Who was in lethargic sleep the longest? Lethargic sleep: its causes and symptoms, known cases. Real descriptions of cases of lethargy

Lethargic sleep (lethargy, imaginary death) is a rare sleep disorder that manifests itself in a state resembling “deep sleep.” In a state of this type of sleep, a person is completely motionless, he has no reaction to external stimuli and all his life processes slow down, in fact the person resembles a “lifeless body.” Lethargic sleep can last from a couple of hours to several years. There is even a known case in which a person slept for decades. However, it is worth noting that lethargic sleep in itself is an extremely rare disease, and its manifestation over many years is even more rare.

REASONS FOR LETHRAGIC SLEEP

To date, it has not been possible to establish the exact causes of the development of lethargic sleep.

It is not uncommon for a person to experience lethargic sleep after experiencing severe stress. Lethargic sleep often occurs in people who are more susceptible to stress and have a tendency to hysterics. Most often, this type of dream occurs in hysterical women.

The causes of lethargic sleep also include:

sleeping sickness;
stress, hysteria, physical exhaustion;
hypnosis;
head injuries;
brain diseases;

SYMPTOMS AND COURSE OF LETARGIC SLEEP

The symptoms of this disorder are not varied. Before falling into lethargic sleep, people experience a slowdown in metabolic processes, breathing slows down so that it is not visible at a glance, and a lack of response to pain and other external stimuli.

While a person is in lethargic sleep, he is not an old woman, but upon awakening, he quickly catches up with all his biological years.

People who are in a lethargic sleep under certain circumstances perceive the events happening around them, but cannot react to them. This condition should be distinguished from encephalitis.

With a mild form of lethargy, the patient looks like a person sleeping in a deep sleep. His breathing is easy, his muscles are relaxed, his temperature is slightly lower, but he still has swallowing and chewing functions.

In severe cases, a person’s temperature drops significantly, a person can go without food for several days, urine and feces stop, muscle hypotension sets in, blood pressure drops, the pulse is hard to feel, the skin turns pale, there is no reaction to painful stimuli, the pupils’ reaction to light disappears, dehydration and other signs occur.

If feeding the patient using conventional methods is not possible, then a special probe is used.

Due to prolonged sleep, a person waking up receives a whole bunch of various negative consequences caused by prolonged immobility.

TREATMENT OF LETARGIC SLEEP

Lethargic sleep does not require immediate hospitalization of the patient. The patient must be kept under constant supervision in order to ensure all living conditions. It is extremely important to provide the patient with proper nutrition and the amount of fluid consumed, isolate him from extraneous irritating noises, change bed linen, maintain a comfortable temperature, warm him up in cold weather, and avoid overheating the patient in hot weather. Fortified food should be given to the patient in liquid form. Also, do not forget about hygienic care for the patient.

BURIATION ALIVE

In lethargic sleep, a person is immobilized, does not respond to stimuli, it is almost impossible to feel the pulse, breathing slows down and even the heartbeat is almost not noticeable.

People who lived in ancient times had a fear of being buried alive. In Germany in the 18th century, the Duke of Mecklenburg on his estates even introduced a ban on burying a person less than three days after death. It wasn't long before this rule spread beyond the domain of one duke and began to spread across the continent.

Over time, or rather already in the 19th century, special coffins began to appear, which were designed so that a person could survive in them for some time and send a signal through a special tube that came out of the coffin to the surface that he was alive. Also, for some time after the funeral, priests visited the graves. Their duties included sniffing the tube that came out of the coffin, and if he did not smell the smell of cadaveric decomposition, then the grave was opened to make sure whether the person had really died.

Also, sometimes a bell was attached to the tubes in the coffins, so that the person who woke up in the coffin could give a signal by ringing them.

From Greek, “lethargy” is translated as “imaginary death” or “small life.” Scientists still cannot say how to treat this condition, or name the exact reasons that provoke an attack of the disease. Doctors point to severe stress, hysteria, large blood loss and general exhaustion as possible sources of lethargy. So, in Astana, a girl fell into a lethargic sleep after the teacher reprimanded her. Out of resentment, the child began to cry, but not with ordinary tears, but with bloody tears. In the hospital where she was taken, the girl’s body began to go numb, after which she fell asleep. Doctors diagnosed lethargy.

