russian sleep experiment full

The Russian Sleep Experiment

Widely regarded as one of the most popular and widest spread Creepypastas ever written, The Russian Sleep experiment is notorious as much for the gruesome nature of its content as for its plausibility. To this day, a large portion of the articles written about the story are attempts to investigate its validity or to debunk it as a hoax, something that speaks not only to the story’s effectiveness but also to the deeper societal anxieties to which the story appeals.  

For those who don’t know, The Russian Sleep Experiment is a supposedly factual account of experimentation acted out on subjects by the Soviet government and military in the wake of world war 2. The experiment, ostensibly meant to explore the effects of sleep deprivation on the human body was also used to test a new gas that could keep people awake for days at a time. The ‘report’ documents the degeneration of those experimented upon, individuals commonly referred to within the Creepypasta community as ‘The Test Subjects’. The horrifying results of these experiments and the crazed almost subhuman or demonic creatures it produces are often illustrated alongside the story with one image in particular being representative of the entire myth.

Russian Sleep Experiment Creepypasta Story

Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental gas based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn’t kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. This was before closed circuit cameras so they had only microphones and 5 inch thick glass porthole sized windows into the chamber to monitor them. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on but no bedding, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all five for over a month.

The test subjects were political prisoners deemed 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 they submitted to the test and did not sleep for 30 days. Their conversations and activities were monitored and 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 4 day mark.

After five days they started to complain about the circumstances and events that lead them to where they were and started to demonstrate severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began alternately whispering to the microphones and one way mirrored portholes. Oddly they all seemed to think they could win the trust of the experimenters by turning over their comrades, the other subjects in captivity with them. At first the researchers suspected this was an effect of the gas itself…

After nine days the first of them started screaming. He ran the length of the chamber repeatedly yelling at the top of his lungs for 3 hours straight, he continued attempting to scream but was only able to produce occasional squeaks. The researchers postulated that he had physically torn his vocal cords. The most surprising thing about this behavior is how the other captives reacted to it… or rather didn’t react to it. They continued whispering to the microphones until the second of the captives started to scream. The 2 non-screaming captives took the books apart, smeared page after page with their own feces and pasted them calmly over the glass portholes. The screaming promptly stopped.

So did the whispering to the microphones.

After 3 more days passed, the researchers checked the microphones hourly to make sure they were working, since they thought it impossible that no sound could be coming with 5 people inside. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all 5 must still be alive. In fact, it was the amount of oxygen 5 people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day, the researchers did something they said they would not do to get a reaction from the captives, they used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping to provoke any response from the captives they were afraid were either dead or vegetables.

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 response: “We no longer want to be freed.”

Debate broke out among the researchers and the military forces funding the research. Unable to provoke any more response using the intercom it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the fifteenth day.

The chamber was flushed of the stimulant gas and filled with fresh air and immediately voices from the microphones began to object. 3 different voices began begging, as if pleading for the life of loved ones to turn the gas back on. The chamber was opened and soldiers sent in to retrieve the test subjects. They began to scream louder than ever, and so did the soldiers when they saw what was inside. Four of the five subjects were still alive, although no one could rightly call the state that any of them in ‘life.’

The food rations past day 5 had not been so much as touched. There were chunks of meat from the dead test subject’s thighs and chest stuffed into the drain in the center of the chamber, blocking the drain and allowing 4 inches of water to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how much of the water on the floor was actually blood was never determined. All four ‘surviving’ test subjects also had large portions of muscle and skin torn away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and exposed bone on their finger tips indicated that the wounds were inflicted by hand, not with teeth as the researchers initially thought. Closer examination of the position and angles of the wounds indicated that most if not all of them were self-inflicted.

The abdominal organs below the ribcage of all four test subjects had been removed. While the heart, lungs and diaphragm remained in place, the skin and most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been ripped off, exposing the lungs through the ribcage. All the blood vessels and organs remained intact, they had just been taken out and laid on the floor, fanning out around the eviscerated but still living bodies of the subjects. The digestive tract of all four could be seen to be working, digesting food. It quickly became apparent that what they were digesting was their own flesh that they had ripped off and eaten over the course of days.

Most of the soldiers were Russian special operatives at the facility, but still many refused to return to the chamber to remove the test subjects. They continued to scream to be left in the chamber and alternately begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on, lest they fall asleep…

To everyone’s surprise, the test subjects put up a fierce fight in the process of being removed from the chamber. One of the Russian soldiers died from having his throat ripped out, another was gravely injured by having his testicles ripped off and an artery in his leg severed by one of the subject’s teeth. Another 5 of the soldiers lost their lives if you count ones that committed suicide in the weeks following the incident.

In the struggle one of the four living subjects had his spleen ruptured and he bled out almost immediately. The medical researchers attempted to sedate him but this proved impossible. He was injected with more than ten times the human dose of a morphine derivative and still fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of one doctor. When heart was seen to beat for a full two minutes after he had bled out to the point there was more air in his vascular system than blood. Even after it stopped he continued to scream and flail for another 3 minutes, struggling to attack anyone in reach and just repeating the word “MORE” over and over, weaker and weaker, until he finally fell silent.

The surviving three test subjects were heavily restrained and moved to a medical facility, the two with intact vocal cords continuously begging for the gas demanding to be kept awake…

The most injured of the three was taken to the only surgical operating room that the facility had. In the process of preparing the subject to have his organs placed back within his body it was found that he was effectively immune to the sedative they had given him to prepare him for the surgery. He fought furiously against his restraints when the anesthetic gas was brought out to put him under. He managed to tear most of the way through a 4-inch wide leather strap on one wrist, even though the weight of a 200-pound soldier was holding that wrist as well. It took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under, and the instant his eyelids fluttered and closed, his heart stopped. In the autopsy of the test subject that died on the operating table, it was found that his blood had triple the normal level of oxygen. His muscles that were still attached to his skeleton were badly torn and he had broken 9 bones in his struggle to not be subdued. Most of them were from the force his own muscles had exerted on them.

The second survivor had been the first of the group of five to start screaming. His vocal cords destroyed he was unable to beg or object to surgery, and he only reacted by shaking his head violently in disapproval when the anesthetic gas was brought near him. He shook his head yes when someone suggested, reluctantly, they try the surgery without anesthetic, and did not react for the entire 6-hour procedure of replacing his abdominal organs and attempting to cover them with what remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it should be medically possible for the patient to still be alive. One terrified nurse assisting the surgery stated that she had seen the patient’s mouth curl into a smile several times, whenever his eyes met hers.

When the surgery ended the subject looked at the surgeon and began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling. Assuming this must be something of drastic importance the surgeon had a pen and pad fetched so the patient could write his message. It was simple. “Keep cutting.”

The other two test subjects were given the same surgery, both without anesthetic as well. Although they had to be injected with a paralytic for the duration of the operation. The surgeon found it impossible to perform the operation while the patients laughed continuously. Once paralyzed the subjects could only follow the attending researchers with their eyes. The paralytic cleared their system in an abnormally short period of time and they were soon trying to escape their bonds. The moment they could speak they were again asking for the stimulant gas. The researchers tried asking why they had injured themselves, why they had ripped out their own guts and why they wanted to be given the gas again.

Only one response was given: “I must remain awake.”

All three subject’s restraints were reinforced and they were placed back into the chamber awaiting determination as to what should be done with them. The researchers, facing the wrath of their military ‘benefactors’ for having failed the stated goals of their project considered euthanizing the surviving subjects. The commanding officer, a former KGB agent, instead saw potential, and wanted to see what would happen if they were put back on the gas. The researchers strongly objected, but were overruled.

In preparation for being sealed in the chamber again, the subjects were connected to an EEG monitor and had their restraints padded for long term confinement. To everyone’s surprise, all three stopped struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the gas. It was obvious that at this point all three were putting up a great struggle to stay awake. One of the subjects that could speak was humming loudly and continuously; the mute subject was straining his legs against the leather bonds with all his might, first left, then right, then left again for something to focus on. The remaining subject was holding his head off his pillow and blinking rapidly. Having been the first to be wired for EEG most of the researchers were monitoring his brain waves in surprise. They were normal most of the time but sometimes flat lined inexplicably. It looked as if he were repeatedly suffering from brain death, before returning to normal. As they focused on paper scrolling out of the brainwave monitor only one nurse saw his eyes slip shut at the same moment his head hit the pillow. His brainwaves immediately changed to that of a deep sleep, then flatlined for the last time as his heart simultaneously stopped.

The only remaining subject that could speak started screaming to be sealed in now. His brainwaves showed the same flatlines as one who had just died from falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal the chamber with both subjects inside, as well as 3 researchers. One of the named three immediately drew his gun and shot the commander point blank between the eyes, then turned the gun on the mute subject and blew his brains out as well.

He pointed his gun at the remaining subject, still restrained to a bed as the remaining members of the medical and research team fled the room. “I won’t be locked in here with these things! Not with you!” he screamed at the man strapped to the table. “WHAT ARE YOU?” he demanded. “I must know!”

The subject smiled.

“Have you forgotten so easily?” The subject asked. “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 you sedate into silence and paralysis when you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread.”

The researcher paused. Then aimed at the subject’s heart and fired. The EEG flatlined as the subject weakly choked out, “So… nearly… free…”

Appearance and origins.

Whilst there are a number of images associated with The Russian Sleep Experiment and the story is of an event rather than about an individual or character, there is one image that is most well known and commonly linked to the story and which most fans will instantly recognise.

The image, shows a humanoid creature staring blankly into the camera. The figure is horribly emaciated, a fact that is further emphasised by the extent to which the eyes are sunken back into the sockets, the brow and cheekbones protruding to an unnatural extent.  

The teeth meanwhile are of an unusually large size and forced forward by the thinees of the subject into a maniacal looking grin. The subject’s hugely exaggerated features enlarged head and huddled posture first with the concept of them being as much a victim as a threat. The image is in black and white, which lends irt some authenticity considering the period in which it is alleged to be taken.  

Thankfully, the image is a fake, and rather than being a human being is in fact a photograph of a halloween prop named ‘spasm’ created in 2005 by Morbid Enterprises.  

There is some disagreement as to where the story first originated. Whilst   some sources claim that the tale’s first appearance can be linked back to a user known only as ‘Orangesoda’ who posted the story to the creepypasta website on august 10th 2010, others trace its origins to an August 8th 2009 post on the Rip747 WordPress blog, pointing out that the story was also posted to the misc board of Bodybuilding Forums by a user named Falconpunch on August 20th 2009 which would again pre-date OrangeSoda’s post on Creepypasta.

It is also worth noting that the post on the Rip747 blog claimed that the story has been shared with him by his brother, and whilst this may just be a narrative device intended to distance the author from the piece it could also be regarded as evidence that the story existed prior to this post.  

