How long does lethargic sleep last? Causes of imaginary death

Evidence of this is the excavation of graves where the dead lay in the coffin in unnatural positions, as if resisting something. During lethargic sleep, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to determine and say with certainty whether a person is alive or has passed on to another world, because the boundaries separating life from death are vague and uncertain.

However, there were cases when it was possible to escape from grave captivity. For example, the case of an artillery officer who was thrown by a horse and broke his head in the fall. The wound seemed to be harmless, they bled him, they took measures to bring him to his senses, but all the efforts of the doctors were in vain, the man died, or rather, he was mistaken for dead. The weather was hot, so it was decided to hurry up with the funeral and not wait three days.

Two days after the funeral, many relatives of the deceased came to the cemetery. One of them screamed in horror when he saw that the ground on which he had just been sitting had “moved.” This was the grave of an officer. Without hesitation, those who came took up shovels and dug up a shallow grave, somehow covered with earth. The “dead man” was not lying, but half-sitting in the coffin, the lid was torn off and slightly raised. After the “second birth,” the officer was taken to the hospital, where he said that, having regained consciousness, he heard the footsteps of people overhead. Thanks to the gravediggers who carelessly filled the grave, air got through loose soil, which made it possible for the officer to receive some oxygen.

People can remain in a state of lethargy without interruption for many days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years, in exceptional cases- decades. Dr. Rosenthal in Vienna published a case of trance in a hysterical woman who was pronounced dead by her doctor. Her skin was pale and cold, her pupils were constricted and insensitive to light, her pulse was imperceptible, her limbs were relaxed. Melted sealing wax was dripped onto her skin and they could not notice the slightest reflected movements. A mirror was brought to the mouth, but no trace of moisture could be seen on its surface.

Not the slightest breathing noise was heard, but in the region of the heart, auscultation revealed a barely noticeable intermittent sound. The woman had been in a similar, apparently lifeless state for 36 hours. When examining intermittent current, Rosenthal found that the muscles of the face and limbs contracted. The woman came to her senses after 12 hours of faradization. Two years later, she was alive and well and told Rosenthal that at the beginning of the attack she was unaware of anything, and then heard talk about her death, but could not help herself.

An example of longer lethargic sleep is given by the famous Russian physiologist V.V. Efimov. He said that one French 4 summer girl with a diseased nervous system, she was frightened by something and fainted, and then plunged into a lethargic sleep that lasted 18 years without a break. She was admitted to the hospital, where she was carefully looked after and nourished, thanks to which she grew into an adult girl. And even though she woke up as an adult, her mind, interests, feelings remained the same as they were before lethargy. So, waking up from a lethargic sleep, the girl asked for a doll to play with.

Academician I. P. Pavlov knew that sleep was even longer. The man lay in the clinic as a “living corpse” for 25 years. He did not make a single movement, did not utter a single word from the age of 35 until the age of 60, when he gradually began to show normal motor activity, began to stand up, speak, etc. They began to ask the old man what he felt during this period. these for long years, while he lay as a “living corpse.” As they found out, he heard a lot, understood, but could not move or speak. Pavlov explained this case by congestive pathological inhibition of the motor cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. In old age, when the inhibitory processes weakened, cortical inhibition began to decrease and the old man woke up.

In America in 1996 after the 17th summer dream Greta Stargle from Denver, Colorado regained consciousness. “An innocent child in the body of a luxurious woman” is what doctors call Greta. The fact is that, as journalists reported, in 1979, 3-year-old Greta was in a car accident. Grandparents died, and Greta fell asleep for... 17 years. “Miss Stargle’s brain turned out to be absolutely undamaged,” noted Swiss neurosurgeon Hans Jenkins, who flew to America to meet the patient who had recently regained consciousness. - The 20-year-old beauty looks like an adult, but retains the intelligence and innocence of 3 year old child" Greta is smart and learns quite quickly. However, she has absolutely no knowledge of life. “We recently went to the supermarket together,” says Greta’s mother Doris. “I walked away literally for a minute, and when I returned, Greta was already heading towards the exit with some guy. It turned out that he invited her to go to his house and have a lot of fun, and Greta readily agreed. She couldn’t even imagine what exactly was meant.” Having passed the test, Greta is studying at school today. Her teachers assure that the girl gets along well with the kids in her class. The future will tell how the life of the former sleeping beauty will turn out...