Those who have fallen into lethargic sleep more than once claim that before the next attack they begin to have a headache and feel lethargic in their muscles.

According to those who woke up, throughout their lethargic sleep they can hear what is happening around them, they are simply too weak to react. Doctors also confirm this. When studying the graph of electrical activity in the brains of patients with lethargy, it was found that their brains work in the same way as when awake.

If the illness is mild, the person looks as if he is sleeping. However, in severe form it is easy to mistake him for a dead man. The heartbeat slows down to 2-3 beats per minute, biological secretions practically stop, the skin becomes pale and cold, and breathing is so light that even a mirror raised to the mouth is unlikely to fog up. It is important to distinguish hibernation due to encephalitis or narcolepsy from lethargic sleep.

It is impossible to predict how long lethargic sleep will last: a person can fall asleep for a few hours or sleep for many years. There is a known case when an English priest slept six days a week and woke up only on Sunday to eat and serve a prayer service.

AiF.ru talks about the most interesting cases of “imaginary death”.

We didn't wait

Medieval poet Francesco Petrarca woke up from a lethargic sleep in the midst of preparations for his funeral. The predecessor of the Renaissance woke up from a sleep that lasted 20 hours, and, much to the surprise of everyone present, declared that he felt great. After this curious incident, Petrarch lived another 30 years and was even crowned with a laurel wreath for his works in 1341.

After a quarrel

If the medieval poet slept for only 20 hours, then there were cases when lethargic sleep lasted for several years. Officially, the longest bout of lethargic sleep is considered to be a case Nadezhda Lebedina from Dnepropetrovsk, who slept for 20 years after a quarrel with her husband in 1954. The woman suddenly regained consciousness upon hearing about the death of her mother. After awakening, Lebedina, who eventually got into the Guinness Book of Records, lived for another 20 years.

22 years in a flash

Since body functions slow down during lethargic sleep, patients practically do not age. Native of Norway Augustine Linggard fell asleep in 1919 due to the stress of childbirth and slept for 22 years. Throughout all these years, she remained as young as on the day of the attack. Opening her eyes in 1941, she saw her old husband and already adult daughter near her bed. However, the effect of youth in such cases does not last long. Within a year, the Norwegian looked her age.

First things first, dolls

Lethargy also slows down mental development. So, the first thing a 25-year-old girl from Buenos Aires wanted to do when she woke up from a lethargic sleep was to play with dolls. An adult woman at the time of her awakening, she fell asleep when she was only six years old and simply did not realize how much she had grown.

Concert in the morgue

There were cases when patients in lethargic sleep were found already in the morgue. In December 2011, in one of the morgues in Simferopol, a man woke up from a long sleep to the sounds of heavy metal. One of the city's rock bands used the morgue as their rehearsal space. The room was well combined with the group's image, and so they could be sure that their music would not disturb anyone. During one of the rehearsals, the metalheads heard screams coming from one of the refrigeration units. The man, whose name has not been released, was released. And after this incident, the group found another place for rehearsals.

However, the case in Simferopol is a rarity in the modern world. After the invention of the electroencephalograph - a device that records the biocurrents of the brain - the danger of being buried alive was practically reduced to zero.

Lethargic sleep is a special painful state of a person that resembles deep sleep.

It is characterized by:

Lack of response to any external stimuli;
- complete immobility;
- a sharp slowdown in all life processes.

As evidenced by video films about lethargic sleep, a person can remain in a state of lethargic sleep from several hours to several weeks, and in exceptional cases it can last for years. Hypnosis can also be used to achieve a state of lethargic sleep.

Causes of lethargic sleep

Studies have shown that the causes of lethargic sleep can be completely different. Most often, lethargy occurs in hysterical women. Suffering severe emotional stress can also lead to lethargic sleep. There is a known case when one young woman had a strong quarrel with her husband, after which she fell asleep, and woke up only 20 years later. Many cases of lethargy have also been described that occurred after severe blows to the head, car accidents, or stress from the loss of loved ones.
Studies by British scientists have shown that many patients suffered from a sore throat before falling into lethargic sleep, however, they did not receive official confirmation of the fact that bacteria were involved in this. But hypnosis can put a person into a state of lethargy. Indian yogis, by meditating and using breathing slowing techniques, are able to induce artificial lethargy in themselves.

