Imaginary death. Interesting cases of lethargic sleep

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

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

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

How is lethargic sleep recognized and distinguished from death?

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

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

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

Flow forms

Lethargy is a disease that is more common in females. In this state, a person becomes motionless, vital functions of the body slow down, body temperature drops by several degrees, pulse and breathing are barely noticeable. There are mild and severe forms.

• Mild form of pathology. The patient is no different from a sleeping person: even breathing, measured, clear heartbeat. It's almost impossible to wake him up.
• Severe form. The condition can easily be confused with death: the sleeping person’s skin becomes pale, the body becomes cold, the pupils do not react to light, the pulse slows down to several beats per minute, breathing cannot be felt even with the help of a mirror.

The presence of life can only be determined using medical indicators: ECG and blood tests.

Scientists: new facts about lethargic sleep

Scientists say that sleep is the best medicine that saves people from a lot of stress, illness, and helps relieve fatigue. The normal sleep duration for a healthy person is 8 hours. However, sometimes the line between normal sleep and sleep caused by stress is so thin that it gives rise to lethargy - a painful state that is very similar to sleep, and is characterized by the absence of reactions and all external signs of life, immobility, decreased metabolic processes, shallow and imperceptible breathing.

Scientists have not yet been able to establish the exact reasons that cause lethargic sleep, but they note that lethargy can occur as a result of severe hysterical attacks, stress, anxiety, and also when the body is exhausted. Lethargic sleep can be light or heavy. In a severe form, a person very much resembles a dead person, since the skin turns pale and cold, the eyes do not react to light, breathing becomes shallow, almost imperceptible, and the pulse is almost not palpable.

The physiological condition of a person worsens. With mild lethargy, the changes are less radical: despite the fact that the person is motionless and relaxed, he partially perceives the world and maintains even breathing. It is impossible to predict the beginning and end of this state, just as it is impossible to determine its duration. Modern doctors have learned to distinguish imaginary death from real one, but they are not yet able to find any remedy for lethargic sleep. Lethargic sleep is sometimes compared to coma.

Indeed, certain properties of these two phenomena are similar. Coma occurs due to physical trauma and damage. At the same time, the nervous system is depressed, and physical life is supported by artificial life support devices. A person does not react to external stimuli, as in lethargy. You can get out of a coma on your own, just like you can get out of lethargic sleep, however, more often this happens with the help of treatment and therapy. People are afraid of lethargy because they are afraid of being buried alive. In reality, there is very little chance of being buried by mistake.

Modern science knows ways to determine whether a person is truly dead. If doctors have even the slightest suspicion that a person is in a state of lethargic sleep, they must do an electroencephalogram and an electrocardiogram, which record cardiac activity and brain activity. If the person is alive, such procedures will produce results. Next, doctors carefully examine the patient’s body to look for signs of death: obvious organ damage, rigor, cadaveric spots. In addition, the person is in the morgue for one or two days, during which signs of death should appear.

If in doubt, a small incision is also made to check for capillary bleeding, and a chemical blood test is also performed. Doctors also analyze the overall picture of a person’s condition to identify factors that could provoke lethargic sleep - hysterical fits, weight loss, complaints of weakness and headaches, low blood pressure. Lethargy has been known since ancient times. Even in the Bible you can find many examples of this mysterious disease. People were very afraid of her, and for good reason. In the Middle Ages, people were buried in mass graves, which were opened every time it was necessary to bury someone.

Sometimes people noticed with horror that those who had been buried earlier found themselves in completely different poses than those they were given during burial. All these fears caused the Duke of Mecklenburg to declare in 1772 that people could not be buried in his domain before the third day after death. Soon a similar measure spread throughout Europe. In the 19th century, undertakers began making so-called “safe coffins,” in which a person buried alive could hold out for some time and signal for help. In its simplest design, such a coffin was a wooden box in which there was a tube leading out.

