books and smeared page after page with their own feces and pasted them calmly over the glass windows. The screaming suddenly stopped. Also the whispering to the microphones by other subjects stopped.
Three more days passed. The researchers checked the microphones to make sure they were working, since they thought it was impossible that no sound could be coming with five people inside the chamber. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive. In fact the amount of oxygen five people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day the researchers did something to get a reaction from the captives, they used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping that it would provoke some response from the captives.
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...
The test subjects were political prisoners who were considered 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 did not sleep for 30 days. 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 nine days the one of them started screaming. He ran In the chamber repeatedly yelling at the top of his lungs for three hours straight, he continued attempting to scream but was not able to produce much noice. The researchers concluded that he had physically torn his vocal cords. The most surprising thing about this behavior is how other subjects didn't react to it. They continued whispering to the microphones until the second of the captives started to scream. The two non-screaming captives took the books and smeared page after page with their own feces and pasted them calmly over the glass windows. The screaming suddenly stopped. Also the whispering to the microphones by other subjects stopped.
Three more days passed. The researchers checked the microphones to make sure they were working, since they thought it was impossible that no sound could be coming with five people inside the chamber. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive. In fact the amount of oxygen five people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day the researchers did something to get a reaction from the captives, they used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping that it would provoke some response from the captives.
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...
