Long sleep is a real mystery to humans. Despite extensive and prolonged research, scientists are unable to uncover the secret of lethargy or long sleep. Science does not know the exact reasons for this condition. Therefore, no one can answer the question of why a person suddenly falls asleep for a long time.
We spend a significant part of our lives in sleep. But in history there are unique cases when people slept for several decades in a row. Let's list the "sleepy records" of the planet.
The longest dream in the world was noted by Nadezhda Lebedina from the Dnepropetrovsk region. After a family quarrel in 1954, the 34-year-old woman was in shock. She lay down to rest and fell asleep ... for 20 years! Experts have recognized lethargy. During a long sleep, Nadezhda's husband died, and her daughter ended up in an orphanage. The sleeping woman was looked after by her mother. In 1974, immediately after the death of her mother, Nadezhda woke up. According to eyewitnesses, opening her eyes, the first thing she asked was: "Is your mother dead?" Later, the woman explained that during her sleep she heard and understood what was happening around her body, but she could not give a sign to others or wake up.
Augustine Leggard from Norway also had the longest dream in the world. She fell asleep after giving birth. Augustine's dream was unusual. The woman opened her mouth on her own at moments of eating. However, she was able to wake up only after 22 years. When the dream left Augustine, she asked to bring her baby to feed. But by this time, her daughter had already grown up a long time ago. Augustine herself practically did not change, since slowing down the aging process is one of the features of lethargic sleep. Waking up, the woman quickly grew old and died.
According to the famous scientist Pavlov, he once studied the characteristics of the health of a person who slept for 20 years. After lethargy, this man gradually began to lead an ordinary life. He explained that during the period of sleep he understood and heard everything, but felt an incredible heaviness and weakness in his body. An amazingly strong weakness did not give him the opportunity to shake off sleep and get up.
The longest dream in the world happened to 19-year-old Anna Swanpool (South Africa). The girl fell into shock after the tragic news of the death of her lover. Then she fell asleep at the age of 31! Doctors refused such a patient, but Anna's relatives did not lose hope of awakening. After 31 years, she opened her eyes. At that time she was already 50 years old. The woman did not remember anything, but she could talk.
Experts say that lethargy affects human development if it occurs at an early age. In France, a 4-year-old girl had a lethargic sleep. After severe fright, she lost consciousness and fell asleep. In this state, the girl lived for 18 years, during which doctors took care of her. Waking up, the girl immediately asked to give her toys. Her development remained at the level of a preschooler.
In Colorado, in 2007, Greta Stargle woke up. She fell into lethargy after a car accident as a little girl. During a 17-year dream, she turned into a girl. Upon awakening, her mind remained as clear as that of a small child. Despite this, the girl has high mental abilities and successfully assimilates huge amounts of information.
An interesting fact: during lethargic sleep, people practically do not change with age. But after waking up, they quickly "catch up" lost, aging in 2-3 years. It happens that long sleep in the same person happens regularly. For example, one priest in England slept periodically for 6 days in a row. By Sunday, he usually woke up to organize a prayer service.
Possible Causes of Long Sleep
Experts suggest that lethargy can occur after severe stress, as a defensive reaction of the body. The second version is a mental disorder. Therefore, some doctors talk about hysterical lethargy, the occurrence of which is associated with pathologies in the mental sphere of a person.
It is noted that most often lethargic sleep overtakes those who are prone to too violent and dramatic reactions to events. In this case, doctors consider lethargy as a form of hysterical neurosis. There is another version about the cause of the longest sleep in the world. This is the viral nature of lethargy. This hypothesis arose after an epidemic of lethargic sleep, which happened in 1916-1927. In Europe during that period, a huge number of people fell asleep for a long time. Many victims of lethargy have died in their sleep. It was a leap in time-localized and mass sleep. To somehow explain this phenomenon, scientists put forward a version of a mysterious virus.
What are the signs of lethargic sleep
During abnormally long sleep, a person's sleep program is disrupted. Doctors say lethargy can be mild to severe. The mild degree has all the signs of deep sleep. In this state, a person looks the same as during a healthy sleep. All his muscles are relaxed, his pulse is palpable, his eyelids twitch slightly, and his breathing is stable and slow.
It is much worse if the person has fallen into severe lethargy. This is a very deep sleep that can be easily confused with a fatal outcome. A person's breathing can slow down so much that it is difficult to notice. It is also difficult to pick up the heartbeat. To determine whether a person is alive or not, you can use pain or electric current. The most reliable way to determine is to examine the body for cadaveric spots.