During lethargic sleep, not only voluntary movements, but also simple reflexes are so suppressed, the physiological functions of the respiratory and circulatory organs are so inhibited that a person with little knowledge of medicine may mistake the sleeping person for the dead. This is probably where the belief in the existence of vampires and ghouls originates - people who died a “fake death”, leaving graves and crypts at night to maintain their half-living, half-dead existence with the blood of living people.

Until the 18th century medieval Europe Plague epidemics periodically swept through. The worst was the Black Death of the 14th century, which killed almost a quarter of Europe's population. The merciless disease decimated everyone indiscriminately. Every day, carts loaded to the brim with bodies carried the terrible cargo out of the city to the grave pits. The doors of houses where the infection had settled were marked with red crosses. People abandoned their relatives to the mercy of fate for fear of infection and left cities in the grip of death. The plague was considered a disaster worse than war. The fear of being buried alive was especially great from the 18th to early XIX centuries. There are many known cases of premature burials. The degree of their reliability varies.

1865 - 5-year-old Max Hoffman, whose family had a farm near a small town in Wisconsin (America), fell ill with cholera. An urgently called doctor could not reassure the parents: in his opinion, there was no hope for recovery. Three days later it was all over. The same doctor, covering Max's body with a sheet, declared him dead. The boy was buried in the village cemetery. The next night, the mother had a terrible dream. She dreamed that Max was turning over in his grave and seemed to be trying to get out of there. She saw him fold his hands and put them under his right cheek. The mother woke up from her heartbreaking scream. She began to beg her husband to dig up the coffin with the child, but he refused. Mr. Hoffman was convinced that her sleep was the result of a nervous shock and that removing the body from the grave would only increase her suffering. But the next night the dream repeated itself, and this time it was impossible to convince the worried mother.

Hoffmann sent his eldest son to fetch a neighbor and a lantern, because their own lantern was broken. At two o'clock in the morning the men began the exhumation. They worked by the light of a lantern hanging on a nearby tree. When they finally got to the coffin and opened it, they saw that Max was lying on his right side, as his mother had dreamed, with his arms folded under right cheek. The child showed no signs of life, but the father took the body out of the coffin and rode on horseback to the doctor. With great disbelief, the doctor set to work, trying to revive the boy he had declared dead two days ago. More than an hour later, his efforts were rewarded: the baby’s eyelid twitched. They used brandy, and placed bags of heated salt under the body and arms. Little by little, signs of improvement began to appear. Within a week, Max had fully recovered from his fantastic adventure. He lived to the age of 80 and died in Clinton, Iowa. Among his most memorable things were two small metal handles from the coffin from which he was rescued thanks to his mother's dream.

As is known, lethargic sleep of natural, and not traumatic or other origin, usually develops in hysterical patients. In some cases and healthy people, not hysterics, using special psychotechniques, can cause similar states in themselves. For example, Hindu yogis, using the techniques of self-hypnosis and breath-holding known to them, can voluntarily bring themselves into a state of deepest and long sleep similar to lethargy or catalepsy.

1968 - Englishwoman Emma Smith set a world record for the longest duration of burial alive: she spent 101 days in a coffin! True... not in a lethargic sleep and without the use of any psychotechnics, she simply lay in a buried coffin, fully conscious. At the same time, air, water and food were supplied to the coffin. Emma even had the opportunity to talk with those who were on the surface using a telephone installed in the coffin...

Society these days is accustomed to treating myths, legends, and tales as fiction. People are accustomed to judging ancient Civilizations as underdeveloped and primitive. But some material finds in the mines allow us to conclude that representatives ancient civilization, possessing parapsychological abilities, went into the caves of the Himalayas and entered the state of Somati (when the Soul, having left the body and leaving it in a “preserved” state, can return to it at any moment, and it will come to life (this can happen in a day and in a hundred years , and in a million years), thus organizing the Gene Pool of Humanity. According to scientists, sleep - best medicine. Indeed, the kingdom of Morpheus saves people from many stresses, diseases, and simply relieves fatigue.

It is believed that the duration of sleep normal person is 5–7 hours. But sometimes the line between normal sleep and sleep caused by stress can be quite subtle. It's about about lethargy (Greek lethargia, from lethe - oblivion and argia - inaction), painful condition, similar to sleep and characterized by immobility, lack of reactions to external irritation and the absence of all external signs life. People were always afraid to fall into a lethargic sleep, because there was a danger of being buried alive.

