Reproductive functions of the body during lethargic sleep. Theories and hypotheses. Lethargic sleep and coma: the difference

Sopor is a deviation, a specific condition, similar external signs With deep sleep. In this case, a subject who has fallen into lethargy does not show reactions to stimuli from the outside. This condition resembles a coma. All vital signs are intact, but it is impossible to wake the person. In severe cases, it may occur imaginary death, characterized by a drop in body temperature, a slowdown in heart rate and the disappearance of respiratory movements. Today, the concept in question is considered a fictitious condition, mainly described in artistic creations and differing from coma in the preservation of vital organ functions. However, it has long been no secret that the body of human individuals a long period cannot do without drinking. That is why maintaining vital functions in a prolonged state of unconsciousness is impossible without medical assistance.

An individual in the described state is immobilized and does not show reactions to external stimuli. At the same time, vital activity is preserved. Breathing becomes slow, the pulse is almost impossible to feel, and the heartbeat is also barely noticeable.

The term “lethargy” itself came into use from Latin. "Lethe" means "oblivion." This word is familiar to many from the mythological works of antiquity, where the kingdom of the dead and the Lethe River flowing through it are mentioned. According to legends, the deceased who drank water from this source forget everything that happened to them in their worldly life. The word "argia" means "numbness." There have been known cases of lethargic sleep in history, so in ancient times it was irrational to be buried alive.

The Duke of Mecklenburg in the distant 18th century in his own possessions in Germany forbade burying the dead immediately after death. He decided that from the moment of death to the moment of burial it is necessary to wait three days. 3 days should have passed from this date. Over time this rule spread throughout the continent.

In the 19th century, master undertakers developed special “safe” coffins that allowed a person who had been mistakenly buried to live for some time and even signal his own awakening. So, for example, most often the pipe was brought out of the coffin to the surface of the earth so that the clergy who regularly visit the graves could hear the call of the subject buried alive. In addition, through such a tube the smell of a corpse was supposed to come out if the person was not buried alive. Therefore, if, after a certain time, there was no smell of decomposition, then the grave had to be opened.

Today, most European countries have developed many ways to avoid burying a person alive. For example, in Slovakia they put a telephone in the coffin of the deceased so that the subject, if he suddenly wakes up, has the opportunity to call and thereby avoid a terrible death, and in Great Britain a bell is used for this purpose.

Physiologist I. Pavlov examined and studied examples of lethargic sleep. He examined a man who had been in a state of lethargy for 22 years, who, after waking up, said that he was aware of what was happening, heard, but he could not react, speak or make a movement. Official medicine recorded the longest episode of lethargic sleep in Dnepropetrovsk. 34-year-old N. Lebedina went to bed after a family conflict, and woke up only after 20 years.

Examples of lethargic sleep can be found in literary works, such as: "Premature Burial" and "Sleeping Beauty". The earliest mention of lethargy is found in the Bible.

Lethargic sleep today remains a mysterious and poorly studied phenomenon. The reasons why subjects enter this state are unknown. Some people tend to look for reasons in magic or the intervention of something otherworldly. It is easier for people to blame supernatural forces or deny the possibility of existence when they do not understand something.

Causes of lethargic sleep

There are known cases of lethargic sleep that occurs after a person has suffered a serious shock or stress. Also, this condition can occur in people who are on the verge of serious nervous or physical exhaustion. More often, lethargy occurs in women with high emotionality, prone to. According to psychologists' theory, beautiful world oblivion awaits those with excessive emotionality. For them, a state of lethargy is a place where fears, stress and unresolved problems do not exist. Syndrome chronic fatigue can also be the cause of lethargy.

The described condition is also caused by some illnesses that injure the nervous system, for example, lethargic encephalitis. It is believed that lethargy is caused by the occurrence of a pronounced widespread and deep inhibitory process localized in the subcortex of the brain. The most common factors that give rise to the described condition include severe mental shock and severe exhaustion (for example, due to serious blood loss due to childbirth). In addition, you can artificially put the subject into a lethargic state by means of .

Symptoms and signs of lethargic sleep

The disorder in question has symptoms that are not varied. The individual is sleeping, but at the same time physiological processes, such as the need for food, water and others do not bother him. Metabolism during lethargy is reduced. Also, the person has a complete lack of response to external stimuli.

According to modern ideas, lethargy is serious illness, characterized by several clinical manifestations. Before falling into lethargic sleep, a person experiences a sudden inhibition of the functioning of organs and metabolic processes. Breathing becomes impossible to determine visually. In addition, the individual stops responding to noise or light effects, or to pain.

People who are in a lethargic state do not age. At the same time, after awakening, they quickly make up for their biological years.

Relatively conventionally, all cases of the described condition can be divided into mild lethargy and severe. It is quite difficult to distinguish between them, as well as to mark the moment of transition mild stage to heavy. It is known that in individuals who are in lethargic sleep, the ability of what is happening, analysis and memory function are preserved, but there is no ability to react to what is happening.

Mild forms of lethargy are characterized by immobility of the patient, even breathing, relaxed muscles, and a slight drop in temperature. The ability to swallow is preserved and chewing function, physiological functions are also preserved. This form reminiscent of normal deep sleep.