Lethargy has been known since ancient times. From time immemorial, people have been afraid to fall asleep in a lethargic sleep, since in this case there is a danger of becoming buried alive. There are many such examples in history.
We list the known cases of the longest sleep in the world. The famous poet Francesca Petrarca (XIV century, Italy) suffered from a serious illness at the age of 40. The people around him thought that he had already died and prepared for the funeral. The poet woke up near his grave, saying that he felt great and was not going to another world yet. After this incident, he lived for another thirty years.
It is very interesting that during the transfer of the ancient Jewish cemeteries, during which all the coffins are checked, it was found that more than ¼ of the buried people came to life. This is evidenced by the position of the bodies and footprints, which clearly indicate that the "dead" tried unsuccessfully to get out of the coffins.
Nikolai Gogol is a striking historical example. The writer was always afraid that he would be buried alive. And his fears came true. One day after depression, he fell ill and fell asleep for a long sleep, which was mistaken for death. When the exhumation took place in 1931, it was revealed that the matter in his coffin had been torn and the skull turned to the side.
In England, in the 60s of the last century, a special apparatus was designed that was capable of capturing even the insignificant activity of the human heart. At the very first application of this device in practice in the morgue, among the dead, a living person was found. Based on such creepy stories, we can conclude that longest sleep in the world is a rather dangerous condition. The life of a sleeping person largely depends on the adequacy of the people around.
Sleep record is the general name for all anomalous states of people in which they were during a certain period of human history. Usually this is an officially registered, or documented with the help of scientific experience, an attempt to deceive the human body. To deprive him of the right to good rest or force him to exceed the norms of time of reduced activity allotted by nature.
It is customary to register such achievements in today's society in the Guinness Book of Records, a list of people known to the entire civilized world who have transcended the capabilities of an ordinary human body. To get on this register, many people engaged in long-term training or direct bullying of their own body.
An agonizing time spent awake
The drive to become famous or to be on the list of record holders led to accidents or successes, maimed and killed people or gave them the opportunity to feel the sweet taste of momentary glory. But even the Book of Records refused to register as a victory the time spent without sleep by Briton Tony Wright, because it considered it extremely dangerous for health. The decision was made even before Wright's savage self-experiment, after Rand Gardner became the official record holder.
To date, the three record holders who deliberately set such an experience over themselves are as follows:
- The undisputed leader is Tony Wright, a Briton from Cornwall (2007), who was no longer lucky enough to become a registered Guinness record holder. Since it was decided not to record such achievements as threatening human health.
- Silver medalist, whose record still got into the famous Book, and nominally remained unsurpassed in it, Rand Gardner, from San Diego, California (1965).
- The original Guinness Sleep Record holder, Honolulu resident Tom Rounds, turned out to be an unofficial bronze medalist, but a documented silver medal.
The sleep record, which a person could do without and not only did not die, but also did not suffer much, does not belong to Tom Rounds, who spent 260 hours awake. And not to Rand Gardner, 4 hours and 22 minutes ahead of his predecessor. And not at all to Tony Wright, who has not slept for 275 hours.
The world record was set by the champion Robert McDonald, who lasted 453 hours without a break for sleep, and this phenomenon was recognized as an individual feature of his psyche.
Rand Gardner's experiment was supervised by his friends, who acted as a distraction while recording his condition. They were joined by William K. Dement, who had flown in from Stanford especially for this, because he was extremely interested in the experiment. While Gardner's friends considered his condition to be normal, Dement noted certain mental abnormalities and hallucinations, memory impairment and sharply decreased mental capabilities.
The result of a dubious achievement was a ban on such mockery of oneself, and the refusal of the authors of the Book of Records to add such numbers to their list of human achievements.
Human sleep is originally provided by nature as a period of necessary rest for the full restoration of the body's potential. A long period without natural rest negatively affects the psyche and leads to various disorders.
People who have become champions in this and were able to get out of a long period without sleep and without much loss for their mental health, have certain characteristics. This is evidenced even by the persistent desire to deprive oneself of the rest, which is necessary for every normal person in order to surprise the world.
In this case, it is customary to recall the well-known 7 records, but they are in the nature of mixed information and are divided into two subgroups:
- The first included the already famous Tom Rounds, Rand Gardner, and Peter Tripp. At the same time, the latter is a disc jockey who collected money during the marathon for medical research (201 hours without sleep). In the second - people who needed an uncharacteristically short sleep throughout the day, and this was the norm for them:
- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher slept no more than 4 hours a day, and felt great at the same time.