Whilst some believe British author Ice to have written the original creepypasta, based upon the fact that she produced a book of the same nme, she has clarified that she was simply inspired by an earlier work and is not the myths originator.  

Following Orangsoda’s post on Creepypasta a page was set up for the story on August 16th 2010, the story was then picked up and read aloud on the MrCreepypasta channel in November of 2011. After being shared by Griffin23 and receiving favourable reactions on the /r/wtf subreddit in October of 2012, the story got a dedicated site RussianSleepExperiment.com on   ‘March 7th 2013.  

The story was read aloud on Youtube over black and white images by IReadCreepyPastas in a video uploaded on 1 October 2013. This may be the first time that the narrative was linked to the images so famously associated with it and in its first year alone the video garnered over 11 million views.  

Influences and Buried Fears.

Scholars of folklore who have examined and written about The Russian Sleep Experiment myth have pointed out how the story’s effectiveness and viral spread can be attributed not only to its apparent believability, but more pointedly to   lat nbt anxieties within society around issues such as the horrors of war and the atrocities committed during world War two, but also with apprehension about the capabilities of foriegn militaries. It has been noted that across the spectrum of creepypasta stories the majority of stories concerning scientists and nefarious or experimentation are linked wither to Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.  

Real Life Influences

Whilst many Creepypasta stories have clear influences from older folkloric traditions, what makes the The Russian Sleep Experiment story so unsettling and horrifically plausible is its proximity to the truth. Whilst many words and article inches have been dedicated to debunking this myth, it is simply a fact that similar horrors have indeed been committed by governments on their own people and that these incidents were undoubtedly influential in the formation of this particular mythology.  

By suggesting that the events recounted took place in the late 1940s   and with the addition of black and white and period photographs, the authors and posters place these fictional events within the same decade as the real life atrocities of the holocaust.  

Whilst the sleep experiment narrative might seem far-fetched in most contexts with most readers questioning the ethical and moral validity of such research, they remain within the realm of possibility when one considers that similar and perhaps greater crimes against unwilling subjects were committed in the name of advancement during this period.  

Though exaggerated to the point of monstrosity, the photograph of the halloween prop ‘spasm’ skirts the line of being plausible when one is reminded of the photographs of the near starved victims of the death camps under the Nazi regieme. In a deeply disturbing way, the hollow cheeks, sunken eyes and blank stares are nakedly reminiscent of real life footage and images from the time.  

Furthermore, when one considers the forced experimentation and medical research performed on unwilling subjects including the disabled by the nazis,(most infamously by Josef Mengele, who for example, saw fit to stitch pairs of living twins to one another) it becomes clear why readers have a hard time dismissing this story off hand.  

The Russian Sleep Experiment remains one of the most impactful and haunting creepypasta creations not only because of the effectiveness of its fiction, but because it skirts a little too close to the horrifying truth.  

Listen To The Russian Sleep Experiment Narration

The Russian Sleep Experiment movie…

We still await the day we get to see this classic creepypasta turned into a Russian Sleep Experiment movie

More classic Creepypasta stories can be found here: Jeff The Killer Slenderman Smile Dog

Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.

246 thoughts on “The Russian Sleep Experiment”

DO NOT LOOK AT THE PIC FOR RSE FOR YOUR SAKE PLEASE

I just want to tell the people who think that the ending is cliche or trash that this pasta is loosely based on a true story and I recall a video mentioning that most of those last lines were indeed said. It would bug the maker of this pasta if he based his story on an actual event but removed some crucial parts.

And no, I also don’t like the ending much. It’s very decorated for me – too much words. The less last words, the better.

The story is really good.

After reading this a few times over the years, I can’t help but to feel the magic that made this tale so frightening in the past had dissipated. Though, I suppose that’s the case with every creepypasta at one point of another.

Nevertheless, as one of my first ever pastas all those years ago – I still find it well pace and nostalgic; if not rushed or too long winded in a few areas. Truly an excellent place for new pasta readers to begin. Good on the author for writing a timeless piece.

its good but it could be better

Really good one,I didn’t want it to end but when it did i was extremely disappointed with it…the ending just ruined the whole story for me but overall 8/10

Damn…..this is one of the best stories I’ve ever read!! Keep up the good work!!

Well, I don’t think I should have researched this pasta at night.

Omg this is so weird!!??

This is great XD

I was not creeped out by this. At all. How is this supposed to be frightening/ creepy?

absolutely amazing….. and to make matters worse this is actually true! i am not lying any of you can search it up online and you will be even more surprised and creeped OUT!!

I honestly will think this is real no matter what for some reason I can’t shake the thought that it is.

Very good, its 4:45CT and I’m kinda scared. Very very spoopy.

This was the very first creepypasta I had ever read. Have to say, it’s still my all time favorite!

I enjoyed the take on the Russian Sleep experiment, The experiment itself was real, but spinning in further details to madness was very good and entertaining on a realistic scale – Well Done!

I enjoyed the take on the Russian Sleep experiment, The experiment itself was real, but spinning in further details to madness was very good and entertaining on a realistic scale – Well Done!

This was a great pasta. Wayyy better than listening to the reading, in my opinion. Either way, you have to be a long-time pasta fan to be able to choke down this story.

That was a really good pasta, Russian Sleep Experiment is one of my favorites!

I LIKE Spaghetti!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, it was a great story. OMG just remembered that it is real

is this real? or just story??

I wish there was more to it, it’s just quite fascinating though.

That was epic man

That was epic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the last part

awesome. sometimes i tell this to people and really get creeped out

As a non-psychoanalytic psychologist, the Sigmund “Fraud” typo is way too funny. And it makes for a very fitting Freudian slip! Just had to point that out. I’m not touching the rest of it.

Ah, a classic

I never understood this story I mean what was wrong with the patients why were they acting like that and why did they refuse to sleep what were they so terrified of

did somebody say “Pasta(R)…”? no? oh ok

A person I know read this story at a Halloween costume party and she didn’t finish it but that’s really good

This would be a great horror movie

Cool kind of.. But where is the climax??

my god this is a good one

He fell asleep on aesthetics? What a barbarian!

Definitely one of the best ones out there.

So my psychology professor showed this in class and I don’t have the heart to tell her it’s just a creepy pasta… not quite sure the truth behind any of this, but I’m counting it as mostly fiction.

Man this pasta is good!

Can you still scream if your vocal cords are destroyed?

Well that was … interesting. My friends and I used to do this, stay awake for as long as possible, 3 days was my record, while my friend managed 6 days. Least we thought we did, turns out we were missing time because we were micro-napping without realising, and blacking out in to a state of sleep without realising too. Turns out copious levels of alcohol and drugs don’t keep you as awake as you’d think.

Are Creepypastas in the public domain? I am a director and author and I would love to adapt this into a full novel or movie.

I have seen this on Pinterest except it was less creepy and showd a photo……BATGIRL DUNNANA BATGIRL BATGURL

There is an extra test subject. 5 started the experiment. 1 was dead when they opened the room. 1’s spleen ruptured and bled out when trying to restrain them. 1 died on the operating table when trying to anesthetise him/her. Then they put 3 surviving subjects under the knife and back in the room?

Shouldn’t have read this at 2am in the morning 0_0

True story Bro, I like this story

I do belive ive shat my pants

More like the Russian sleep cannibal

i seriously love this pasta its one of my favorites

How was three put back in the chamber when 3 had already died? Am I right? But love it anyway

This has got to be my 4th or 5th time reading this, and I’ll be damned if the ending still doesn’t give me chills every single time.

what other pasta should i read.

This wasn’t really creepy, just very interesting

Seriously one of the best stories on this site. Love, love, love it!

ahhhh… it makes me feel sleepy!

i too like pasta

I´ve done a soundscape/soundtrack´s bit of dark ambient tribute to this story : https://soundcloud.com/per-najbjerg-poulsen/soundscape-to-russian-sleep-experiment enjoy!

This is one of the best ive read

Goddamn, pretty creepy, and awesome. And disturbing.. Written by a genius, for sure. I’m Russian btw, lol. An American friend of mine, recommended me to read it, lol.

I think a scientific explanation for the self mutilation might be they were trying to preserve body energy by removing parts that use it? Or it could of course be the insanity thing.

I expect all pasta to be creepy. This one, was.

I luv this Pasta, it’s my all time favorite :) I really don’t see HOW people don’t like it though.

That was a great pasta

i love this one a lot :)

I really liked this pasta. THhe ending kinda gave me some closure so I could understand it so props for that. I also enjoyed how much detail you put into this. 100/100 :—–)

it was good until the end.

Worst cliche ending on the face of the earth.

It’s 12:00 and when I read this and now I can’t sleep >_< not good . #nightmares

I looked at a pic from this creepypasta it’s really creepy I hate it

this is such a good story and it really sends a chill down your spine. I’m totally having this on my favorites!

It’s a good pasta, but there’s a major plot hole that most people read over.

5 left. The fifth one was found dead when the chamber open.

4 left. The fourth one ruptured his spleen and bleed out.

So there’s three left?

In one of the paragraph’s, it is noted that. “The most injured OF THE THREE was taken to the only surgical room they had in the facility.” In that same paragraph, it said that the same patient died the second he was given MORE anesthetic and his eyes shut. He had triple the oxygen.”

So there’s two left?

The paragraph follows mentioning that the second most injured(the mute) was taken to surgery and was told he’ll live. The doctor gave him something to write down something he figured was important so the patient said “keep cutting”….

“The other two test subjects were sent to the surgery room, both WITHOUT anesthetic.” Note how one of the ones who died in surgery died from the anesthetic…Where this states that the other two were without anesthetic.

To prove that all three were mentioned to be alive…It says “All three stopped struggling when they were told..” This means that all THREE of them we’re struggling, and that quote(not an exact quote) came after said test subject died form anesthesia…

So there’s three left? As a double whammy, the third test subject is even mentioned dying in an alternative way compared to where it specifically said he died from anesthesia. It says that the third test subject died after frantically blinking, having put his head on a pillow and falling asleep.

So not only did the story say there were three subjects, then two, then three. The story ends with the third test subject dying in a different way…

Well NO SLEEP TONIGHT *wink*

I want the gas now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“The commander gave the order to seal the chamber with both subjects inside, as well as 3 researchers.” I’m questioning as to how people read this, saying that there are three subjects left. “Both” means two, there are two subjects left. Three researchers are to be locked in with them. One died when the room was opened, another bled out, the other died in his sleep. Have you read enough?

i could not finish it to creepy

Wow. Couldn’t sleep last night….. Real scary…….

Should not have been eating lasagna while reading this!