For example, the famous Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, who lived in the 14th century, became seriously ill at the age of 40. One day he lost consciousness, he was considered dead and was about to be buried. Fortunately, the law of that time prohibited burying the dead earlier than one day after death. Having woken up almost at his grave, Petrarch said that he felt excellent. After that he lived another 30 years.

1838 - in one of the English villages there was incredible incident. During the funeral, when the coffin with the deceased was lowered into the grave and they began to bury it, some unclear sound came from there. By the time the frightened cemetery workers came to their senses, dug up the coffin and opened it, it was too late: under the lid they saw a face frozen in horror and despair. And the torn shroud and bruised hands showed that help was too late...

In Germany in 1773, after screams coming from the grave, a pregnant woman who had been buried the day before was exhumed. Eyewitnesses discovered traces of a brutal struggle for life: the nervous shock of being buried alive provoked premature birth, and the child suffocated in the coffin along with his mother...

The fears of the great writer Nikolai Gogol of being buried alive are well known. The writer suffered a final mental breakdown after the death of the woman whom he loved endlessly, Ekaterina Khomyakova, the wife of his friend. Gogol was shocked by her death. Soon he burned the manuscript of the second part " Dead souls" and went to bed. Doctors advised him to lie down, but his body protected the writer too well: he fell into a sound, life-saving sleep, which at that time was mistaken for death. In 1931, according to the plan for the improvement of Moscow, the Bolsheviks decided to destroy the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery, where Gogol was buried. During the exhumation, those present saw with horror that the skull of the great writer was turned to one side, and the material in the coffin was torn...

In England there is still a law according to which all morgue refrigerators must have a bell with a rope so that the revived “dead person” can call for help by ringing the bell. At the end of the 1960s, the first device was created there that made it possible to detect the most insignificant electrical activity of the heart. During testing of the device in the morgue, a living girl was found among the corpses.

The causes of lethargy are not yet known to medicine. Medicine describes cases of people falling into such a dream due to intoxication, large blood loss, hysterical attack, or fainting. It is interesting that in the event of a threat to life (bombing during the war), those sleeping in a lethargic sleep woke up, were able to walk, and after artillery shelling fell asleep again. The aging mechanism in those who fall asleep is very slow. Over 20 years of sleep, they do not change externally, but then they catch up when they are awake biological age in 2–3 years, turning into old people before our eyes.

Nazira Rustemova from Kazakhstan, being 4 summer child, at first “fell into a state similar to delirium, and then fell asleep in a lethargic sleep.” Doctors regional hospital They considered her dead, and soon the parents buried the girl alive. The only thing that saved her was that, according to Muslim custom, the body of the deceased is not buried in the ground, but is wrapped in a shroud and buried in a burial house. Nazira remained in lethargy for 16 years and woke up when she was about to turn 20. According to Rustemova herself, “on the night after the funeral, her father and grandfather heard a voice in a dream that told them that she was alive,” which made them pay more attention to the “corpse” - they found weak signs life.

The case of the longest officially registered lethargic sleep, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, occurred in 1954 with Nadezhda Artemovna Lebedina (who was born in 1920 in the village of Mogilev, Dnepropetrovsk region) due to a strong quarrel with her husband. As a result of the resulting stress, Lebedina fell asleep for 20 years and came to her senses again only in 1974. Doctors declared her absolutely healthy.

There is another record, which for some reason was not included in the Guinness Book of Records. Augustine Leggard fell asleep after the stress of childbirth... But she was very slow to open her mouth when she was fed. 22 years passed, and sleeping Augustine remained just as young. But then the woman perked up and spoke: “Frederick, it’s probably already late, the child is hungry, I want to feed him!” But instead of a newborn baby, she saw a 22-year-old young woman, exactly like herself... Soon, however, time took its toll: the awakened woman began to rapidly grow old, a year later she turned into an old woman and died five years later.

There are cases where lethargic sleep occurred periodically. One priest from England slept six days a week, and on Sunday he got up to eat and serve a prayer service. Typically, in mild cases of lethargy, there is immobility, muscle relaxation, even breathing, but in severe cases, rarely encountered, there is a picture of a truly imaginary death: the skin is cold and pale, the pupils do not react, breathing and pulse are difficult to detect, strong painful stimuli do not cause a reaction, there are no reflexes. Most the best guarantee The cure for lethargy is a calm life and lack of stress.