- Unidentified woman who underwent medical research at the age of 70 and stated that her daily sleep rate throughout her life was also 4 hours.
- Georges Mazuis from Belgium sleeps 2 hours for a long period of his life, and his brain is still working productively.
- Farmer Jones' insomnia continues with attacks, the first of which lasted 3 months, with and without sleep, the man feels normal.
The famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov slept from 3 to 3.5 hours during his circumnavigation, but every 2 hours he had a 15-minute sleep break. The rest of the participants in the experiment could not exceed its achievement, which once again confirms that the reason for the successful experiment was the individual characteristics of the organism.
The achievements of the Russian traveler in 2014, 2015 and 2016 also became possible thanks to the 4-hour sleep duration.
For Goethe, Schiller, Napoleon, Churchill, Bekhterev, 4 hours were the norm, and at the same time they retained clarity and speed of thought, active life and excellent mood. But sleep deprivation for a long time was considered one of the effective tortures, which was also applied to Dmitry Karakozov, who attempted to kill Alexander P. Eyewitnesses of the execution say that his arms and legs were hanging, his head dangled when he was taken to the gallows, and this sight was unbearable.
Record of being in a coma
The longest period of stay in a coma was recorded on the Swede, Caroline Olson, and the reason for such a long rest was not laziness. The girl fell into a coma after hitting her head, and all attempts to wake her up were doomed to failure. First, she was fed through a tube by her mother, who was replaced by a neighbor after her death. The negative effects of the trauma lasted for 42 years and 42 days, and after that Carolina looked like the age at which the accident happened to her. After that, she lived in good health for another 32 years.
The lack of proper sleep on a standard human body can lead to numerous negative consequences. This should be taken into account by those who are trying to put on various experiments or are chronically lack of sleep due to all-round employment.
A normal person pays for the hours of rest he has taken with nervous pathologies, disruption of the natural hormonal photo, diseases of the cardiovascular system and irreversible disruption of neural connections in the cerebral cortex. This means impending memory and performance problems, a decline in intellectual level and serious problems in old age.
The participants' beds are located along the perimeter of the stadium. 24 participants representing 24 countries. Instead of the usual hymns, national lullabies sounded over the stands, to which the participants fell asleep, standing near their beds and holding their hands on their hearts. It should be noted that a good half of the stadium began to snore to the accompaniment of the Ukrainian lullaby performed by Alexander Ponomarev. And the performer himself worked so hard that he almost fell asleep on the fifth line.
The lullabies played and the stadium burst into joyful snoring. The judges took their positions and announced a five-minute readiness. The participants began to warm up more actively - yawn, blink more slowly ... Their eyes, swollen from intense training, now riveted the eyes of millions, I'm not afraid of this word, onlookers.
It is not surprising - after all today the world championship in sports sleep began. The first was sprint sleep. The last world championship opened with a marathon dream, but he was excluded from the competition because one of the participants fell asleep for a year and a half. The essence of today's competition, I remind you, is to fall asleep first and touch your bed first with your back. Of course, we will be rooting for our compatriot Taras Kuzmenko, who is on the 9th bed. Sprint sleep is very traumatic because athletes fall asleep while sitting. At one competition, Augbungu Ongwene from Nigeria took the wrong position and, when he fell, due to his very tall stature, he hit his head on the old bed. Another athlete, Jorge Ramos from Spain, on the contrary, fell asleep, fell forward and pulled his back muscles.
Today, the opponents are certainly strong, but we believe in Taras. He had already defeated many of them. And at a recent press conference, he said ... no, he didn't have time to declare because he fell asleep.
So attention! The judge raises his hand. Ready! .. False start! On the 8th bed the representative of Japan hastened to fall asleep. They are trying to wake him up - but it is useless. Takashi Nakamura usually falls asleep, as they say, "tightly". Well, the competition will continue without him. The Japanese delegation falls asleep nervously and upset in the stands.
Everything is ready again. The referee gives a start and! .. In this sport it is simply impossible to do without a photo-finish, because it is very difficult to determine by eye who fell asleep first. Attention! The announcer in the stadium announces ... announces that ... Yes! Taras Kuzmenko is the world champion! Hurray comrades! I congratulate you all. The coach lifts Taras' right eyelid, shouts in his ear about victory and a slight smile appears on the athlete's sleepy face. Well, I congratulate you, dear compatriots. Congratulations to Taras on his first gold medal at this world championship. An interview with the winner is waiting for you ahead, if, of course, he can be woken up today, and I say goodbye to you. Until next time.
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