I would not say that the story was very frightening, and I feel that the ending could be better. Yet, in all truth, it completely got me engrossed. It may not have been a very good creepypasta, by the traditional definition, but it is one hell of a great story by any standards.

I liked it, but I still prefer game related creepypasta still my friend suggested this to me and they were right this was great!

I thought this was a very good story and i acually did more research and this is %100 real so very good job.

But I almost puked

God i fucking LOVE this creepy pasta :D

Amazing!!!This was great it left you wanting to read more and it left you with a great ending that will scare anyone.

Great overall but I shall dock a point for inconsistency and a poor choice in ending. 9/10

this creepy pasta has to be my favorite one of the main reasons is because it didnt really scare me like other pastas would E.g. the slendrman, S.C.P., jeff the killer, Mr. Widemouth etc… another reason why i liked ths is bcause i like creepypastas that are based during a war (WW1/WW2) and the fact that they were all how to say… psycotic during the experiment made it even more ineresting

Overall interesting. Ending sucked though

dafuq did I just read? in creepypasta terms that means 10/10! best fucking scary pasta ever!

Very good pasta, and I’m planning to make one about the pit of despair experiment, just with people and not monkeys! :-D

you should listen to the Ireadcreepypastas version on YouTube ; it’s really good.

One of my absolute favourites!

Good story but messed up

Good story but MESSED UP gross

Anonymous : That’s actually not it. The story is a reflection of sleep psychology. There is a theory that we have an “unconscious mind”, the more animalisticportion of our minds that is all that is considered “mad”. Our conscious mind (The one you are reading with right now) is what we use everyday. Our unconscious mind is only seen when we are asleep, giving our conscious mind a break. (This could explain why dreams are sometimes violentor crazy.) The fact that the patients could not sleep, perhaps broke the conscious mind and left the unconscious mind in control and free.

Wow I never realized that

I Peed A Little

Id like to get in contact with the writer of “The Russian Sleep Experiment”. To discus possibility of adapting the story into a short film. I don’t know who wrote it and was hoping I could be helped by someone in order to get in contact with its writer. Thanks

Creepypasta Classic Here!

someone should definitely make a movie based on this story! whoever does it could work on the number-of-subjects issue and the ending. This has serious potential!

i liked it. The ending could of been a better though. And tbh i would of liked to see more gore.

This was the best pasta I’ve seen next to Jeff the Killer! LOVED IT!

Is this a real story?

I really liked it, but I wish one of them lived. The mute one living would have been cool. :P

ehhh….this is why I dont get enough sleep anymore. Reading creepypastas all day,everyday, it really affects you to the core e_e but its my stupidity for doing it. Its always this creepypasta that keeps me awake at nights saying “Fuck Sleep”.

Eww. BUT IT WAS AWESOME.

Gyahaha! I’m so much closer to insanity when I unleash the darker side of me. It grows more powerful when I’m angry. I still feel that dreaded smile… Of my darkness.

Ancient humans painted caves and told stories around a fire to preserve knowledge and to warn their fellow man of the dangers that lurk in Darkness.

This tale is heir to that tradition of fear. But the Creator cannot help himself, cannot stop himself from adding garish obscuring clarity at the conclusion. He thinks it will terrify and enlighten.

Instead it misdirects and confuses.

The tragedy is that the body left unrested for so long undergoes a far more terrible transition and renders the exhausted mind unguarded. It is not that which escapes that is to be feared.

Try it and see.

I agree fully. It is not what escapes that should be feared, it is what stays behind.

I agree. It is not what escapes that bothers me, it is what stays behind.

This is one of my favorite pastas. 10/10, and will someone please make this into a movie?

Wow. Brilliant job! This pasta is probably my favorite I’ve read so far. You make the story really pop out and send chills down my spine.

Y U NO MAKE BOOK ABOUT THIS

Despite a few mistakes, I greatly enjoyed this story. It also kind of struck me as… I don’t know. Frighteningly believable. Not that this actually happened, I mean. But that this is what happens when people are deprived of sleep long enough. It seems like an amplified sort of picture of the impulses and feelings I find growing in my mind when I’ve been sleep-deprived… That probably sounds really creepy. Bit my mind gets weird when I don’t get sleep. And it’s the exact same brand of weird.

Hehehe, I can see why this story is on creepypasta; it has a nice “touch” to it. XD

“Meanwhile in Russia…”

Oh the irony, I think I may fall out of my seat.

I read this somewhere else once and it had a couple of pictures, one of them was one of the subjects after his surgery and showed how distorted his body was. That was creep too.

Despite the small “varying number of subjects” mistake and the cliche’ed ending, it was an alright pasta. Although, it made me more hungry than scared…..”The skin and most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been ripped off” makes me think of venison(deer meat).

And no, I’m not a zombie,..I just hadn’t had anything to eat for 2-1/2 hours. I need a sandwich.. (“`~`)

I wish this would become a movie :o

This is by far my favorite pasta. Its creepy yet true. I give it 10 skulls.

I didn’t understand that pasta. How many ppl died? I’m empty minded right now I guess

this is a wild tale that fish take hook, line and sinker…

BUT WHO WAS SLEEP?

This was pretty creepy O_o. people were right about this. “trying to sleep? not anymore.”

That last part actually made sense to me somehow. This is just that one story you read that makes you shudder, yet makes you think when the one making you shudder says something like that.

I liked it, but it could’ve gone without the last subject’s impromptu speech on the dark side of human nature. Maybe hallucinogenic babble would’ve been more realistic. The subjects seemed more malevolent than frightened, which was… Odd. Not bad, but odd. Other than that, great pasta. Probably one of the best I’ve seen, although I’m a stickler for old classics. My favorite is the one where the little girl gets the murderous doll that calls up to her, “Lucy, I’m on the first step.” until it gets to her. Thump Thump… Drag? Either way, I’m rambling. Yummy pasta. Would order seconds.

In Soviet Russia, sleep wakes you!

Nice pasta!

I read this on a separate sight and was half-convinced it was true (as it claimed it was true). However, it states 6 subjects deaths, when it first states there are 5 which made me speculative.

Yes, I’m aware it is impossible for them to have lived with such grievous injuries but that’s why it scared me so much. Because it defied the impossible and made me question what I thought was real.

I was off to study it a bit more, because I couldn’t believe it could be true and it lead me to this site (and I haven’t really left since. XD)

Other then the miscalculation of the number of subjects and the fact I think the ending could have been a lot better I give total respect to the author of this story.

It actually convinced me, for one, fascinated me and scared me quite a bit. I don’t scare easy. ‘Psychosis’ is the only other thing I’ve read on this site which has frightened me so far.

Awesome job. :D

Do not like. Want to nom but the raw smell is overwhelming.

This has WAYYY too many holes and things that don’t make sense. You an have your heart and lungs exposed for that long and still be alive..

Oh shit. O.o Insane. Loved it.

Nomomnomnom amazing pasta

I don’t care what all of you are saying. I really enjoyed this pasta. 9/10.

It was SO GOOD until the ending. I found the ending extremely corny. You can also word on your grammar/punctuation a little bit more. I loved the story though.

PPLEASEEEE make this into a lmovie.. does anyone agree this would be amazing?

I thought this was an awesome pasta, but it started with 5 people in the tank read the begenning again if im not belived

we need more pasta of this magnitude I really enjoy the russian experiments because russians are crazy and things like this really could have happened

I also enjoyed the story and was guessing that the end would reveal it to be an early experimental form of methamphetamine. That would have been killer!

Very interesting story, but the title is very misleading as there was no sleep involved whatsoever.

It’s not misleading, the topic of the Russian experiment was sleep, and the effects of a lack of this on a human.

I like this one, very intense.

If I was the scientist at the end, I would have shot myself after shooting the last patient.

This is something that I enjoyed alot.

No scientist would even think of making a subject stay awake for 30 days, you can only last 10 or so days without sleep….

True. Though I believe that the story was set before that was discovered.

Ending was lame

Does anyone know who wrote this?

I’m looking into film adaptation rights status for this story.

If you are the author or know the author, please email me at [email protected]

I enjoyed this pasta keep up the good work!

This was the first short story that I read as far as the ‘creepypasta’ genre goes, though it wasn’t on this site. This story was the reason I continued to read creepypasta. Sure, it’s not perfect, but few stories are, and this pasta’s pros definitely outweigh its cons. I’ve read it a hundred times and will probably read it a hundred more!

I didn’t get bored reading it. I really did enjoy this. That is, until the very ending. It was kind of silly. Maybe i’d have prefered everyone died.

Best post I’ve read so far. I’ve read and listened to it so many times. Still gives me chills. I like to believe this is definitely real, that or it’s highly possible. The human mind is capable of so many things that we can’t even comprehend at this point. Science is coming along sooo well. Yayyy drugs! <3

Thank you for making me not-afraid to sleep.

That left me with alot of unease

Great gritty realistic story but I agree with the others, the ending is a bit too much of what it should be. Meaning story teller was trying to give meaning to what happened when it should have been left alone.

When a story is this long I expect a decent payoff; there wasn’t one here, but it was well-written at least.

I loved it! I’ve never read a creepy pasta story before this and you’ve made an amazing first impresion with this story! Bravo!

I really enjoyed this. The ending was a good twist.

SON OF A BITCH

You called for me?

Perfectly tasty pasta, despite the mistakes. Bravo.

The story is awesome until the last two paragraphs or so. At that point the mood shifts from gritty realism, something that could actually have happened, with psychosis and dementia and madness…to inner demons? Really?

Yeah, the ending was definitely slapped on for a deadline or or something.

Actually You did already have it archived here. I’ve only used this site for creepypastas(it hasn’t been so long since I found out about them) and I’ve read a lot of the old stories and this one was already posted here.

To me, the scariest thing about this one is that it could actually happen in real life if someone decided to attempt an experiment even vaugely similar to this.

BUT WHO WAS RUSSIA

Damn scary…

wow i never realy knew what kind animals we realy were on the in side, but what do you realy expect someone to do in that type of systuation

Well clearly you rip your guts out and scream until your voice chords are torn in half lol that would definately be most of us :P

i can make a better one

then do it don’t say you can and not do it. stupid.

Then freaking make a better one.. I bet you can’t.. If you don’t like it then you should give your opinion not say shit like that.. Grow up!!

Nice~ it really sucks you into the story and gets your heart pumping~

This tapped into the darkest part of my mind. Its scary, and makes you think. Kindof like Psychosis. 10/10

You put disgrace on the name Olivia. Please, PLEASE… take time on proofreading. Here, I’ll do it for you: *All of you *So *I’ve *aren’t *This *I’ve *I *It’s *I *doesn’t *My *Russian. *He’s *nice… *extremely *Sometimes *hitting That hurt my brain.