Lethargy comes from the Greek lethe "oblivion" and argia "inaction." This is not just one of the types of sleep, but real illness. In a person in lethargic sleep, all vital processes of the body slow down - the heartbeat becomes rare, breathing is shallow and unnoticeable, there is almost no reaction to external stimuli.

How long can lethargic sleep last?

Sopor can be light or heavy. In the case of the first, the person is noticeably breathing, he retains a partial perception of the world - the patient looks like a deeply sleeping person. In severe form, it becomes like a dead person - the body becomes cold and pale, the pupils stop reacting to light, breathing becomes so invisible that even with the help of a mirror it is difficult to determine its presence. Such a patient begins to lose weight, and biological secretions stop. In general, even on modern level medicine, the presence of life in such a patient is determined only with the help of an ECG and chemical analysis blood. What can we say about the early eras, when humanity did not know the concept of “lethargy”, and any person who was cold and unresponsive to stimuli would have been considered dead.

The length of lethargic sleep is unpredictable, as is the length of coma. An attack can last from several hours to decades. There is a well-known case observed by Academician Pavlov. He came across a patient who “slept through” the revolution. Kachalkin was in lethargy from 1898 to 1918. After waking up, he said that he understood everything that was happening around him, but “felt a terrible, irresistible heaviness in his muscles, so that it was even difficult for him to breathe.”

Causes

Despite the case described above, lethargy is most common in women. Especially those who are prone to hysteria. A person can fall asleep after severe emotional stress, as, for example, happened to Nadezhda Lebedina in 1954. After a quarrel with her husband, she fell asleep and woke up only 20 years later. Moreover, according to the recollections of her loved ones, she reacted to what was happening emotionally. True, the patient herself does not remember this.

In addition to stress, schizophrenia can cause lethargy. For example, the Kachalkin we mentioned suffered from it. In such cases, according to doctors, sleep can become natural reaction for illness.

In some cases, lethargy resulted from serious head injuries, severe poisoning, significant blood loss and physical exhaustion. Norwegian resident Augustine Leggard fell asleep after giving birth for 22 years.

Can lead to lethargic sleep side effects and overdose with strong medicines, for example, interferon - an antiviral and antitumor drug. In this case, to bring the patient out of lethargy, it is enough to stop taking the medicine.

IN Lately opinions are increasingly heard about viral reasons lethargy. Thus, doctors of medical sciences Russell Dale and Andrew Church, having studied the history of twenty patients with lethargy, identified a pattern that many of the patients, before “falling asleep,” had a sore throat. Further searches bacterial infection allowed us to identify rare form streptococci in all these patients. Based on this, scientists decided that the bacteria that caused sore throat changed their properties, overcame immune protection and caused inflammation of the midbrain. Such damage to the nervous system could provoke an attack of lethargic sleep.

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. She's in different time such people suffered famous personalities, like Schopenhauer, Nobel, Gogol, Tsvetaeva and Edgar Allan Poe. 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, somehow changed those frozen, awkward 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. Modern model invented and patented in 1995 by Italian Fabrizio Caseli. His project included an alarm, an intercom-like communication system, a flashlight, Breathe-helping machine, cardiac monitor and pacemaker.

Why do sleepers not age?

Paradoxically, in the case of long-term lethargy, a person practically does not change. He doesn't even age. In the cases described above, both women, Nadezhda Lebedina and Augustine Leggard, corresponded to their previous ages during sleep. But as soon as their lives acquired a normal rhythm, the years took their toll. Thus, Augustine aged sharply during the first year after awakening, and Nadezhda’s body caught up with its “fifty dollars” in less than six months. The doctors recall: “What we were able to observe was unforgettable! She grew old before our eyes. Every day I added new wrinkles and gray hair.”

What is the secret of the youth of those who sleep, and how the body so quickly regains the lost years, scientists have yet to find out.

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 indicate possible sources of lethargy severe stress, hysteria, big loss blood and general exhaustion. 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 in the usual way, but 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. While studying the chart electrical activity of the brain of patients with lethargy, it was found that their brain works in the same way as when awake.

If the illness is mild, the person looks as if he is sleeping. However, when severe form he can easily be mistaken 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 several hours or oversleep long 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”.

