# Russian sleep experiment **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 26, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-sleep-experiment/674788 "2013-11-26T00:21:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-sleep-experiment/674788/1 "2013-11-26T00:21:31Z")
Many people know the story. 1940s, Crazy soviets performing a sleep experiment where they kept prisioners awake with a special gas, blablabla, everyone dies, blablabla. Anyway… I know the [story](http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Russian_Sleep_Experiment)is most likely fake, but… could it happen in real life? Of course, without the obviously impossible things such as the organ removal… Did anything like that ever happened? I know that NASA is paying people to stay for 70 days on a bed, but at least they can sleep… ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-sleep-experiment/674788/2 "2013-11-26T01:45:13Z")
There have been many different types of sleep deprivation experiments, but only carried out to a fatal extent in lab animals, for obvious (ethical) reasons. It looks like there’s a [rare genetic disease](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia) that can manifest in adulthood leading to eventual complete inability to sleep, and that seems to last 3 months before dementia sets in, then death in about 6 months after that. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-sleep-experiment/674788/3 "2013-11-26T02:01:36Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > There have been many different types of sleep deprivation experiments, but only carried out to a fatal extent in lab animals, for obvious (ethical) reasons. It looks like there’s a [rare genetic disease](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia) that can manifest in adulthood leading to eventual complete inability to sleep, and that seems to last 3 months before dementia sets in, then death in about 6 months after that. But fatal familial insomnia is a misnomer. Itsa form of dementia, which may well be diagnosed by the early symptom of insomnia ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-sleep-experiment/674788/4 "2013-11-26T05:10:42Z")
Fatal familial insomnia: Cecil discusses it briefly in his [article about prions](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2309/whats-the-story-on-prions-which-supposedly-cause-mad-cow-disease). By all accounts I’ve read, here, and in the **Ferret Herder** ’s above-mentioned Wiki link, and elsewhere, fatal familial insomnia and mad cow disease are two ways to die that you emphatically do NOT want to have happen to you. The descriptions I’ve seen are profoundly gruesome. You aren’t likely to get FFI, as it’s genetic (runs in families) and is profoundly rare. Mad cow, you might get if you happen to eat a mad cow. That’s gruesome too. If you EVER get diagnosed with either of these, you really really should consider committing suicide, as fast as you can, while you still can, if you still can. As for death by sleep deprivation by any other cause (Russians, whatever), I’m going to guess it’s just as bad. Long-term sleep deprivation is just nasty, what it does to your brain. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-sleep-experiment/674788/5 "2013-11-26T13:48:19Z")
This doesn’t answer your question, but relates to why lacking sleep would be a problem, it’s an article about what they think happens in our brain at night, neurons shrink and fluid flow increases 10x, they think to clean out all the waste: > **[Why do we sleep? To clean our brains, say US scientists](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/17/sleep-cleans-our-brains-say-scientists?CMP=twt_fd)** > > Cerebral spinal fluid found to pump around the brain of sleeping mice, flushing out waste products like a biological dishwasher