The Russian sleep experiment was a soviet-era scientific experiment it took
place during the late 1940s in the military experiment five prisoners were
kept in a sealed chamber for 30 days gas was pumped into the chamber to keep them
awake but after a few days things began to go very wrong and it ended in those
prisoners literally being shells of their former selves you may have seen
this story before but I'm sure it hasn't been explained some believe it to be
entirely false while others believe it's entirely true
the truth is it's a bit of both today we're going to look at the actual full
story of the Russian sleep experiment and also once and for all determine
what's true and what's false I'm Charlie and today we're going to look at what
was the Russian sleep experiment before we can into it why not subscribe and
press the notification bell in the late 1940s the Soviet Union was in the midst
of world war ii during this time they'd created a stimulant they had hoped that
if breathed in this would keep their soldiers up for a long amount of time
this can be very helpful in battle as it can keep you more awake and it also
makes you much stronger than your enemy that's because while they will need to
sleep you won't other countries actually did this for example Germany German
soldiers would use amphetamines to keep them awake and even the American and
British troops would use Benzedrine but the Soviets had created their own
version of this except it was far more powerful than anything else other
countries had they've created something that they thought could win them the
entire war and perhaps future wars with the West but before giving this to their
own troops they needed some guinea pigs human guinea pigs that is they decided
to use some prisoners of war which they had many during World War two they set
up a metal chamber this was basically a small metal room they had no CCTV
cameras back there so instead all they had was microphones in a five inch thick
glass porthole sized window this is so they could look in and monitor the test
subjects the chamber had books cots to sleep in bars no bedding it also had
running water a toilet and some dried food to last over one month they picked
out five political prisoners deemed enemies of the state during the World
War two they said to these five prisoners that if they do this
experiment for 30 days they will be given freedom yes
a total lie and they had no intention of freeing them but the prisoners did not
know this and agreed they said they would be testing this gas on them and
they said this would cause them to not sleep for 30 days so the five men went
into the chamber and they turned on the gas everything was fine and dandy for
the first five days the subjects barely complained their conversations and
activities were monitored and the scientists noted that on the fourth day
their conversations began to get darker they started talking about their
experiences during World War two after all this was the event that was going on
as they spoke but after the five day mark things began to get strange they
began to demonstrate severe paranoia they stopped talking to one another and
only talked to the microphones they also whispered through the portal
but this was a one-way window so they couldn't see the scientists on the other
side oddly on the sixth day many of them began to trust their experimenters more
than their fellow prisoners at first the experiment is thought this was an effect
of the gas after nine days things began to get very strange what if the five
person--this began screaming he also ran around the chamber yelling at the top of
his lungs for four hours straight he screamed so much that he physically torn
his vocal cords and after that he was only able to make occasional squeaks but
what's even stranger is the other four prisoners totally ignored this they
didn't react to it at all and simply sat there like nothing was going on they
continued to whisper into the microphones and the porthole until
another one started to scream the three non screaming prisoners then took books
apart and smeared page after page they did this with their own mess they then
pasted these over the glass portholes so the scientists couldn't see in after
that the experimenters only had the microphones to go of what was happening
in the room but soon any whispering into the microphone ceased three days went on
and the experiment has had no idea what was going on in the room they checked
the microphones every hour to make sure they were working and they were but they
could hear nothing and because the window had been obscured they couldn't
see into the room either they thought it was impossible that with five people
inside the room no sound was coming from the microphones but based on an oxygen
reading they determined the five prisoners were still alive on the
morning of the 14th day the researchers were getting desperate
hadn't had any reaction from their prisoners in ages so they did something
that they said they wouldn't do at the beginning of the experiment that was
used their microphone to contact them on the other side of the chamber they were
worried that the prisoners were in a vegetative state or perhaps not alive so
they announced we are opening the chamber to test the microphones step
away from the door and lie flat on the floor or you'll be shot compliance will
earn one of you immediate freedom but to their surprise they heard one single
phrase in a calm voice using the microphones one of the prisoners said we
no longer want to be freed this stunned the researchers they contacted the
military who were funding the research and after some debate the military