We didn't wait

Medieval poet Francesco Petrarca woke up from a lethargic sleep in the midst of preparations for his funeral. The predecessor of the Renaissance woke up from a sleep that lasted 20 hours, and, much to the surprise of everyone present, declared that he felt great. After this curious incident, Petrarch lived another 30 years and was even crowned with a laurel wreath for his works in 1341.

After a quarrel

If the medieval poet slept for only 20 hours, then there were cases when lethargic sleep lasted for several years. Officially, the longest bout of lethargic sleep is considered to be a case Nadezhda Lebedina from Dnepropetrovsk, who slept for 20 years after a quarrel with her husband in 1954. The woman suddenly regained consciousness upon hearing about the death of her mother. After awakening, Lebedina, who eventually got into the Guinness Book of Records, lived for another 20 years.

22 years in a flash

Since body functions slow down during lethargic sleep, patients practically do not age. Native of Norway Augustine Linggard fell asleep in 1919 due to the stress of childbirth and slept for 22 years. Throughout all these years, she remained as young as on the day of the attack. Opening her eyes in 1941, she saw her old husband near her bed and already adult daughter. However, the effect of youth in such cases does not last long. Within a year, the Norwegian looked her age.

First things first, dolls

Lethargy slows down and 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.

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 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 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.

Lethargic sleep is one of the sleep disorders that is extremely rare. The duration of this condition can last from several hours to several days, less often - up to several months. There are only a few dozen cases recorded in the world where lethargic sleep lasted several years.

The longest “sleep hour” was recorded in 1954 for Nadezhda Lebedina, who woke up only twenty years later.

Causes

Today, medicine cannot yet answer with certainty what causes this condition. Based on many data, lethargic sleep is primarily caused by the emergence of a deep inhibitory process occurring in the part of the brain. Most often, this disorder occurs after suffering severe and emotional shocks, nervous imbalance, hysteria, and against the background of physical exhaustion.

Such a dream ends as suddenly as it began.

Symptoms of lethargic sleep

The symptoms of lethargic sleep disorder are quite simple. A man sleeps without being disturbed physiological processes(you don’t want to eat, drink, get up, and so on), the metabolism in the body decreases. The patient has practically no reactions to external stimuli.

Mild cases of lethargic sleep are characterized by immobility of the patient, while his eyes are closed, his breathing is even, not interrupted, his muscles are completely relaxed. In this form, this type of disorder looks like just a full-fledged deep sleep.

The severe form has distinctive features:

Muscular hypotonia;
Paleness of the skin;
There is no reaction to external stimuli;
Blood pressure is reduced;
Some reflexes are missing;
The pulse is practically undetectable.

In any case, after waking up, a person must register with a doctor for further monitoring of his body.

Diagnosis of the disease

Lethargic sleep should be distinguished from narcolepsy, epidemic sleep and coma. This is very important, since treatment methods for all these diseases differ significantly from each other.

Conduct any research or lab tests does not seem possible. In this case, all that remains is to wait until the patient wakes up and independently talks about his feelings.

Treatment methods

Actually, treatment methods are purely individual. With lethargic sleep, there is no need to hospitalize the patient. It is enough to simply leave him under the careful supervision of family and friends. It is worth noting that a person with this disorder should be provided normal conditions vital activity in order to avoid subsequent problems upon awakening. What does it mean?

Lethargy is shrouded in numerous secrets and myths. Even in ancient times, cases of resurrection of the “dead” or burial alive were known. WITH medical point vision, lethargic sleep is a very serious illnesses. In this state the body freezes, everything metabolic processes are suspended. There is breathing, but it is almost impossible to notice. No reaction to environment. Let's try to understand the main causes of the disease and how it can be prevented.

According to modern idea, lethargy belongs to serious diseases with several clinical signs. Let's look at them in more detail:

Sudden slowdown in functions internal organs, as well as metabolism.
Breathing is not visually detected.
There is no or suppressed reaction to external stimuli (light, sound), pain.
The aging process slows down. But after awakening, a person quickly catches up with biological age.

There is still no clear answer why a person falls into lethargic sleep. Let's consider the main versions of scientists.

Causes of imaginary death

In fact, it has been proven that lethargy has nothing to do with physiological sleep. A study of the results of electroencephalograms showed that all biocurrents correspond to indicators in a state of wakefulness. Besides, human brain able to react in lethargy to external stimuli.