Symptoms of lethargic sleep

A person’s consciousness in a state of lethargy is usually preserved; he is able to perceive and even remember events around him, but is not able to react in any way. This condition should be distinguished from narcolepsy and encephalitis. In the most severe cases, a picture of imaginary death is observed: the skin turns pale and cold, the reaction of the pupils to light stops, pulse and breathing are difficult to determine, blood pressure drops, and even strong painful stimuli do not cause a response. For several days a person cannot eat or drink, the excretion of feces and urine stops, severe dehydration and weight loss occur. In milder cases of lethargy, breathing remains even, muscles relax, and sometimes the eyes roll back and the eyelids tremble. But the ability to swallow and make chewing movements is preserved, and the perception of the environment may also be partially preserved. If feeding the patient is impossible, then it is done using a special probe.

The symptoms of lethargy are not very specific, and there are still many questions regarding their nature. Some doctors believe that the cause is a metabolic disorder, while others see this as a type of sleep pathology. The latest version became popular thanks to the research of the American Eugene Azersky, who noticed an interesting pattern: a person in the slow-wave (orthodox) sleep phase is completely motionless, and only half an hour later can he begin to toss and turn and utter words. If you wake him up exactly at this time (at the moment of REM sleep), then the awakening will be very easy and quick, and the awakened person remembers everything that he dreamed. This phenomenon was later explained by the fact that the activity of the nervous system in the phase of paradoxical sleep is very high. And types of lethargy most resemble the phase of superficial shallow sleep, so when getting out of this state, people can describe in detail everything that happened around them.

If the immobile state lasts for a long time, then the person returns from it not without losses, having received vascular atrophy, bedsores, septic damage to the bronchi and kidneys.

Phobias associated with lethargy

After watching enough video and photo lethargy, many people also begin to experience the fear traditionally associated with lethargy - being buried alive.

In 1772, in several European countries it was legally required to bury the deceased only on the third day after death was confirmed. It's funny that in America at the end of the 19th century, in some places coffins were produced that were designed so that the imaginary dead person, upon waking up there, could raise the alarm. There is a known legend about Gogol’s lethargic sleep, although it is unreliable, but the fact that he, like other famous people (Nobel, Tsvetaeva, Schopenhauer) suffered from taphophobia is a historical fact, since in their notes they asked their loved ones not to rush into a funeral.

How to distinguish lethargy from death?

A person in a state of lethargy does not react at all to the environment. Even if you pour melted wax or hot water on his skin, there will be no reaction, unless the patient’s pupils react to the pain. Under the influence of current, the body muscles are able to twitch, the electroencephalogram shows weak brain activity, and the ECG records heart contractions.

Studies have shown that only a short time the brain of a patient with lethargy is in a sleeping state, and the rest of the time it is awake and perceives signals from noise, light, pain, heat, but does not give response commands to the body.

Known cases of lethargic sleep

Cases of lethargic sleep occurred especially often during and after the First World War, when there was an epidemic of lethargy, and many soldiers and residents of front-line European cities fell asleep and could not wake up. The epidemic then grew into a pandemic.

A nineteen-year-old Argentinean girl, having learned that her idol, President Kennedy, had been killed, passed out for seven years.

A similar story happened with one major Indian official who was removed from office for unknown reasons. Without waiting for the circumstances to become clear, the official fell into lethargy, in which he remained for seven years. Fortunately, he was given proper care: nutrition through tubes inserted into his nostrils, constant turning over of his body to avoid bedsores, body massage, so it is possible that in such conditions he would have slept longer, but malaria intervened. On the first day after infection, his body temperature jumped to 40 degrees, but the next day it dropped to 35 degrees. On this day, the former official was able to move his fingers, then opened his eyes, and a month later he turned his head and could sit on his own. His vision returned only six months later, and he was able to completely shake off his lethargy a year later, and six years later he turned 70 years old.