forces and researchers decided to open up the chamber they did this on the 15th
day at midnight all of the stimulant gas was removed from the chamber and instead
filled with fresh air birds then immediately voices began to
sound in the microphones they pleaded and begged for the stimulant gas to be
turned back on but the researchers did no such thing
instead the chamber was opened and the soldiers were sent in to try and
retrieve the test subjects that's when the subjects began to scream louder than
ever and when the soldier saw what was inside so did they one of the prisoners
was no longer alive and the remaining four that were were barely alive they
had not touched the food rations in the past five days
but chunks of the passed away prisoner were all over the floor this included
their thighs and chest the four surviving prisoners all had large parts
of their muscle and skin torn away exposed bone also protruded from their
fingertips and after closer examination the researchers realized the prisoners
had done this to themselves the four surviving test subjects have removed
their organs below their ribcage however the heart and lungs remained in place
however their digestive tracts were working digesting food that's when the
researchers realized they were digesting their own flesh that's right over the
course of many days they've been eating themselves the Russian soldiers left the
facility and they refused to come back to remove the prisoners from the chamber
eventually some new soldiers came in and tried to remove them but this caused the
prisoners to lash out to the soldiers one soldier passed away having his
throat ripped out and another one had his balls ripped off in the struggle
another one of the prisoners passed away he just kept screaming the word more
over and over again until he passed on the surviving three prisoners were
heavily sedated they were given ten times the normal dose of tranquilizer
and they were soon moved to a medical facility the two prisoners which still
had intact vocal cords began begging for more of the gas to be kept away the most
injured of the three prisoners was taken to a surgical operating room but that's
when doctors realized he'd become pretty much immune from any sedative no matter
how much they gave him he would not fall asleep his wrist broke through a leather
strap holding him down and in the struggle he broke nine bones
the second survivors vocal cords had been destroyed they did an operation on
him and patched up his skin but while this was happening one terrified nurse
said that he kept smiling at her whenever his eyes met hers his mouth
would curl into a creepy smile doctors also tried to give the other two
prisoners the same surgery but it was too difficult because they simply would
laugh continuously as soon as they could speak all they would do was ask for more
stimulant gas and one of them kept saying I must remain awake soon a
commanding KGB officer came to see the three remaining prisoners he saw some
potential in the surviving subjects and he ordered that they were put back in
the chamber and the gas to be turned back on the researchers strongly
objected to this but were ignored as soon as the prisoners were told they
were going to be put back on the gas they all stopped struggling but after
hearing this news one of the prisoners shut their eyes the heart monitor they
were hooked up to then flatlined and they passed on the KGB commander then
demanded that the two remaining subjects would be put inside the chamber again
and with them would be three of the scientists to monitor what was going on
that was when one of the scientists immediately drew his gun he then fired
it at the KGB commander he then turned it on one of the two remaining prisoners
the one who could not speak he fired and took the prisoner out to the other
medical researchers fled the room and the researcher with the gun said I won't
be locked in here with these things not with you
he then screamed at the final prisoner what are you I must know the prisoner
then smiled he said have you forgotten so easily 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 used to date into silence and paralysis when you go into the
nocturnal Haven where we cannot tread the scientists then aimed at the
prisoners heart and fired the prisoner then let out three final words so nearly
free so that's the story of the Russian sleep experiment but how much of it is
fiction well the answer is quite a substantial amount the Soviets never
actually developed a chemical like this however they did use an amphetamine to
keep their soldiers awake this was similar to what the armies in Germany
Britain and the United States did the stimulant the Soviets used was named
pervitin but it could keep people awake for about 48 hours not 15 days in fact
it would be impossible to stay up for 15 days let alone 13 but that doesn't mean
there weren't Soviet sleep experiments a lot of Stalin's rifles were made to stay
up for around three days strains they did this before their trials the
prisoners would then be so tired they would recommend themselves life
imprisonment or worse to be taken out by a firing squad
so there was definitely sleep deprivation in Soviet Russia and Soviet
soldiers did use amphetamines to keep themselves away but the story of the
Russian sleep experiment is no more than just that a scary story but most people
don't realize that it's a mix of truth and fiction many believe it to be
totally true while some think it's completely false but really it's
somewhere in the middle if you want some more amazing videos then check out my
second channel first as always thanks for watching
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