According to contemporaries, lethargy occurs at an extreme stage hysterical neurosis. Therefore, the disease is also called “hysterical lethargy.” This theory is supported by several well-known facts:

Imaginary death occurs after severe nervous shock. After all, people prone to hysteria overreact even to the most trivial everyday problems.
On initial stage the sympathetic nervous system (which is responsible for conducting impulses to various internal organs) responds to the process, as in normal stressful situation. Rising arterial pressure, body temperature, respiratory rate and heart function increase.
Statistical studies have found that lethargic sleep often occurs in young women. It is this category that is susceptible to hysterical neuroses.

Indeed, a woman named Nadezhda Artemovna Lebedina, who slept for 20 years, was included in the Guinness Book of Records. After awakening in 1974, she was declared completely healthy.

But there are also others worldwide famous representatives males who suffered a terrible fate. After the service, the English priest plunged into lethargy for 6 days. According to legend, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was found during reburial in an unusual position and with torn clothes. Scientists also explain the illness of these individuals by moral experiences associated with their occupation.

Not a single scientist undertakes to claim to have uncovered the secret of lethargy. There are people who have repeatedly fallen into hysterical sleep. They even learned to predict the condition in advance based on certain signs.

Basic theories and hypotheses

As a result of research, scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov came to the conclusion that lethargic sleep occurs as the body’s response to overexcitation in the cerebral cortex, as well as subcortical formations. A weak nervous system is especially susceptible to the influence of irritants.

Animal experience has shown that when exposed to specific pathogen At the initial stage, the defense mechanism is activated. Then the subjects (dogs) froze motionless, as they lost their conditioned and unconditioned reflexes. All vital processes were fully restored only after fourteen days.

There is also an alternative theory. The occurrence of lethargy is associated with genetics. Dysfunction of the aging gene (autosomal - recessive type inheritance) explains the rarity of the disease.

Proponents of the infectious theory are of the opinion that lethargic sleep is caused by bacteria, as well as exposure to viral particles. The culprits of the disease are considered to be diplococcus bacteria and the Spanish flu virus. The immune system In some individuals, it is built in such a way that protective cells allow infection into the CNS (central nervous system) at the site of inflammation.

You can learn medical facts about lethargic sleep from the story:

The borderline between life and death

The existence of such a disease terrifies many people. For example, in England legislative level It was established to ensure the presence of bells in the morgue. A person, after waking up from a lethargic sleep, will be able to call for help. In Slovakia, a cell phone is placed in the coffin of the deceased.

Impressionable people are affected by the phobia of fear of death and the possibility of being buried alive. A condition such as taphophobia has become widespread. But the likelihood of burying a living person in the modern world is reduced to zero for several reasons. Let's look at them in more detail.

Mild and severe forms of hysterical sleep are known. In the first case, in a person, despite visible oppression important functions, signs of life can be easily recognized. A decrease in muscle tone, as well as immobility, occurs against the background of even breathing.

In severe cases, the person may appear to have died. It is quite difficult to determine the pulse and recognize breathing. Skin become pale and cold. There is no reaction of the pupils to light. No response to painful stimuli. But deep lethargic sleep, despite the rarity of the phenomenon, is easily diagnosed by a doctor.

In modern medical institutions there is sufficient equipment and knowledge to reliably confirm death. Doctors can conduct instrumental method assessing the vital activity of internal organs to record the biocurrents of the heart using an electrocardiogram. Brain activity is checked by electroencephalography.

By directly examining a person using a simple mirror, breathing can be detected. But this method does not always work. Heart sounds are also heard.

During lethargic sleep, a small incision or puncture of the fingertip will cause capillary bleeding.

In fact, a lethargic state should not be scary. Sleep does not pose a danger to human life. All organs continue to function. Prolonged lethargy leads to exhaustion. Therefore, such people are provided artificial nutrition. With proper care even after long sleep all functions of internal organs are able to fully recover.

Lethargic sleep and coma: the difference

These diseases can be confused. But they are very different. Coma occurs due to physiological disorders (severe damage or injury). Nervous system does not work at full strength, but vital functions are supported special devices. In a coma, a person is unable to respond to external stimuli.

A person is able to independently emerge from lethargic sleep after some time. To restore consciousness after a coma, a long course of therapy will be required.

How to prevent lethargy?

Doctors cannot come to a consensus about the cause of the disease. Therefore, even now there is no uniform method of treating and preventing lethargy. According to reports, people should follow several rules to avoid apathetic as well as lethargic attacks.