The great Italian poet of the 14th century, Francesco Petrarch, after a serious illness, fell into a state of lethargy for several days. Since he showed no signs of life, he was considered dead. The poet was lucky that he managed to wake up literally at the edge of the grave at the time of the funeral ceremony. But he was then only 40 years old, after which he was able to live and create for another thirty.

One milkmaid from the Ulyanovsk region, after the arrest of her husband, immediately after the wedding, began to have attacks of lethargy, which were repeated periodically. She was afraid she would not be able to raise a child alone and had an abortion from a healer. Since abortion was banned in those years, and the neighbors found out about it, they reported her, as a result of which the milkmaid was exiled to Siberia, where she had her first attack. The guards considered her dead, however, the doctor who examined her was able to diagnose lethargy. He attributed this to the body's reaction to hard work and stress. When the milkmaid was able to return to her native village, she began working on the farm again, and bouts of lethargy began to overtake her everywhere: at work, in the store, in the club. The villagers, accustomed to these oddities, got used to them and with each new case they simply took her to the hospital.

A unique case took place in Norway, where, after a difficult birth, one Norwegian woman fell into a state of lethargy, in which she remained for 22 years. Over the years, her body has stopped aging, likening the sleeping fairy-tale beauty. After waking up, she lost her memory, and next to her, instead of her tiny daughter, she found an adult girl, almost the same age. Unfortunately, the awakened woman immediately began to age rapidly and lived only five years.

One of the longest lethargic dreams occurred with a 34-year-old Russian woman who quarreled with her husband. Being in shock, she fell asleep and woke up only 20 years later, which was even noted in the Guinness Book of Records.

As for Gogol, around his exhumation there were only vague and contradictory rumors about his either missing or rotated skull.

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Introduction

1. Definition, history and causes of lethargic sleep

2. Symptoms of lethargic sleep

3. Cases of lethargic sleep

Conclusion

List of sources and literature used

Introduction

The topic of this test is lethargic sleep.

This topic is relevant, as it has always excited human minds about whether it is possible to bury a person alive.

Such a phenomenon as lethargic sleep has been known to mankind since ancient times. This phenomenon is extremely rare, but still occurs today and is characterized by a painful state, very similar to sleep, but with a person’s lack of reactions to external stimuli, immobility, etc.

There are known cases from past years when people who fell into a lethargic sleep were buried alive and came to their senses in tombs, crypts, and coffins.

Due to the fact that this condition is quite rare, studying it is extremely difficult. However, it is known that lethargy can manifest itself in different ways. In some cases, the patient exhibits weak signs of life and, with due attention, it is almost impossible to mistake such a person for a dead person; even a medieval doctor would determine that the person is alive. However, in some cases, lethargic sleep really does feel like death.

Therefore, the purpose of this work is to study this phenomenon in detail and identify the differences between lethargic sleep from coma and a number of other conditions and diseases.

The work has several tasks:

Study of the definition, history and causes of lethargic sleep;

Identification of symptoms of lethargic sleep, its difference from coma and a number of other conditions and diseases;

Consideration of known cases of lethargic sleep.

In writing the work, mainly Internet sources were used.

1. Definition, history and causes of lethargic sleep

"Lethargy" comes from the Greek lethe (oblivion) and argia (inaction) - a symptom characterized by a complete lack of external response, weak pulse and blood pressure. Lethargic sleep, as a rule, lasts from several hours to several weeks, and in rare cases, months. Also observed in a hypnotic state.

Lethargic sleep is a rare sleep disorder. Its duration ranges from several hours to several days, much less often - up to several months.

Lethargy has been known since biblical times. In the Old and New Testaments you can find many examples of one of the most mysterious and still unstudied diseases. People were always afraid to fall into a lethargic sleep, because there was a danger of being buried alive.

An example is the famous Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, who lived in the 14th century and became seriously ill at the age of 40. One day he lost consciousness, he was considered dead and was about to be buried. However, the law of that time prohibited burying the dead earlier than one day after death. Having woken up almost at his grave, Petrarch said that he felt excellent. After that he lived another 30 years.