She won’t get it.

Yea… people we get it. He made a tiny mistake now shut up it’s not that deep

Or she…a twist in the tale

all yous shut your mouth! so far this has been the scariest pasta i’ve read in a while. most pastas should be crappypastas but arnt. this should be one of the best creepypasta stories i’ve read in a while i really think that this story shouldnt be on crappypasta. its well written and i loved it and anyone who dosnt STFU! and my friend is russian hes nice extremly nice. somtimes so nice you’d think he was hitten on me…. o.O

So someone who doesn’t like part of the story shouldn’t talk? Your logic is skewed.

So someone who doesn’t like part of the story shouldn’t give their opinion? Your logic is skewed.

Is friend nice enough to teach you English?

You must be some 10 year old reading some random pastas. Everyone here is free to express their opinion. And by the way, no one ever said anything about your beloved Russian friend. Just freaking grow up.

Yes, they open the tank; there are 4. One bleeds to death from a broken spleen. There are 3 then. Go to surgery; one dies by anesthesia. There are 2 then; oh wait! next paragraph, there are still 3; who was resurrected?

The ending could have worked with a little more detail added. Feels a little bit rushed.

Sorry for the bad english; it’s not my first language.

Yeah! I agree….:)

And as far as your English? It’s fine.

Your english is better than most people whos first language is english

There’s an inconsistency with the amount of subject and multiple times. Sometimes there 3, sometimes 4. There 3 survivors when they first open the tank, then one of the 3 dies on the operating table but then there are 3 left to be put back in? Ruined the whole thing for me.

Asexual reproduction? Its a story so why the hell not?

u obviously lost count with the story

I’d rather the last survivor not say anything at all, or at least something so vague it leaves an eerie aftertaste. For it to say it’s their “inner demon” is sadly cliche, however the rest of the story (such as it’s setting, style, and fantastic description) was wonderfully appreciated.

not bad, reminds me of one i read on the CREEPY TALES app on my phone called Gateway to the Mind, I’m new here so i’m not sure if that one is a creepypasta, i assumed it was as the app also has Candle Cove

Its on Creepypasta LOL.

We are free. Insane for eternity. With hearts of stone. And brains of the dead. They are the ones going home. The ones who will bleed red. They say they are free by being sane. But one day they will find out. That we were right all along. And that they shall pay…..

No! Not You!!!!!!!!

Um haha no me…..

No! Not you either!!!!!!!!!

I really liked it. Definitely original and quite disturbing. The ending is a bit cliché, but nothing that truly ruins the rest of it. Also, the graphic detail in the middle of the story made me a little light-headed, haha. Very well done, whomever wrote this.

I’m almost certain I’ve read this somewhere else before XD Can’t think were those since I don’t read creepypasta anywhere else but here.. Still i always liked the story but i did notice that the amount of survivors increased and decreased in multiple parts of the story.

Yeeeah this kinda sucked.

i dont get it

thats because your not russian

I see where you’re going with this…..

I don’t

Can u explain it?????

im not russian but i get it just fine

What happened is that there were 3 guys that were being kept prisoner to see if they couldn’t sleep for 30 days. They went mad, and then they started mutilating themselves because of not sleeping. It says at the end that sleeping is why the madness I suppressed. I believe it is an extended metaphor for when you are tired that you get mad easily.

That’s actually not it. The story is a reflection of sleep psychology. There is a theory that we have an “unconscious mind”, the more animalistic portion of our minds that is all that is considered “mad”. Our conscious mind (The one you are reading with right now) is what we use everyday. Our unconscious mind is only seen when we are asleep, giving our conscious mind a break. (This could explain why dreams are sometimes violent or crazy.) The fact that the patients could not sleep, perhaps broke the conscious mind and left the unconscious mind in control and free.

That’s not a theory. It’s a hypothesis. And that’s not what actual scientific studies of sleep have found. Not sleeping makes you fucked up, but it won’t make you super strong, immune to pain, or psychopathic. Try it some time. Lots of students do it regularly; very very very very very very few of them try to hurt anyone or themselves.

Also, just as an editorial matter: this story needs some grammar and spelling work, as well as some extra plausibility in story structure. As some other commenters point out it is really liberally melodramatic, both in terms of the plot devices and the goofy monologue at the end. It’s a good start but it doesn’t hold together and it ends very weakly. Please edit.

I beg to differ, my ex went 10 days without sleep, she was under a lot of stress at work and with school, (i have no idea how she stayed up so long as i personally cant go 48 hours without sleep) well she got more and more irritated but never towards me, more like she couldn’t get a jar open and instead of asking me she threw it… out the window.. but i digress around the 9th night we go to bed, or i do at least, she stayed up to finish some homework, she hadn’t shown signs of paranoia or mental breakdowns.. just increasingly violent anger breakouts. i woke up 3 hours later with my gun in my face and she was screaming about something that i couldn’t even understand. I asked her why she was pointing a gun at me and she didn’t have an answer, i reached out and took it from her, she released it and i immediately put her in my car and took her to the hospital.. she slept for 3 days and was fine after that. sleep deprivation can seriously fuck you up, now i’m not saying this story is true, personally i don’t believe so, though the Russians did have some fucked up experiments. but i am saying i wouldn’t doubt something like this could happen if someone could stay awake for 14 days.

Eh. Mostly good, but the ending is really melodramatic. Not my favorite.

I kinda agree on that. Should’ve gotten rid of the whole “We are the blah blah blah…”

it goes from having only 2 live survivors from the chamber to having 3 this is clearly fake and was good up until the story got messed up do more editing

Of course it’s fake it’s on a fucking horror story site of all fictional stories

I don’t understand how everyone is getting this confused. There were 4 patients when they opened the chamber, the 5th one being dead. In the struggle to remove the patients from the chamber, the 4th one died from a ruptured spleen. The last 3 were put into surgery and it was decided to put them back in the chamber. As they were getting prepped, the 3rd patient fell asleep and immediately died. The 2 are now in a room with 3 RESEARCHERS, when they decide to close the doors and put the gas on, so the last 2 don’t die. One of the researchers (or soldiers, w/e) shoots his commanding officer in the head, as well as 1 of the patients. The last researcher runs. Leaving one researcher (soldier) and the 1 final patient. At no point is the math off. Learn to read guys XD

But didn’t one of the patients die in surgery? From the anesthetics?

that was the ruptured spleen one

Yesss, people, beware Russians – we have wayyy more secrets than you think! LOL By the way, KGB was formed in 1954 :/

OR WAS IT??

ill blow you all up im with the cheka

It didn’t say this was the KGB… As far as the commanding officer, so what? Maybe KGB was already in existence until we just barely heard of it in 1954.

It said that the commander was ex-KGB.

Might of been Putin from the present gone back in time? I don’t know its fake.

thats what the government wants you to think

In Soviet Russia, 1954 forms KGB! :/

Thats when KGB was revealed

inb4 this is oldpasta. Yes, we know, but it’s good and we didn’t have it archived yet on this site, so up it goes.

derpbutt you’re amazing :D

Creepy, gave me shudders. Keep up the good work!

Now no-one can say first!

I really enjoyed this pasta. Good one.

I like pasta

i like pasta too!!!

MMMMM… paaaastaaaaa…

Gotta love pasta.

Are you kidding me?

Your name is “A”. Are YOU kidding me??

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The Russian Sleep Experiment And Why We Believe In Urban Legends

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The Russian sleep experiment is often used as an example of the horrific experiments humans have carried out on each other – only, it never actually happened.

Dr. Russell Moul

Science Writer

Russell is a Science Writer with IFLScience and has a PhD in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology.

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Did you get got by the urban legend? 

Image credit: Navid Linnemann/Shutterstock.com, modified by IFLScience 

In 1947, a covert Soviet test facility carried out experiments into sleep. The researchers took several test subjects – prison inmates – and sealed them in an airtight space that was then filled with an experimental stimulant gas designed to prevent sleep. Over the next few weeks, the researchers planned to observe their hapless test subjects by way of hidden microphones and two-way mirrors.

At first things ran smoothly, but after a week the test subjects began to exhibit signs of stress. They became withdrawn and paranoid, whispering into the microphones about their fellow inmates. But then, a few days later, the screaming started. The prisoners suddenly turned frantic, they ranted and raved, and screamed themselves horse. Some apparently screamed so hard they practically ruptured their vocal cords. And then it all went silent.

The experience was terrifying, so the experimenters tried to stop the study and open the chamber. However, they were stopped from doing so when a voice, one of the prisoners, announced “We no longer wish to be freed”.

By the time the researchers cut the gas and opened the chamber a few days later, most of the inmates were dead, apparently having mutilated themselves or one another. Some had reportedly resorted to cannibalism. Those who remained alive were in a state of psychosis, refusing to leave and refusing to sleep again. Of course, the Soviet authorities tried to remove all evidence of this grisly event from the record.

If you are familiar with this story, or some version of it, then congratulations, you have come across an urban legend that has made its way onto the internet in recent years. The Russian Sleep Experiment , as it is known, was originally a creepypasta story – a kind of short horror story designed to sound plausible – that has now mutated into a living urban legend. Much like the popular Slender Man that lurked and crept its way from a work of internet fiction to very real tragic events , the Russian Sleep Experiment now has a life beyond the authors who originally created it.

But what makes stories like this so “believable”? Or, to put it another way, why do some stories become urban legends when others do not, and why do we accept them?

A new folklore 

Urban legends are effectively a form of modern folklore. The stories can vary in their content, from the mundane culinary experience – the Kentucky fried mouse story – and creature sightings – alligators in the sewers – to the supernatural encounters like Slender Man and the Vanishing Hitchhiker . All these stories are united by a sense of strangeness, albeit to varying degrees, as well as a sliver of believability.

This is an important factor for a budding urban legend. No matter how ridiculous, or worrying the content, it has to have a small amount of credibility to survive. This is usually achieved by combining elements of the familiar with the unfamiliar, but only in measured doses.

Previous research into the popularity of folk stories, such as those in the Grimm Brother’s fairy tales, has shown that the more popular narratives are those that only use a few supernatural components. For instance, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella are fantastical stories with a few references to the weird, but they are also recognizable and extremely popular. In contrast, The Donkey Lettuce (sometimes Cabbage), which appears in the same collection of stories is filled with supernatural elements and yet is barely known.

It seems our minds have a credibility threshold beyond which our critical thinking starts to object. The same may be true for urban legends. If they include too many surprising details, then the story becomes less enjoyable or believable.

The psychology of urban legends

In terms of psychology, this could be explained in relation to thinking styles and what is known as the dual processing model . According to this idea, we have two ways of processing information that are distinct but nevertheless interrelated.