For several days after the funeral, a priest always came to the grave and sniffed the smell coming from the grave. If there was no smell, the grave had to be opened and checked whether the person really died. In some cases, a bell was hung on the tube, with which a person could signal rescue. More complex coffin designs included devices for supplying water and food. At the beginning of the century before last, a doctor from Germany, Adolf Gutsmon, demonstrated his invention.

He was buried alive in a coffin, in which he not only spent several hours, but was also able to dine on sausages and beer, served using a special device. But despite all the precautions, people who fell asleep in a lethargic sleep were still taken for dead and buried. Thus, the famous poet Petrarch almost became a victim of lethargy. He was seriously ill, and when he was unconscious, the doctors mistook him for dead. The poet came to his senses the next day, when preparations for the funeral were already in full swing.

Interestingly, Petrarch’s health improved significantly. And after that he lived for another three decades. In 1773, in Germany, a pregnant woman who had been buried the day before was dug up from a grave from which screams were heard. The struggle for life provoked childbirth, and the child suffocated along with his mother. In 1838, an interesting and incredible incident occurred in England. During the funeral, when the coffin was already being buried in the grave, an unclear sound came from it. The cemetery workers were very frightened, but by the time they came to their senses and dug up the grave, it was too late - under the lid of the coffin they saw a face with a mask of horror frozen on it.

And his bruised hands and torn shroud indicated that the man was alive at the time he was buried. Sometimes those who were buried alive were rescued by thieves who dug up the graves in search of profit. The fact that cases of burial alive were quite common is also evidenced by special houses for the dead, in which basic necessities were collected for those who could be resurrected, so that they would not die of starvation and cold. Not only ordinary people, but also famous personalities were afraid of being buried alive.

After a real epidemic of lethargy began in Europe in 1910-1930, the fear of being buried alive was called taphophobia. The first US President George Washington suffered from this disease. He constantly asked his relatives to bury him no earlier than a few days after his death. The famous Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, as well as the inventor Alfred Nobel, experienced the same fear.

But perhaps the most famous person who was susceptible to taphophobia was the writer Nikolai Gogol. It should be noted that the writer had certain reasons for this. In his youth, Gogol suffered from malarial encephalitis. Then, throughout his life, the disease made itself felt by periodic loss of consciousness and subsequent sleep. The writer was afraid that during one of these fainting spells he would be mistaken for dead and buried.

And in the last years of his life, this fear became so strong that Nikolai Vasilyevich even preferred to sleep sitting up so that his sleep would be more sensitive. According to rumors, the writer’s fears were justified, and he was indeed buried alive. Later, when the grave was opened for reburial, they found the writer’s body lying in an unnatural position with his head turned to one side. However, modern experts have found a completely logical explanation for this: they say, the boards of the coffin unevenly rot and collapse, which leads to a violation of the position of the skeleton.

Where does lethargic sleep come from? What factors trigger the body to fall into a state of deep oblivion? According to some experts, lethargic sleep can be caused by extreme stress: when the body is faced with experiences that it cannot bear, then a defensive reaction is activated, manifested in the form of lethargic sleep.

According to another hypothesis, lethargic sleep may be caused by a virus. It is the presence of the virus that some scientists explain the frequent cases of lethargy in Europe at the beginning of the last century. In addition, scientists discovered another very interesting pattern: in most cases, lethargy was experienced by people who had often suffered from sore throats in the past. This gave rise to a third theory, according to which lethargic sleep is caused by staphylococcus, which has mutated and infected brain tissue. Whether among these versions there is a correct one, or whether they are all wrong, science has yet to figure it out. In the meantime, people can only hope that lethargy will pass them by.

Or, if a person finds himself in a state of lethargic sleep, he will not be buried alive or there will be a chance of salvation. For example, in England there is still a law in force according to which all morgue refrigerators have a bell with a rope in case the “dead person” comes to his senses. And in Slovakia they went even further: they put a mobile phone in the grave with the deceased. Be that as it may, modern medicine is developed enough to not confuse a sleeping person with a dead person. But if you don’t trust medicine, you can protect yourself on your own, because the best guarantee against lethargic sleep is the absence of stress and a calm life.