There is also a version according to which the great Russian writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was buried alive because doctors could not distinguish lethargic sleep from death.

The causes of lethargic sleep have not yet been fully established. Apparently, lethargic sleep is caused by the occurrence of a pronounced deep and widespread inhibitory process in the subcortex and cerebral cortex. Most often it occurs suddenly after severe neuropsychic shocks, with hysteria, against the background of severe physical exhaustion (significant blood loss, after childbirth).

Lethargic sleep ends as suddenly as it began.

2. Symptoms of lethargic sleep

Lethargic sleep is manifested by a pronounced weakening of the physiological manifestations of life, a decrease in metabolism, suppression of the reaction to stimuli or its complete absence. Cases of lethargic sleep can occur in both mild and severe forms.

Mild lethargy causes less radical changes in the body: a person is motionless, his eyes are closed, his breathing is even, stable and slow, his muscles are relaxed. At the same time, chewing and swallowing movements are preserved, the pupils react to light, the person’s eyelids “twitch,” and elementary forms of contact between the sleeper and surrounding persons may be preserved. Mild lethargic sleep resembles signs of deep sleep.

Lethargic sleep in severe form has more pronounced symptoms. A person may become like a dead person. There is severe muscle hypotonia, the absence of some reflexes, the skin is pale, cold to the touch, the pulse is practically not palpable and breathing is so superficial that it is difficult to determine, there is no reaction of the pupils to light, blood pressure is reduced, and even strong painful stimuli do not cause a person reactions. Such patients do not drink or eat, their metabolism slows down, they lose weight, and their biological secretions stop.

Treatment, as well as the causes of lethargy, are not fully known to medicine. It is also impossible to predict when awakening will occur. The state of lethargy can last from several hours to tens of years.

Medicine describes cases of people falling into lethargic sleep due to intoxication, large blood loss, hysterical attack, and fainting. It is interesting that when there was a threat to life (bombing during the war), those sleeping in a lethargic sleep woke up, were able to walk, and after artillery shelling they fell asleep again.

Nutrition is carried out with easily digestible food rich in vitamins. If it is not possible to feed a person naturally, the nutritional mixture is administered through a tube. The prognosis for lethargic sleep is favorable, there is no danger to the patient’s life.

Coma is an acutely developing serious condition of a patient, which is characterized by loss of consciousness, depression of central nervous system functions, absence of reflexes and reactions to external stimuli. In this case, increasing respiratory and circulatory disorders occur.

Coma is not an independent disease. It occurs as a complication in certain diseases with pronounced changes in the function of the central nervous system or as a manifestation of damage (in severe traumatic brain injury) to brain structures. Unlike lethargic sleep, coma requires active therapeutic measures to maintain the most important vital functions of the human body.

Observation and examination, and, if necessary, treatment of a patient in a state of lethargic sleep, is recommended to be carried out in specialized medical institutions.

You can get out of a coma in the same way as with lethargy, on your own, but more often this happens with the help of therapy and treatment.

3. Cases of lethargic sleep

The case of the longest officially registered lethargic sleep, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, occurred in 1954 with Nadezhda Artemovna Lebedina, who was born in 1920 in the village of Mogilev, Dnepropetrovsk region, precisely because of a strong quarrel with her husband. As a result of the resulting stress, Lebedina fell asleep for 20 years and came to her senses again only in 1974. Doctors declared her absolutely healthy.

Another unique case was recorded in Augustine Leggard. The woman, after the stress caused by childbirth, fell asleep and... no longer responded to injections and blows. But she opened her mouth very slowly when she was fed. 22 years passed, but sleeping Augustine remained just as young. One day the woman suddenly perked up and spoke: “Frederick, it’s probably already late, the child is hungry, I want to feed him!” But instead of a newborn baby, she saw a 22-year-old young woman, exactly like her... Soon, however, time took its toll: the awakened woman began to rapidly grow old, a year later she turned into an old woman and died after 5 years.

Also, the famous academician Ivan Pavlov described a case when a certain sick Kachalkin was in a lethargic sleep for 20 years, from 1898 to 1918. His heart beat very rarely - 2/3 times per minute.