Essentially this is a kind of “system one” and “system two” approach, Dr Neil Dagnall , a cognitive and parapsychological researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, told IFLScience. The former favors emotional, instinctive, and subjective evaluations and the latter focuses on objective and critical thinking. 

[P]eople are likely to engage with urban legends because they're interesting anecdotes or something topical. So [people] latch on to it from that subjective side, and then are less interested in validating its accuracy and more interested in the story for the story's sake. Dr Neil Dagnall

Although these processes work in parallel, each style draws on different cognitive resources. Critical thinking , which relies on established rules of logical reasoning, is more mentally taxing. It’s intentional and attentional, whereas emotional thinking is less demanding, relying on general cognitive processes to interpret information, and is mostly automatic.

Previous research into dual processing theories has found that belief in paranormal phenomena is closely related to “system one” thinking, that is, intuitive rather than critical thinking. So perhaps something like that is happening with the belief in urban legends.

“[P]eople are likely to engage with urban legends because they're interesting,” Dr Dagnall explained. “They're nice little stories, or they're interesting anecdotes, or something that's topical. So [people] latch on to it from that subjective side, and then are less interested in validating its accuracy and more interested in the story for the story's sake.”

This explanation contrasts with others that try to view humans as simply being prone to believing outlandish ideas, that they are generally non-discerning. Or, as psychologist Gordon Pennycook argues, humans will generally believe “ bullshit ”.

Essentially, this suggests some people are simply not discerning and will rely on system one thinking. They are not particularly selective with the information they believe and instead endorse things that are not true. As such, they will believe any form of bullshit, from urban legends to paranormal events to ridiculous conspiracy theories .

But Dagnall believes there is more going on here. We know, for instance, that even within the conspiracy theory world, believers in one claim may not necessarily believe in another. For instance, he explains, “I might think Elvis faked his death, I might think Elvis was murdered, but I don't necessarily think that's true of Marilyn Monroe.” Equally, someone who believes in the Flat Earth conspiracies may not necessarily believe in aliens or be opposed to vaccinations.

Although it is true that people who believe in conspiracies often do have other unusual beliefs, the situation is more complicated and contextual than simply saying they just believe “bullshit”.

Even “within people who engage with urban legends,” Dagnall says, “they're going to be more critical of some of those urban legends than other ones, and the degree to which they're susceptible to them will be influenced by other factors, such as how plausible they think they are.”

At the same time, because of the rise of the internet and social media, how such stories spread has changed. Not only is it easier for people to circulate various new urban legends across the internet, but many of us are also too busy to apply critical thinking to everything we see.

“There’s less opportunity to evaluate stories or to deal with them...," Dagnall notes. "[I]n the past, if you just get it in an email and you may get a precautionary thing, it's more likely to be the focus of your attention. Now, you just get them popping up all over the place.”

This returns us to credibility. Good urban legends are stories that have something believable about them. So the alligators in the sewers story, for instance, works well because it has historical precedence in places where they are native. It is therefore plausible that alligators or crocodiles may have infiltrated other sewer systems, even in places like New York City .

This too is true for the Russian Sleep Experiment story. The Soviet Union is remembered as a cruel and barbaric regime that demonstrated a staggering disregard for human life, especially under Joseph Stalin. Couple this with contemporary stories about unethical human experiments, such as those performed by the Nazis in the Second World War , or the CIA's Project MKUltra and you have the framework for a believable narrative about abused inmates and sinister experiments.

So like any worthy urban legend, the story may not be true, but for some it may nevertheless feel like it could be.

ARTICLE POSTED IN

critical thinking,

social sciences,

parapsychology

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How the Russian Sleep Experiment became a global phenomenon

In the 1940s, a group of Russian researchers sealed five prison inmates in an airtight chamber.

The prisoners were dosed with an experimental gas that would prevent them from sleeping. Their conversations were electronically monitored, and their behaviour was observed through secret two-way mirrors.

For the first few days, everything seemed fine. But after the fifth day, they slowly began to exhibit signs of stress. They became paranoid and stopped talking to one another, whispering about each other into the microphones.

Nine days in, the screaming began. Two of the sleepless prisoners just started running around the chamber, yelling so hard their vocal chords nearly broke.

Suddenly, however, the voices stopped, and the chamber became dead quiet. Fearing the worst, the researchers announced that they were opening the chamber. But a voice from inside answered: "We no longer want to be freed."

On the 15th day, the stimulant gas was replaced by fresh air. The results were chaotic.

One inmate was dead. The inmates had been severely mutilated, flesh torn off their bodies and stuffed into the floor drain. They seemed to have ripped open their own abdomens, and even eaten their own flesh.

They refused to leave by force, fighting back with a powerful aggression none of the researchers could have imagined they possessed. They fought furiously against being removed and anesthetised; one even tore his own muscles and ripped his bones apart during the struggle. When asked why they had mutilated themselves, each gave the exact same answer: "I must remain awake."

The researchers wanted to kill the prisoners and remove all traces of the experiment, but their commanding officer demanded it be resumed immediately, with the researchers joining the inmates in the sealed chamber. Horrified, the chief researcher shot him point blank.

He then shot and killed the two last surviving subjects, and set about covering up all that had taken place.

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ?

Okay, first thing's first: that story didn't actually take place in real life.

The creepy picture of the chamber above? An artistic illustration digitally altered by a random internet browser. Sorry.

Entitled 'The Russian Sleep Experiment', it's an internet legend of which the oldest version can be traced back to a Creepypasta Wiki page on August 10, 2010. The user who posted it is named 'Orange Soda', but the author's real name is unknown.

To this day, internet users continue to debate the veracity of this infamous story, despite the fact that it originated on an online forum thread devoted to seeing who can drill up the best "urban legend".

You've read stories like this. There was Slender Man, the story of a lanky faceless giant who frequents children's playgrounds. He gained the most attention when he inspired two young girls in Wisconsin to attempt to brutally kill their friend (unfortunately, that part was true). Then there's Jeff The Killer, the chalk-faced teenager-turned-murderer who goes insane and becomes a bloodthirsty psychopath.

The thing is, when you first read these horrific stories, they almost seem just realistic enough to work. After all, scientists have been studying the effects of sleep deprivation throughout the 20th century.

Even today, there are wide reports of meth-induced hallucinations resulting from a lack of sleep. Why wouldn't a story of a crazy Russian experiment from the 1940s seem plausible?

After careful analysis, Sara McGuire of Venngage has shared a visual report detailing exactly what it takes for a horror story to go viral.

HOW TO CREATE A VIRAL HORROR STORY

McGuire read and analysed samples of 72 top 'Creepypastas' across the internet.

She then identified the seven most common ingredients used in the top stories. In order from most to least common, they are:

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON (71 per cent)

The report found that humans are most thrilled by the unknown; things that we will never understand. The story needs to involve a strange occurrence or creature whose origins are unknown, but has a lasting impact on our psyche.

FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVES (68 per cent)

The report argues that if a story is told as a personal account, there's always the possibility that it might be true, even if you know it realistically couldn't be. The Russian Sleep Experiment was actually the only story of the top 10 that wasn't told in the first-person voice.

MONSTERS AND SUPERNATURAL BEINGS (61 per cent)

The success of the Russian Sleep Experiment is attributed to the fact that the "monsters" actually come from a very real, human place, which seems to make them more plausible. This also explains the popularity of the Slender Man.

CLIFFHANGERS (53 per cent)

This is common in horror movies, or even just book chapters and TV shows. You leave the reader or viewer with a chill and keep the mystery alive. The report notes this is especially effective in cases where the reader is left to question whether something similar could happen to them.

MURDER (46 per cent)

It goes without saying that most people are afraid of murder, which is why it's a plot device in almost half of these stories.

CREEPY IMAGES (24 per cent)

Fun fact: Slender Man originally started as a Photoshop contest. Users on a forum were asked to digitally alter an ordinary photo to create a creepy internet legend. And it can be really hard to shake a disturbing image.

CREEPY VIDEOS (6 per cent)

The rarest of the ingredients, only two Creepypasta stories originally used a video, according to McGuire. She notes that most of the time, videos are created by fans of a viral story after it's already become famous.

McGuire's report found that stories which used four of these ingredients - no more, no less - gave a story the best chance at going viral. The Russian Sleep Experiment is the most viral 'Creepypasta' story on the internet, with a total of 64,030 shares. It used four ingredients: an unexplained phenomenon, murder, monsters (in this case, humans-turned-zombies) and a series of creepy images of poor black and white quality to suggest they authentically match the time period.

So that's that. If you want to go viral, McGuire says there are some basic rules to comply with:

• Tell a personal anecdote where possible. It will make you seem more relatable to the reader and it can be used in virtually every writing context to add colour to a story.

• Get your Photoshop on. Obscure, creepy images that aren't quite bad (or polished!) enough to be false tend to work very well. Slender Man is a perfect example.

• Leave readers wanting more. Cliffhangers are deliberately frustrating. You want a satisfying ending or conclusion, and instead, you're left filled with questions. Readers are more likely to share these types of stories because they're more debatable.

Alternatively, just shut down your device now and walk away. These stories alone are creepy enough to keep us up for two weeks straight - no experimental gas required.

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Russian researchers in the late 1940s keep five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental stimulant. Based on the popular internet horror story (Creepypasta) “The Russian Sleep Experiment”.

