Russian Sleep Experiment

This famous story, true or not, recounts 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 keeping the subjects awake for 30 consecutive days. The prisoners were falsely promised that they will be set free from prison if they complete the experiment.

The subjects behaved as usual during the initial days, talking to each other and whispering to the researchers through the one-way glass, though it is noted their discussions gradually became darker in the subject matter. After nine days, one subject begins screaming uncontrollably for hours while the others have no reaction to his outburst. The man screamed for so long that he tore his vocal cords. The man didn’t know why he was screaming. He was paralyzed. When the second one started screaming, the others prevented the researchers from looking inside by pasting torn book pages and their own feces on the porthole windows. A few days passed without the researchers being able to look inside, during which the chamber was completely silent. The researchers used the intercom to test if the subjects were still alive, and got a short response of a subject expressing compliance.

On the 15th day, the researchers decided to turn off the stimulating gas and reopen the chamber. Upon looking inside, they discover that the four surviving subjects have performed lethal and severe mutilation and disembowel on themselves during the past days, including tearing off flesh and muscles, removing multiple abdominal internal organs, practicing self-cannibalism, and allowing 10 cm (4 inches) of blood and water to accumulate on the floor. The subjects also violently refused to leave the chamber and begged the scientists to continue administering the stimulant, murdering one soldier and severely injuring another who was attempting to remove them. After eventually being removed from the chamber, all subjects were shown to exhibit extreme strength, unprecedented resistance to drugs and sedatives, superhuman abilities to remain alive despite lethal injuries, and a desperate desire to stay awake and being given the stimulant. It was also found that any one of the subjects who fall asleep dies instantly.

After being treated for their injuries, the surviving three subjects were prepared to return to the gas chamber with the stimulant, with EKG monitors showing short recurring moments of brain death. Before the chamber was sealed, one of the subjects falls asleep and dies, and one researcher draws a gun and kills another subject as well as a staff member. With only one surviving subject, the researcher asked what he was, to which the subject identifies himself as an inherent evil inside the human mind that is kept in check by the act of sleeping. The researcher shoots the prisoner in his heart, saying his final words.

The Russian Sleep Experiment became immensely popular upon its original publication. It is considered by some to be the greatest and most shared creepypasta story ever.[2] Much of the online and offline debate surrounds the belief held by many that the story is real rather than fiction, and many articles therefore seek to debunk this claim.[3] There is also much discussion of the viral nature of creepypasta stories more generally.[4][1]

The creepypasta is often shared alongside an image of a grotesque, demonic figure, implied to be one of the test subjects. The image is actually of a life-size animatronic Halloween prop called "Spasm".[5]

The Russian Sleep Experiment's popularity has led to various adaptations over the years. A novel inspired by the original short story was published in 2015 but is now out-of-print.[6]

In early 2018, a psychological thriller based on the short story began production, directed by John Farrelly, and is set to be released in 2020.[7]

Several other adaptations have been created, including a film based on the short story, with Chris Kattan starring and Barry Andersson directing.[8]

• Human subject research

• The Russian Sleep Experiment. Timothy Smith. 2015.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• The Russian Sleep Experiment. Framed Pictures. 18 March 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)