What are the causes of lethargic sleep?

There is still disagreement among experts about the true causes of this condition, as well as how long pathological sleep lasts. Some doctors see the disease as one of the sleep pathologies, others find the cause in metabolic disorders.

The most common and most rational causes of lethargy are:

• frequent stressful situations or one, but very severe stress;
• the appearance of mental disorders, a tendency to hysteria;
• suffered accidents, significant injuries or bruises to the head, concussions;
• schizophrenia.

Over time, a person who has fallen into lethargy loses weight, biological development and body secretions completely stop

In rare cases, a person may fall into a lethargic sleep:

• with severe physical or emotional exhaustion;
• in case of severe poisoning;
• with significant bleeding;
• after hypnotic influence.

There are cases where the abuse of strong medications, such as Interferon, provoked deep sleep. It has also been noted that stopping the drug can bring a person out of a lethargic state.

People who have experienced such a mysterious condition claim that shortly before falling asleep, they began to have severe headaches, their whole body was overcome by an overwhelming feeling of fatigue, and their muscles became sluggish. One of the latest hypotheses among scientists is the viral etiology of the disease.

Well-known doctors of medical sciences Andrew Church and Russell Daly, after much research and studying the stories of more than 20 “asleep” patients, found that most of them had a sore throat shortly before falling asleep. Later, scientists discovered a strange virus (streptococcus bacteria) in them.

The research results obtained gave rise to the hypothesis that the bacteria that cause sore throats have mutated and, bypassing the immune system, provoked inflammation of parts of the brain. As a result, the cells of the nervous system are destroyed and fall into a state of restless sleep.

Features of the pathological condition

Symptoms of apparent death are:

• complete immobility throughout the entire illness;
• lack of reflexes and reactions to external stimuli;
• slowing down life processes.

Often, brain activity remains at the same level, consciousness is clear, the patient hears those around him, perceives their words and even remembers certain events, but a feeling of severe weakness prevents him from reacting. The condition is easily confused with diseases such as encephalitis and narcolepsy.

In a mild form of lethargic sleep, the body is relaxed, there is twitching of the eyelids and rolling of the eyes. At the same time, the ability to chew and swallow is preserved. Feeding the sleeping person can be done independently or with the help of a medical tube.

Severe cases are rare. The person outwardly resembles a dead person, the body does not visually show the slightest signs of life, there is no reaction to pain (including very severe). The sleeping person cannot feed himself, the discharge (urine, feces) stops, and the person “dries out” before our eyes.

Got old in my sleep

A unique case of lethargy was described by Academician Pavlov. It was about a man who, at the age of 35, fell into a coma and lay there for twenty years. Moreover, he did not become a “living corpse” immediately and during 1896-1898. reacted to certain stimuli from the outside world. Then came the years of oblivion, and only in 1918, already an elderly man, Ivan Kuzmich Kachalkin opened his eyes again.

It turned out that all that time he could hear and perceive reality, but was deprived of the ability to speak and move. The patient recounted the conversations of the nurses, doctors and visitors who came to see him, and his memory did not mix up the events, but gave them out in the correct sequence. Unfortunately, the man’s body could not withstand the test of lethargy, and a week after waking up he suffered a heart attack. Death came instantly.

Diagnostics

Being buried alive is one of man's worst fears. In order to exclude such an outcome, modern medicine provides a number of studies:

• Electrophysiological examination of the brain and heart makes it possible to determine the functioning of these organs. Even with the most severe form of lethargy, their weak functioning can be recorded.
• Examination of the patient for the presence of cadaveric spots and rigor.
• Chemical blood test.
• An incision to check blood circulation.

The above diagnostic methods are distinguished by obtaining accurate, reliable results.