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by Filed under , Skeptoid Podcast #496 December 8, 2015 Podcast transcript | According to the story, the researchers cleared the gas from the chamber and entered, finding one of the five men dead: Those questioning whether or not this was a true story didn't have to do very much work. It's a widely published fact that the Russian Sleep Experiment was a piece of fiction, posted anonymously in 2010 to Creepy Pasta, a website that showcases scary fictional tales. Despite this, there are always conspiracy minded people insistent that the story is true, or was leaked from some secret government lab; but no matter how strong their desire that this be the case, nobody has ever turned up anything like that. Sometimes a creepy story is just a creepy story. But that's not the interesting part. The interesting part comes when we ask whether the story is plausible. What would happen to people if they were forcibly deprived of sleep for that long? Would they go crazy, attacking and eating each other like zombies? Let's open our books of medical research and see how close to the truth the Russian Sleep Experiment might be. We're hampered by the fact that experiments like this are unethical and would be hard to conduct today, so there isn't a lot of research out there. But fortunately we are saved by the patron saint of unethical human experimentation: the military. Most world powers would love to have supersoldiers who can be active 24/7 without a vulnerable period of daily sleep, so most of them have invested in experimentation. During the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, American special forces battled Somali fighters who chewed khat, a plant that is a powerful stimulant. This allowed the Somalis to be ready to fight at any time and to remain active well past the time the Americans became fatigued. The world's militaries took note. In 2008, the Pentagon released an independent study commissioned by their Office of Defense Research and Engineering, titled simply It said that 86 different drugs have been tried (oh where would human experimentation be without the military?) with "a small number" showing promise. Caffeine, for example, was found to confer resistance to slowed performance on tests of reaction speed and mental acuity, even after three straight days (72 hours) of high intensity training with no sleep; but other skills like marksmanship declined almost as much as for those who took no caffeine. The importance of this to potential combat situations is clear, and from that perspective, it's entirely plausible (in fact, almost certain) that something like the Russian Sleep Experiment would have been tried. The Pentagon report also describes results of a psychomotor vigilance test, which is where you react to a visual stimulus on a computer screen by pushing a button or doing some such thing. In unspecified testing, subjects were allowed either unrestricted sleep, or 8 hours of time in bed per day, or 6, or 4, or zero. The test ran 14 days. Subjects allowed 8 hours in bed, which seems ample, still scored 3-4 times as many errors on the tests after 14 days than did the unrestricted subjects. The 6 hour group scored 11 times as many errors. The 4 hour group scored 16 times as many. What about the group that was allowed no bed time at all? That experiment was terminated after only 3 days, at which time that group was also making 16 times as many errors as the unrestricted sleepers. Another test found that elite Army units who slept no more than 3 hours a night over a 53-hour field combat exercise scored several times worse on the tests than did people who were drunk. Clearly, you don't want to be a sleep deprived soldier. Or an astronaut. Research done in China in 2015 tested the effects of sleep deprivation on astronauts (in simulated environments). After three days of sleep deprivation and confinement, astronauts were run through a battery of tests. Their psychomotor skills were greatly diminished, but their perception and their judgement changed to a much smaller degree. But these people all stayed awake no more than three days; Russian Sleep Experiment subjects are said to have gone two full weeks. About the closest thing to this time span in the non-fictional science literature was an experiment in 1968 that subjected four young men to 205 hours of enforced wakefulness at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Psychophysiological tests were given four times a day, and scientists noted their mood, behavior, and other indicators around the clock. Personality and logical thinking tests were administered. After a few days they began having increasing "lapses" — periods where they would appear to sleep for a few seconds even with their eyes still open, then jolt awake. By the fifth day they reached a turning point, where they began to recover somewhat from irritability and other symptoms. The worst that happened was one subject began seeing hallucinations of Humpty Dumpty and a gorilla, from a recurring dream he'd had as a child. After eight and a half days, the researchers concluded they'd reached all their objectives and noted: Disappointingly, nobody ate anybody. Neither did young Randy Gardner, a 16-year-old who set a Guinness World Record in 1964 by staying awake for 260 hours while under constant monitoring. Gardner suffered no ill effects other than irritability, paranoia, memory lapses, and trouble concentrating. Several other people are documented to have broken Gardner's record, but Guinness stopped the category due to the perceived health risk. Healthy people don't seem to have any serious problems when sleep deprived. What about unhealthy people? There are at least two pathologic conditions that can interfere with, or even eliminate, the ability to sleep. One is a condition called Morvan's Syndrome, though it's very rare with fewer than 20 cases known. It affects the central nervous system, and seems to be caused by abnormal antibodies that affect voltage-gated potassium channels in the cells. This results in severe muscle cramping and twitching plus pain, weight loss, excess sweating and salivation, and waking dreamlike hallucinations. Patients may fall into what's been described as "subwakefulness". They may sleep as little as two hours per day, or sometimes not at all. Encephalograms indicate they never reach slow-wave sleep, but rather they go through much of the day with their EEG showing persistent stage 1 NREM sleep (non rapid eye movement sleep) with many brief lapses into full REM sleep even while apparently awake. They have "autonomic activation" episodes, basically sleepwalking and performing activities while not aware of it. This extreme lack of normal sleep is called agrypnia excitata. Morvan's Syndrome has generally been found to be treatable with steroids, with recovery taking place within a couple of weeks. The other condition is more frightening. It's called Fatal Familial Insomnia, and as its name suggests, it is an inherited condition that affects families. Those with the defective dominant gene pass it along to half their offspring, and it is always fatal, with no cure. It is a prion disease, in which a defective protein self-replicates, builds up in the brain, and converts brain tissue into a useless spongiform mass. This brain damage is what causes people with FFI to have the symptoms and ultimately die. The effects usually appear in middle age and the average survival is 18 months after the onset. The first symptoms are confusion, paranoia, memory loss, and insomnia; followed by panic attacks, hallucinations, and increased insomnia; and finally progressing to unresponsiveness, total sleeplessness, and complete dementia. The patient often remains in this terrible state for several months before death. Fortunately FFI is extremely rare, having been identified in only about 40 families worldwide. So whether the sleep deprivation is the result of disease or is imposed by circumstances, in neither case do patients eat people or otherwise experience radical changes in personality or value systems. Certainly none of the subjects studied have ever been found to be a danger to themselves or to others. All of this, taken together, tells us one thing: the Russian Sleep Experiment is not representative of what's known to happen when people are sleep deprived. It's pure fiction. Sleep deprivation brings a battery of penalties, but changes to morals, judgement, and overall behavior are not among them. Chalk up one more piece of evidence that the story isn't true. But as is the case with so many urban legends, what we can learn from studying the science behind them is almost always more interesting than the legend itself.   Cite this article: Dunning, B. "The Russian Sleep Experiment." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, 8 Dec 2015. Web. 15 Sep 2024. <https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4496> References & Further Reading Gillin, C. "How long can humans stay awake?" Scientific American. Nature America, Inc., 22 Mar. 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-can-humans-stay/> JASON. Human Performance. McLean: The MITRE Corporation, 2008. Kollar, E., Namerow, N., Pasnau, R., Naitoh, P. "Neurological findings during prolonged sleep deprivation." Neurology. 1 Sep. 1968, Volume 18, Number 9: 836-840. Lugaresi, E., Provini, F. "Agrypnia excitata: clinical features and pathophysiological implications." Sleep Medicine Reviews. 1 Aug. 2001, Volume 5, Number 4: 313-322. Max, D. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery. New York: Random House, 2007. Pasnau, R., Naitoh, P., Stier, S., Kollar, E. "The Psychological Effects of 205 Hours of Sleep Deprivation." Archives of General Psychiatry. 1 Apr. 1968, Volume 18, Number 4: 496-505. Zhang, Y., Li, Z., Liu, X., Liu, F., Jing, X., Wu, B. "Simulated Spaceflight Operations Under Sleep Deprivation and Confinement." Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance. 1 Oct. 2015, Volume 86, Number 10: 865-874. ©2024 Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Rights and reuse information The Skeptoid weekly science podcast is a free public service from Skeptoid Media, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. This show is made possible by financial support from listeners like you. If you like this programming, please become a member. Other ways you can help Now Trending... On Railroad Tracks and Roman Chariots Tartaria and the Mud Flood Medical Error Is Not the Third Leading Cause of Death Exploring Kincaid's Cave The Siberian Hell Sounds Decoding the Kensington Runestone FLICC: 5 Techniques of Science Denial The Headless Goats of the Chattahoochee Want more great stuff like this? Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. Cancel at any time: No thanks Sign up! About us | Our programming | Become a supporter | Privacy A 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. All content is © Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Why the Horrors of the 'Russian Sleep Experiment' Probably Didn't Happen This animation investigates the facts behind this pervasive urban myth. Especially if you haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately, you might wonder just how long you can go on like that. Exactly how long could you stay awake without cracking as a result of sleep deprivation? Some people say there was an over-the-top experiment for that. Experts are quick to debunk it. The Russian Sleep Experiment is a popular urban myth which began to circulate online in "creepypasta" forums (so-named for the ease with which you could copy-paste spooky content) in the early 2010s. But could this deeply unsettling legend have had some roots in fact? The story goes that Soviet-era scientists created a stimulant which they believed would enable soldiers to not require sleep for up to 30 days. They decided to test their new gas on five prisoners, promising them their freedom upon completion of the experiment. They locked the five men in a hermetically sealed chamber and began pumping in the gas. Within a few days, the men were exhibiting the kind of paranoia and psychosis that is a typical symptom of sleep deprivation. But as time went on, they began to act even more strangely. 