There are cases where lethargic sleep occurred periodically. One English priest slept six days a week, and on Sunday he got up to eat and serve prayer.

In the Middle Ages, there were many stories about how people who were in a lethargic sleep were buried alive. These stories often had a basis in reality and frightened people, so much so that, for example, the writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol asked to be buried only when signs of decomposition appeared on his body. Moreover, during the exhumation of the writer’s remains in 1931, it was discovered that his skull was turned on its side. Experts attributed the change in the position of the skull to the pressure of a rotten coffin lid. lethargic sleep cause symptom

In England there is still a law according to which all morgue refrigerators must have a bell with a rope so that the revived “dead person” can call for help by ringing the bell.

At the end of the 60s, the first device was created there that made it possible to detect the most insignificant electrical activity of the heart. Almost at the very first test in the morgue, a living girl was discovered among the corpses.

Conclusion

Let's summarize the test results.

The term "lethargy" comes from the Greek lethe (oblivion) and argia (inaction) - a symptom characterized by a complete lack of external reaction, weak pulse and blood pressure. Lethargic sleep, as a rule, lasts from several hours to several weeks, and in rare cases, months.

The causes of lethargic sleep have not yet been fully established. Lethargic sleep is caused by the occurrence of a pronounced deep and widespread inhibitory process in the subcortex and cerebral cortex. Most often it occurs suddenly after severe neuropsychic shocks, with hysteria, against the background of severe physical exhaustion. Lethargic sleep ends as suddenly as it began.

Lethargic sleep should be distinguished from coma and a number of other conditions and diseases (narcolepsy, epidemic encephalitis). This is especially important since the approaches to their treatment differ significantly.

Lethargic sleep remains a mysterious and unexplored phenomenon. Both the reasons for a person entering such a state and leaving it are unknown. Many believe that magic is involved here. However, people often cannot explain something and prefer to attribute it to supernatural forces.

List of sources and literature used

Literature:

1. Larchenko N.A. Dictionary of medical terms and basic medical concepts, M.: Phoenix, 2013. - 608 p.

2. Smirnov A.N. Symptoms and syndromes, M.: Practical Medicine, 2010. - 296 p.

Internet Resources:

3. AiF (2013) How is lethargic sleep recognized and distinguished from the onset of death? http://www.aif.ru/dontknows/1230167 [electronic resource], open access, date of access: 03/23/2015.

4. AiF (2014) Imaginary death: what is lethargic sleep? http://www.aif.ru/dontknows/1230167 [electronic resource], open access, date of access: 03/23/2015.

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About lethargy briefly

Causes of the attack There may be various factors:

severe nervous stress,
fainting,
hysterical shock,
fumes, etc.

Sleep duration can be different: several hours or tens of years.

The lethargic sleep of our compatriot Nadezhda Lebedina is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Nadezhda fell asleep in 1954 after a serious quarrel with her husband, and woke up 20 years later, and was absolutely healthy.

Hysterical lethargy or hibernation is what modern medicine calls this phenomenon.

And hysterical lethargy have nothing in common with each other.

An electroencephalogram showed that during the attack the patient slept for some time in real sleep; this form of sleep was called “sleep within a dream.”

The electroencephalograph records brain activity corresponding to the waking state, the brain reacts to external stimuli, but the sleeper does not wake up.

It is impossible to forcefully recover from an attack of lethargy, it ends as unexpectedly as it begins.

Sometimes the attack may recur several times.

In this case, the patient senses its approach based on characteristic signs. Since an attack is always caused by strong emotional stress or nervous shock, the autonomic nervous system reacts to it first:

headaches,
loss of strength,
increased blood pressure and body temperature,
increased heart rate,
increased sweating.

A person feels as if he is doing hard physical work.

Mental trauma that causes an attack of lethargy can be very severe or very minor: people prone to hysteria, even minor troubles, seem like the end of the world.

Patients unconsciously go to sleep, disconnecting from the outside world with its problems.