Treatment

Treatment is not applied to a person who has fallen into deep sleep. He is not transferred to a hospital and is not treated with medication. In this condition, the patient needs a calm home environment and unobtrusive attention from loved ones and relatives. According to people who fell into lethargic sleep, it is known that most of them heard those around them, but could not react.

Lethargic sleep is a condition that does not require drug treatment

Lethargy is an unusual, little-studied condition, in which the main thing is proper care for the “sleeping” person. Consultation with an experienced professional will be required to determine proper care. Based on a thorough diagnosis, he will establish the main rules:

• temperature regime;
• lighting;
• environment;
• basic hygiene procedures;
• method and frequency of feeding;
• drinking regime.

Maternal instinct

This nerve-wracking story happened in 1865 in Wisconsin (USA). Trouble came to the family of a local farmer - his 5-year-old son fell ill with cholera. The doctor's predictions were disappointing, and three days later the little boy died. Grief-stricken parents buried Max Hoffmann in the village cemetery according to all the traditions of that time.

That same night, the mother had a strange dream, as if her child was alive. A picture clearly emerged before his eyes - the boy turned over on his side in the coffin and put his hands under his right cheek. Waking up from a scream, the woman told her vision to her husband and began to ask her to dig up the grave. He began to reassure his wife, deciding that due to nervousness, she simply saw hallucinations, and all this was nothing more than the result of overexertion.

However, the next night the nightmare repeated itself, and here it was not possible to call the agitated woman to the voice of reason. Together with his eldest son and neighbor, the farmer came to the cemetery and began the exhumation. When the coffin was brought to the surface and opened, it turned out that Max was indeed lying on his side, supporting his cheek with one hand. At the same time, the child looked as if he were dead.

The stunned parents called the doctor, the same one who pronounced the boy dead three days earlier. At first incredulous, and then zealously trying to revive the child, he finally received a reward for his efforts - the baby’s eyelid twitched, and then both eyes opened. Gradually, the body began to show signs of life, and a week later Max fully recovered from the fantastic “adventure” that happened to him. How happily he lived his 80s is unknown, but among the mementos kept in the family “archive” were two metal handles from the coffin - the same one from which he managed to escape thanks to his mother’s dream.

Complications

Prolonged immobility of a person has a detrimental effect on the body as a whole. The longer the patient remains in this condition, the higher the likelihood that he will return as a severely disabled person. The most common complications of restless sleep:

• necrosis of certain areas of soft tissue;
• atrophy of blood vessels;
• septic damage (rotting) of the kidneys and bronchi.

With imaginary death, the aging of the body slows down, but as soon as a person wakes up, the process begins to accelerate until it reaches the desired state. Why this happens is still not known.

Lethargic sleep or coma?

Both conditions require proper supervision by experienced professionals.

Coma clinic

The causes of coma are: all kinds of bruises and head injuries, serious illnesses, complications during operations. Life support during coma: breathing exclusively with the help of medical devices, maintaining life only with the help of special drugs. Exit from the state: accompanied by a long period of rehabilitation, quite often the coma ends in death.

It is important to differentiate the state of lethargic sleep from coma

Clinical indicators of lethargic sleep

Cause of the disease: stress, severe dehydration, intoxication with antiviral drugs, chronic fatigue syndrome, exposure to mutating viruses. Life support: the patient breathes on his own; only in very rare cases is connection to a machine required.

Awakening: independently, without medical intervention. The patient is able to return to normal life without significant harm to the body. A lethargic state is less dangerous to human life than a coma.

Taphophobia

With the awareness of lethargy as a disease came phobias. Today, taphophobia, or the fear of being buried alive, is one of the most common in the world. Such famous personalities as Schopenhauer, Nobel, Gogol, Tsvetaeva and Edgar Poe suffered from it at different times. The latter dedicated many works to his fear. His story “Buried Alive” describes many cases of lethargic sleep that ended in tears: “I looked closely; and by the will of the invisible, who was still clutching my wrist, all the graves on the face of the earth were opened before me. But alas! Not all of them fell into a sound sleep; there were many millions more others who did not sleep forever; I saw that many, seemingly at rest in the world, in one way or another changed those frozen, uncomfortable positions in which they were interred.”