15 days into the experiment, when scientists could no longer see the men through the thick glass of the chamber, or hear them through the microphones, they filled the room with fresh air and unlocked it. There, they discovered that one of the men was dead, and the four surviving test subjects were all sporting horrendously violent injuries, some of which appeared to be self-inflicted. Attempts to sedate the men were either unsuccessful, or led to their deaths the moment they lost consciousness. Finally, when one of the researchers asked what exactly these men had become, the last surviving test subject told him that they represented the potential for evil that exists in all human beings, which is usually contained by sleep, but had been unleashed by their constant wakefulness. Chilling stuff. Is any of the Russian Sleep Experiment actually true? According to a video from The Infographics Channel on YouTube, which provides animated summaries of events from history, current events and literature, the Russian sleep experiment almost certainly has its basis in fiction. For one thing, there's the fact that the story's sole original source seems to be a website dedicated to telling creepy (made-up) stories. But even the science doesn't hold up. Experts are quick to refute this myth as well. There's no scientific ground proving that gas (or any other substance, for that matter) can keep a person awake for 30 days, says Po-Chang Hsu, MD , an internal medicine physician and medical content expert at SleepingOcean. “Some drugs and high caffeine dosages may grant a couple of days without shut-eye, but 30 is impossible,” he says. Additionally, this experiment is unlikely because of the effect sleep deprivation has on the brain, Dr. Hsu says. “Even after a few days, a person can start hallucinating, which would make it extremely hard for them to perform simple daily actions, let alone deal with military assignments that require extreme focus,” he says. So how long can someone truly stay awake? The current documented world record for staying awake is a bit longer than 11 days , which was achieved by Randy Gardner in 1963. Gardner experienced severe behavioral and cognitive changes during those 11 days (even though he wanted to prove that nothing bad would happen when a person doesn’t sleep), Dr. Hsu says. He also experienced mood swings, memory issues, severe difficulty focusing, paranoia and hallucinations. While there is some truth to the claims that amphetamines have been used to keep soldiers alert in historical times of war, there is no scientific evidence of a gas existing that could keep anyone awake for 15 days. And studies have found that after just 48 hours without sleep, people tend to become slower, disoriented, prone to making mistakes, and ultimately less effective as a soldier. “Since the brain can’t function properly after being sleep-deprived for 11 days, it’s safe to assume things would get much worse if one tries to stay awake longer,” he says. “Consequently, those soldiers would’ve been useless even if they miraculously managed not to sleep for 30 days.” Still, whoever came up with the story of the Russian sleep experiment in the first place deserves points for their creative writing... if not for medical accuracy. Health and Nutrition Tips Can Maca Powder Boost Your Energy and Sex Drive? What You Can and Can't Drink on Keto What Happens If You Only Sleep 6 Hours a Night? How to Use Weight Training for Weight Loss How Gross Is It to Go Barefoot? Why Only One Nostril Clogs When You’re Sick Here’s How Protein Shakes Help With Weight Loss How to Increase HDL Cholesterol Yes, What You Eat Can Impact Your Skin Health It's Called 'Nature’s Viagra.' Does It Work? How to Get Rid of Stubborn Belly Fat Are All Processed Foods Unhealthy? Soviet Sleep Experiment Rentals include 30 days to start watching this video and 48 hours to finish once started. Customers also watched 52 global ratings How are ratings calculated? Toggle Expand Toggle Expand About Amazon Investor Relations Amazon Devices Amazon Science Sell products on Amazon Sell on Amazon Business Sell apps on Amazon Become an Affiliate Advertise Your Products Self-Publish with Us Host an Amazon Hub › See More Make Money with Us Amazon Business Card Shop with Points Reload Your Balance Amazon Currency Converter Amazon and COVID-19 Your Account Your Orders Shipping Rates & Policies Returns & Replacements Manage Your Content and Devices Conditions of Use Privacy Notice Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure Your Ads Privacy Choices Bahasa Indonesia Slovenščina Science & Tech Russian Kitchen What was the Russian Sleep Experiment? Did the Soviet government create zombies through a ruthless experiment? As legend has it, the story took place in the late 1940s, when WWII was over but Joseph Stalin still remained all-powerful. On a well-guarded secret base, a research group conducted a cruel experiment on five GULAG prisoners. They were promised freedom in the event that they would last 30 days in a chamber filled with a psychotropic gas depriving them of sleep. Dreamless monsters In the course of the five days, the situation went out of control - the subjects blocked observation and went all kinds of crazy, screaming and moaning. Then they turned completely silent for several days, and when the scientists broke into the chamber, they saw the unspeakable: the subjects tore most of their skin off of their bodies; blood covered the floor. Somehow, the mutilated prisoners remained alive, pleading to turn the stimulant gas back on, screaming that they “must stay awake”. When the research group tried to immobilize them, the subjects showed astonishing strength, even killing some of the soldiers who were helping the scientists. Eventually, the subjects were pacified. One of them, instructed to asleep, died immediately after his eyes closed. The rest were killed while trying to break out. Before shooting the last subject, one researcher screamed: “What are you?!” And that mutilated, blood-covered body answered with a terrifying smile:  “We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be set free at any moment in your deepest animal mind. We are what you hide from in your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralysis when you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread.” So he said, before the researcher shot him in the head. Sounds creepy? If you bought any of this, you are probably new to the Internet. This ‘Russian sleep experiment’ is a 10-year-old urban legend. Its origins trace back to the CreepyPasta website, where you can enjoy the story in all its full glory (like feces covering the windows, a KGB commander forcing the scientists to join the subjects in the chamber and so on). But the original story is even older, written for an online forum challenging users to make up the scariest “urban legend”. And boy, did it spread far and wide. Articles and videos with names like “was the Russian Sleep Experiment real?” are numerous. Some websites, even Russian ones, still post the story hoping to elicit real horror, adding comments like “the origin of the leaks is still a mystery” at the end. Yeah, right. The story couldn’t be true for so many reasons we’d need a separate text to list them all. Let’s just focus on the obvious ones: 1. It didn’t make any sense for scientists to let the subjects “hide” in their chamber for several days without observation. 2. No gas that can stop humans from falling asleep is currently known to science. 3. If you tear away your skin, you die from blood loss. Or did that gas turn the subjects into some quasi-immortal creatures?      Overwhelming success The legend remains popular even after a decade. “The Russian Sleep Experiment is the most viral ‘Creepypasta’ story on the internet, with a total of 64,030 shares,” journalist Gavin Fernando wrote in 2016. Seems about right: this hoax became so huge, it ended up inspiring a novel, a short film (where the GULAG prisoners are for some reason replaced with Nazi war criminals) and an upcoming full-length psychological thriller by young Irish director John Farrelly. If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. to our newsletter! Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox 6 weird things Russians do that baffle foreigners 7 creepiest places in Russia Welcome to the dark, dank world of Russian memes – now in English This website uses cookies. Click here to find out more. Was the Russian Sleep Experiment Real? An account describing the horrific results of a 'russian sleep experiment' from the late 1940s is a work of modern creepy fiction., david mikkelson, published aug. 27, 2013. About this rating A popular creepy online tale of a "Russian Sleep Experiment" (with the improbable title tag of "Orange Soda") involves Soviet researchers who kept five people awake for fifteen consecutive days through the use of an "experimental gas based stimulant" and opens as follows: Russian researchers in the late 1940's kept five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental gas based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. This was before closed circuit cameras so they had only microphones and 5 inch thick glass porthole sized windows into the chamber to monitor them. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on but no bedding, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all five for over a month. [Remainder of article here .] This account isn't a historical record of a genuine 1940s sleep deprivation research project gone awry, however. It's merely a bit of supernatural fiction that gained widespread currency on the Internet after appearing on Creepypasta (a site for "short stories designed to unnerve and shock the reader") in August 2010. By David Mikkelson David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994. Fact Check: 'Russian Sleep Experiment' Was NOT Real Event Jan 25, 2022 by: Lead Stories Staff Was the "Russian Sleep Experiment" a real historical event? No, that's not true: The "experiment" is a product of the creepypasta genre -- which consists of user-generated, horror-related content that spreads easily online -- and is not based on a historical account. The claim, which has appeared in various iterations online, reappeared in a Facebook post (archived here ) on February 1, 2020. The post included a black-and-white image of a human-like creature and opened: The Russian Sleep Experiment purports to recount an experiment that took place at a test facility in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. In a military-sanctioned scientific experiment, five political prisoners were kept in a sealed gas chamber, with a continually administered airborne stimulant for the purpose of keeping the subjects awake for 15 continuous days. The prisoners are falsely promised freedom if they complete the experiment. The post went on to describe how the political prisoners gradually, then swiftly, spiraled into violence and self-mutilation. The subjects all eventually died. This is what the post looked like on Facebook on January 25, 2022: The story of the Russian Sleep Experiment has been debunked by numerous outlets, including Snopes . According to a video created by Creepypasta Wiki , the story seemed to have originated in 2009 on an online forum. The story then appeared on the Creepypasta Wiki website in 2010 and was posted by a user known as Orange Soda. The picture used in the Facebook post is of a Spazm prop, a Halloween prop of a monstrous-looking human in a straitjacket. That image can be found in a popular YouTube video of a reading of the Russian Sleep Experiment here and in the screenshot of the video included below: (Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Tue Jan 25 18:36:00 2022 UTC) The story may have been inspired by the unethical experiments committed against human subjects during World War II, particularly those that took place in Nazi concentration camps . However, there is no legitimate record of the Russian Sleep Experiment. Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet. Spotted something? Let us know! . Lead Stories is a: Verified signatory of the IFCN Code of Principles Facebook Third-Party Fact-Checking Partner Member of the #CoronavirusFacts Alliance WhatsApp Tipline Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp! Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223 , follow this link or scan the image below with your phone: @leadstories Subscribe to our newsletter Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC: You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here. 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It might also evoke an indelible, single image: An emaciated, fiendish victim with recessed gums and horrifying fangs clutching himself on a bed in a concrete room (via  iHorror ). For the uninitiated, the Russian Sleep Experiment is one of the more notable creepypastas — the internet slang term for horrific urban legend-like short stories or vignettes circulated online — that folks have mistakenly taken for the truth. The tale has grown to legendary status, milling through hundreds of websites since its birth in 2010 on  Creepypasta Wiki  under the title "Orange Soda" (via Snopes ). Part of the viral success of the Russian Sleep Experiment centers on the specificity of detail, enough to lend itself to plausible believability. The truth of the matter is that  actual Soviet experiments were often so disturbing, absurd, and sickeningly perverse that we might as well add the fictionalized version of the Russian Sleep Experiment into the mix. We're talking Frankensteining dogs, breeding human-chimpanzee hybrids to make "humanzee" super soldiers, and many, many more (via The Courier-Mail ). Is it any wonder why the Russian Sleep Experiment comes across as real?   From the mind of Orange Soda We should do a refresher for those who haven't read the Russian Sleep Experiment, available in its original form on Creepypasta Wiki . (Note that the story, which observes five test subjects locked in a prison-like Soviet-era sleep deprivation experiment, is littered with cues that it's fake.) It starts by highlighting just enough details to create a portrait of believability that makes other, later details seem true: "closed-circuit cameras," "five-inch thick glass porthole sized windows," "cots to sleep on but no bedding," etc. It then fast-forwards through the initial, more humdrum stages of the 30-day experiment to zoom in on grotesque, lovably described body-horror imagery that the writer clearly loved drafting. All these elements no doubt helped the tale gain traction. In the story, nothing really crazy happens to the five test subjects until day five, when they start to display paranoia and aggravation about the test. The "experimental gas stimulant" used to keep them awake continues being pumped into their enclosed test chamber, and by day nine, one of the subjects starts screaming until he ruins his vocal cords. Two other guys then cover the portholes with feces to obscure sight into the room. From then on, researchers have no way of knowing what's going on inside the test chamber aside from the chamber's microphones. And so, the reader is placed in the position of the researchers, waiting for the chamber to be opened.  Worst weight loss routine ever As the original tale on  Creepypasta Wiki says, the researchers in charge of the experiment decided not to open the feces-smeared door to the sleep deprivation chamber. On the 14th-day, they used an intercom to speak to the test subjects for the first time, offering to end the experiment. A voice came back on the microphone: "We no longer want to be freed."  