There was a real threat of being buried alive before the invention of the electroencephalograph, which recorded brain biocurrents,

This is not surprising, because in a severe form of the disease, the sleeping person does not show any signs of life, it is not for nothing that the meaning of the word lethargy is translated from Greek as "imaginary death" or "small life"

Nowadays in England there is still a law obliging morgues to have a bell so that the “dead person” who suddenly comes to life can announce his resurrection.

Lethargic sleep has occupied the human imagination for a long time..

Pushkin’s dead princess, who lay under the wing of sleep, fresh and quiet, “that’s all.”

The Sleeping Beauty from the fairy tale of the French poet Charles Perrault, The Bogatyr Stream A.K. Tolstoy - world literature abounds with poetic characters who have slept through the lethargic sleep of a decade, year or century. According to legend, Epimenides of Crete, an ancient Greek poet, slept for 57 years in the cave of Zeus.

The characters in fairy tales and poems are not much different from the lethargic sleep of patients in neurological clinics.

The difference from the Dead Princess is that they breathe, but very weakly, and their heart beats so quietly and rarely that they can but think about the death of the patient.

Characteristic signs of lethargic sleep

Decrease:

physical manifestations of life,
metabolism,
heart rate, breathing rate, pulse rate,
lack of response to pain and sound,

Lethargic sleep is one of the forms of cataplexy, a serious incurable illness. It manifests itself as complete or partial immobility of the body for up to 10 minutes while maintaining consciousness. High risk of injury.

For a long time, a person does not eat or drink, loses weight, dehydration occurs, and there are no physiological functions.

There is also a case of long-term lethargy that occurred with preserved function of eating.

Mental development in a long lethargic sleep is inhibited. A six-year-old girl fell asleep in Buenos Aires and plunged into lethargy for 25 years. Waking up as a mature woman, she asked where her dolls were.

Lethargy often stops the process of physical aging.

Beatrice Hubert, a resident of Brussels, slept for twenty years. Awakening from sleep, she was as young as she had been before her lethargy. True, this miracle did not last long; in a year she made up for her physical age - she aged 20 years.

Cases of lethargic sleep

During the First World War, soldiers and some residents of front-line cities could not be awakened.

Mario Tello, a nineteen-year-old Argentinean, heard about the assassination of her idol, President Kennedy, and fell asleep for seven years.

A similar story happened to one official in India. Bopalkhand Lodha, the Public Works Minister of Jodhpur State has been removed from his post due to circumstances unknown to him.

He demanded an investigation from the state government, but the resolution of his issue was delayed for one and a half months.

All this time Bopalkhand lived in a constant state and suddenly fell into a lethargic sleep that lasted seven years. During sleep, Lodha never opened his eyes, did not speak, and lay as if dead.

He was given proper care: food and vitamins were supplied through rubber tubes inserted into his nostrils, his body was turned over every half hour to avoid blood stagnation, and his muscles were massaged.

Perhaps he would have slept longer if it had not been for malaria. The temperature rose on the first day of illness to forty degrees, and the next day dropped to 35.

The former minister moved his fingers that day, soon opened his eyes, and a month later he was able to turn his head and sit on his own.

Only six months later his vision returned, and he finally recovered from lethargy a year later. Six years later, he celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday.

In the 14th century, Francesco Petrarch, an Italian poet, became seriously ill and fell into a lethargic sleep for several days. He was considered dead as he showed no signs of life. During the burial ceremony, the poet comes to life literally at the edge of the grave. He was then forty years old, and for another thirty he lived and worked happily.

Milkmaid Kalinicheva Praskovya from the Ulyanovsk region began to suffer from periodic bouts of lethargy since 1947, when her husband was arrested after their wedding. The fear that she would not be able to provide for the child alone pushed her to have an abortion from a healer.

Neighbors reported her, and Praskovya was arrested and exiled to Siberia - at that time abortions were prohibited.

There she had her first attack while working. The guards decided that she had died. But the doctor, having examined Kalinicheva, stated that the woman had fallen into a lethargic sleep, that this was her body’s protective reaction to the stress and hard work she had experienced.

After returning to her native village, Praskovya gets a job on a farm; attacks overtake her in a club, in a store, at work. The villagers were so accustomed to her strange behavior that they immediately took the fallen woman to the hospital.