Taphophobia is reflected not only in literature, but also in law and scientific thought. As early as 1772, the Duke of Mecklenburg introduced a mandatory delay of funerals until the third day after death to prevent the possibility of being buried alive. Soon this measure was adopted in a number of European countries. Since the 19th century, safe coffins began to be produced, equipped with a means of escape for those “accidentally buried.” Emmanuel Nobel made for himself one of the first crypts with ventilation and alarm (a bell that was driven by a rope installed in the coffin). Subsequently, inventors Franz Western and Johan Taberneg invented protection for the bell from accidental ringing, equipped the coffin with an anti-mosquito net, and installed drainage systems to avoid flooding with rainwater.

Safety coffins still exist today. The modern model was invented and patented in 1995 by Italian Fabrizio Caseli. His project included an alarm, an intercom-like communication system, a flashlight, a breathing apparatus, a heart monitor, and a pacemaker.

Prevention

There is no single effective method for preventing and treating this mysterious disease. To avoid lethargic attacks, scientists, based on research and experience of previous generations, recommend adhering to the following rules.

In summer, in hot or humid weather, avoid prolonged exposure to the sun. Drink enough regular (preferably boiled) water daily for the body. Do not abuse sweets containing starch.

It is important to include dishes with a lot of plant fiber in your diet. Avoid frequent stress, sleep 6-8 hours a day. You should take strong medications with caution, and never drink alcohol at the same time.

Cases of lethargic sleep

The patient may “fall asleep” for a day or several days, and sometimes his sleep can drag on for years. So, in one of the cities of England, the priest woke up only on Sundays to eat and conduct services in the church. From past centuries, interesting facts have been known when those who fell into a state of imaginary death were so similar to the dead that they were miraculously not buried.

An incident from the life of a poet

The Italian poet of the Renaissance, Francesco Petrarca, remained in a sleepless state for about a day. When he woke up, he discovered active preparations for his burial. He felt cheerful and full of energy, which surprised those present even more. The poet lived another 30 years and was awarded a laurel wreath in 1341 as an outstanding writer of that time.

Dangerous quarrel

One of the longest and officially confirmed cases is considered to be the unremitting condition of Dnepropetrovsk resident Nadezhda Lebedina. In 1954, after a quarrel with her husband, she fell into a deep sleep that lasted 20 years. She was awakened by terrible news - the death of her mother, which she heard about while in a state of lethargy. Lebedina lived for more than 20 years and was included in the Guinness Book of Records.

A dream of 22 years

In 1919, difficult childbirth and depression provoked a deep sleep of a resident of one of the cities of Norway. The state of imaginary death dragged on for Augustine Linggard for as long as 22 years. The functions of her body slowed down so much that the girl did not change at all throughout the entire time. When she woke up in 1941, she looked no worse than her adult daughter. But the Norwegian's youth did not last long. A year later, she aged to her real age.

Where are my toys

A lethargic state slows down not only physiological processes, but also intellectual development. After falling asleep at the age of 6, a girl from Buenos Aires slept for 19 years. When she woke up, the first thing she wanted was to play with her favorite dolls.

It is impossible to predict the duration of lethargic sleep for a particular person.

First things first, dolls

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

Between life and death. Stories of people who fell into comas for years

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The most important

Until now, many scientists do not believe in the existence of lethargy and consider this condition to be a consequence of severe fatigue and moral exhaustion of the body, various kinds of troubles and stress. They are confident that good rest and quality sleep can cure a person of illness.

Whether it will be possible to unravel the mystery of this condition - time will tell. Perhaps very soon scientists will answer the question of many about what lies in the state of lethargic sleep and will find an effective treatment for the mysterious disease.

Concert in the morgue

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

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