From this point — about halfway through the creepypasta — the Russian Sleep Experiment veers into the truly disturbing and starts to resemble grindhouse fiction. Practically the entire rest of the story is devoted to details about the various grotesqueries discovered in the testing chamber when the researchers opened it on the 15th day (at the stroke of midnight, no less). We're not going to go into some of the more nauseating descriptions, but suffice it to say the subjects engaged in cannabilism and self-evisceration, and four out of five had somehow not died. When soldiers went in to remove them from the room, the subjects fought back.  Eventually, the subjects were brought to surgery. One begged for the surgeon to "keep cutting," and they all begged for the stimulant gas, saying they "must remain awake." The last one who died told the soldier's commander, "We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at every moment in your deepest animal mind." Birth of a creepypasta legend So it's pretty easy to see why, in general, the Russian Sleep Experiment caught on, right? It's got just enough realistic touches, just enough over-the-top nonsense, glosses over too-technical stuff that might turn away some readers, and gets right down to what body horror fans want: blood, guts, and the lightest touch of thematic relevancy about "the darkness of human nature" or some such thing. Plus, it employs legitimate real-world connections between psychoses, drug use, and sleep deprivation, as sites like the National Institute on Drug Abuse  discuss. After it was posted in 2010 by Orange Soda, the Russian Sleep Experiment spread through the internet like wildfire. News Corp Australia summarizes how the creator of such a story, with almost near-scientific rigor and accuracy, can craft something that the public will latch onto. With the right elements of anecdotes versus overarching narrative, cliffhangers, murder, monsters or supernatural beings, unexplained phenomena, and so forth, a creepypasta is almost guaranteed to be a hit. A chart by Sara McGuire, former content editor and content marketing manager for  Venngage , does a superb job of portraying all such factors. As it turns out, the Russian Sleep Experiment simply incorporated the most elements of a successful story into one, single creepypasta. Voila, instant virality. By 2013, Snopes  debunked the story, saying directly, "This account isn't a historical record of a genuine 1940s sleep deprivation research project gone awry." And yet to this day, some folks still wonder if it really happened. Creepy pictures for creepypasta When looking at why the Russian Sleep Experiment caught on so well, we can't discount the importance of pictures, as News Corp Australia explains. While the original creepypasta was mere white text on a gray background, somewhere along the line, someone attached a couple of clever pictures to the tale to illustrate its horror. The most famous image associated with the story is the now-ultra-famous image we described earlier: an emaciated dude with bug eyes, recessed lips, and protruding fangs who is sitting on a bed and hunched over. Much as we hate to break the illusion, that image is just a black-and-white, fuzzy picture of a Halloween decoration you can buy at a place as mundane as Walmart , as a debunking video on YouTube explains. The prop was made by a company called Morbid Enterprises. Not to start another false tale here, but if someone from Morbid Enterprises was responsible for the original creepypasta or for circulating a picture of its product in conjunction with the story's virality, then kudos: they win the marketing game. The other picture commonly associated with the Russian Sleep Experiment shows four guys in gas masks lined up against a wooden wall. Attentive readers will notice that the men are all wearing different masks, unlike any experimental design would necessitate. That's because the picture is a depiction of World War I gas masks from different countries: the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany. Coming to a theater near you, again At present, the Russian Sleep Experiment remains alive and kicking. In fact, it's developed its own cross-media cottage industry: films (on Bloody Disgusting ), books (on Goodreads ), fan pages (on Facebook ), artwork (on Pinterest ), music (on Soundcloud ), video games (on Roblox ), discussion threads (on Quora ), you name it. We're not saying folks are obsessed with the Russian Sleep Experiment, but we're also not exactly not saying it. That being said — fingers crossed for a Russian Sleep Experiment opera. Taking a deeper look at films, we've got a video short from 2015 (via IMDB ), a teaser trailer for "The Soviet Sleep Experiment" from 2019 (on YouTube ), and another 2020 trailer for a different movie dubbed "The Sleep Experiment" (also on YouTube ). In 2018,  iHorror reported that a movie about the Russian Sleep Experiment was on its way, but it's unclear which version they were talking about. Other websites like GeekFeed describe the same. While all those films are in English, there's also a super low-budget, 7-minute-long, 2019 indie version of the tale by an independent Russian filmmaker who, if IMDb  is to believed, died "a few months" after the film premiered. It looks like "The Sleep Experiment" — apparently choosing to drop any reference to Russia — is set to premiere November 2022. In the end, the Russian Sleep Experiment captures the imagination for what are doubtlessly revealing, disturbing reasons. And yet, this is what any good horror strives to do, if not any story, period. Cast & crew Let me out - The Russian Sleep Experiment TV Mini Series Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the pr... Read all Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the prisoners' cell, separated from the laboratory by a thin wall. During the experiment somethi... Read all Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the prisoners' cell, separated from the laboratory by a thin wall. During the experiment something goes wrong, the prisoners show signs of imbalance such as paranoia and self-harm. Even ... Read all Désirée Giorgetti Gilles Rocca Flavio Capotosto 1 win & 5 nominations Yulia Doronin Prisoner #1 (a.k.a. Mr Muscle) Ivan Volkov Boris Zhdanov Prisoner #2 (a.k.a. Miss America) Miroslav Makarov Prisoner #3 (a.k.a. wonder boy) Prisoner #5 (a.k.a. slaughter meat) Aleksandr Latkyn All cast & crew Production, box office & more at IMDbPro More like this User reviews How many seasons does Let me out - The Russian Sleep Experiment have? Powered by Alexa April 15, 2015 (Italy) Official Fanpage Let Me Out - The Russian Sleep Experiment Rome, Lazio, Italy (Officine Marconi Studios) See more company credits at IMDbPro Technical specs Runtime 51 minutes Related news Contribute to this page. See more gaps Learn more about contributing More to explore Recently viewed. 271 IMAGES Russian Sleep Experiment Real Footage Russian sleep experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment Russian sleep experiment (2019) The Russian Sleep Experiment Fully Explained The Russian Sleep Experiment (2015) VIDEO RUSSIAN SLEEP EXPERIMENT #scary #horrorstories #creepy The Russian sleep experiment… Russian sleep experiment #humanexperiment #disturbingvideo Russian Sleep Experiment ll Most scariest experiment in history The Russian Sleep Experiment: A Terrifying Tale Myth Buster Part 4, Russian sleep experiment 😱 #information #real #myth COMMENTS The Russian Sleep Experiment For those who don't know, The Russian Sleep Experiment is a supposedly factual account of experimentation acted out on subjects by the Soviet government and military in the wake of world war 2. The experiment, ostensibly meant to explore the effects of sleep deprivation on the human body was also used to test a new gas that could keep people ... Russian Sleep Experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment is a creepypasta which tells the tale of 5 test subjects being exposed to an experimental sleep-inhibiting stimulant in a Soviet-era scientific experiment, and has become the basis of an urban legend. [1] Many news organizations, including Snopes, News.com.au, and LiveAbout, trace the story's origins to a website, [2] now known as the Creepypasta Wiki, being posted ... The Russian Sleep Experiment Official Short Film "Deep within the Soviet Union, 1945. A dedicated Russian scientist (Gary Brunner) begins an experiment on three Nazi war criminals. Felix Nast (Michael Bugar... Russian Sleep Experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment is one of the most famous and horrific experiments gone wrong, but some people claim the experiment never happened! Today we're ... The Russian Sleep Experiment Official Short Film THE RUSSIAN SLEEP EXPERIMENT"Deep within the Soviet Union, 1945. A dedicated Russian scientist (Gary Brunner) begins an experiment on three Nazi war criminal... The Russian Sleep Experiment And Why We Believe In Urban Legends The Russian sleep experiment is often used as an example of the horrific experiments humans have carried out on each other - only, it never actually happened. ... Get our newsletter full of ... The Soviet Sleep Experiment (2019) The Soviet Sleep Experiment: Directed by Barry Andersson. With Eva De Dominici, Rafal Zawierucha, Chris Kattan, Michael Villar. What begins as a purely scientific study quickly spirals out of control. How the Russian Sleep Experiment became a global phenomenon The Russian Sleep Experiment is the most viral 'Creepypasta' story on the internet, with a total of 64,030 shares. It used four ingredients: an unexplained phenomenon, murder, monsters (in this ... The Soviet Sleep Experiment streaming online The Soviet Sleep Experiment (2019) The Soviet Sleep Experiment. 6.9 (79) 1h 19min. Where to watch Watch for free Synopsis Similar titles. Russian Sleep Experiment Dive deep into the chilling story and origins of "The Russian Sleep Experiment" in this 22-minute documentary. Join the journey to uncover the truth behind t... The Russian Sleep Experiment But these people all stayed awake no more than three days; Russian Sleep Experiment subjects are said to have gone two full weeks. About the closest thing to this time span in the non-fictional science literature was an experiment in 1968 that subjected four young men to 205 hours of enforced wakefulness at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. The Truth About the Russian Sleep Experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment is a popular urban myth which began to circulate online in "creepypasta" forums (so-named for the ease with which you could copy-paste spooky content) in the early 2010s. Watch Soviet Sleep Experiment Woot! In the late 1940's, Russian researchers kept four test patients awake for 30 days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. Cut off from the world, the researchers conduct a series of tests on the subjects. What starts as a purely scientific study, quickly spirals out of control and the subjects take matters into their own hands and test ... What was the Russian Sleep Experiment? This 'Russian sleep experiment' is a 10-year-old urban legend. Its origins trace back to the CreepyPasta website, where you can enjoy the story in all its full glory (like feces covering the ... Soviet Sleep Experiment (2019) Movie Soviet Sleep Experiment. 2019. NRA. Buffalo 8 English 1h 19m. movie. (8) Cast Eva De Dominici, Rafal Zawierucha, Chris Kattan. In the late 1940s, Russian researchers keep four test patients awake for thirty days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. What starts as a purely scientific study, quickly spirals out of control. The Russian Sleep Experiment footage What would happen if someone were to go without sleep for nearly 30 days? That's what a group of researchers set to find out in 1940s Soviet. In this scienti... Was the Russian Sleep Experiment Real? An account describing the horrific results of a 'Russian Sleep Experiment' from the late 1940s is a work of modern creepy fiction. David Mikkelson Published Aug. 27, 2013 Russian sleep experiment (Short 2019) Russian sleep experiment: Directed by Sergey A.. With Sergey A., Mikhail Nekrasov. The film consists of video recordings of an experiment in which the test subject was not allowed to fall asleep for 14 days. The Russian Sleep Experiment Official Short Film About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright ... Fact Check: 'Russian Sleep Experiment' Was NOT Real Event The Russian Sleep Experiment purports to recount an experiment that took place at a test facility in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. In a military-sanctioned scientific experiment, five political prisoners were kept in a sealed gas chamber, with a continually administered airborne stimulant for the purpose of keeping the subjects awake for ... The Russian Sleep Experiment The Russian Sleep Experiment. Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. This was before closed circuit cameras, so ... How The Chilling Myth Of The Russian Sleep Experiment Turned ... For the uninitiated, the Russian Sleep Experiment is one of the more notable creepypastas — the internet slang term for horrific urban legend-like short stories or vignettes circulated online — that folks have mistakenly taken for the truth. The tale has grown to legendary status, milling through hundreds of websites since its birth in 2010 ... The Russian Sleep Experiment (TV Mini Series 2015) Let me out - The Russian Sleep Experiment: With Désirée Giorgetti, Gilles Rocca, Flavio Capotosto, Antonino Anzaldi. Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the prisoners' cell, separated from the laboratory by a thin wall. essay homework paper phd project resume review study thesis