Features of the course of severe lethargy include: muscle hypotension, lack of response to external stimulation, pallor of the epidermis, decreased blood pressure, absence of individual reflexes, difficulty in feeling the pulse, strong drop in temperature, lack of need for nutrition and physiological functions, stoppage mental development, dehydration.

What is the difference between lethargic sleep and coma? The disorder in question and coma are two dangerous illness, often leading to death. Moreover, if an individual is in one of the described states, doctors are unable to provide a time frame for recovery or guarantees of recovery. This is where the similarity between these disorders ends.

Lethargy is a serious illness characterized by a slowdown in metabolism, loss of response to external stimuli, and light and difficult breathing. Similar condition may last for several decades.

Coma is an acute pathological condition characterized by absence, depression of vital functions nervous system, a malfunction in the functioning of the body (breathing disorder, circulatory disorders, abnormalities in metabolism occur). Duration of stay in this state impossible to install. It is also impossible to say with certainty whether an individual will regain consciousness or die.

The difference between the ailments under consideration is the way out of them. The individual comes out of lethargy on his own. He's just waking up. A person who has fallen into a lethargic sleep must be provided with parenteral feeding. It should be turned over, washed, and waste products removed in a timely manner. To bring patients out of coma it is necessary drug therapy, the use of special equipment and specific methods. If an individual who has fallen into a comatose state is not provided with timely resuscitation measures and life support is not ensured, then he will die.

An individual, while in lethargic sleep, breathes independently, even when breathing is imperceptible. At the same time, his body continues to function normally. In a comatose state, everything happens differently: the body’s vital functions are disrupted, as a result of which its functioning is ensured by special equipment.

Treatment of lethargic sleep

In order to distinguish lethargy from death, it is necessary to conduct an electrocardiography or electroencephalogram. The person's torso should also be carefully examined for injuries that clearly indicate incompatibility with life or obvious signs of death (rigor mortis). In addition, you can check for capillary bleeding using a small incision.

The therapeutic strategy must be purely individual. The violation in question does not imply hospitalization of the patient. It is enough if the individual is under the supervision of relatives. A person in a state of lethargy, first of all, should be provided with adequate living conditions in order to minimize the occurrence of side effects after awakening. Care involves placing the person in a ventilated and thoroughly cleaned separate room, parenteral feeding (or through a tube), hygiene procedures(the patient must be washed and anti-bedsore measures taken). It is also necessary to monitor temperature conditions. If it is cold indoors, a person should be covered. In hot weather, try to avoid overheating.

In addition, since there is a version that an individual in a lethargic sleep hears everything that is happening, it is recommended to talk to him. You can tell him about the events that happened during the day, read literature or sing songs. The main thing is to try to fill his existence with positive feelings.

If there is a significant decrease in blood pressure, injection of caffeine is indicated. Immunotherapy may sometimes be needed.

Due to the lack of complete information about etiological factor of the disease in question, it is impossible to develop a unified therapeutic strategy and preventive actions. The available data only allows us to understand that in order to avoid a state of lethargy, it is necessary to avoid exposure to stressors and strive for a healthy existence.

One of the most mysterious and unsolved mysteries of the human brain is lethargy or lethargic sleep. “The Sleeping Beauty” is just from this “opera”. But in fairy tales everything always ends well, but in real life the opposite is often true.

sleeping Beauty

When immersed in lethargy, all processes in the body slow down so much that it is easy to mistake him for dead. No breathing, no pulse, pale skin, external stimuli the sleeper does not react in any way, the body temperature drops to room temperature. For many days, the body of the sleeping person does not need either food or water. No wonder lethargic sleep has another name - imaginary death.

The most popular story related to lethargy began in 1898. Peasant V. Kachalkin from Altai fell asleep for two decades. He was placed in a hospital, and he lay motionless for all the years. The famous Russian physiologist I. P. Pavlov observed the patient.

In 1918, he wrote: “A 60-year-old man who had been lying in the hospital for 22 years like a real living corpse, without the slightest voluntary movement, without a single word... Last years began to make movements: now he gets out of bed... speaks a lot and intelligently... About the past he says that he understood everything that was happening around him, but he felt heaviness in his muscles and it was difficult to breathe. And this was the reason why he did not move, did not eat and did not speak. The disease began around age 35.”

This is stated by a sophisticated, world-famous medical professional. And here is what the famous American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe thinks about this: “To be buried alive is without a doubt one of the most terrible tortures ever befallen to a mortal. No one will deny that this happens often.”

This is an excerpt from the writer’s story “Premature Burial.” Further Edgar Allan Poe retells two true stories about those buried alive, which occurred in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The wife of a Baltimore lawyer fell ill with an unknown illness that has baffled doctors. The unfortunate woman wasted away day by day and died. She lay cold, without a pulse, with a motionless, extinct gaze. Death was imaginary, but neither loving husband, nor the relatives could determine this. Three days later, as expected, she was buried in the family crypt.

Three years have passed. Another relative died. The crypt was opened to place the coffin there. When the husband opened the door, the skeleton of his wife in a still undecayed shroud fell on him.

The police conducted a thorough investigation and found that the “deceased” woke up two days after the burial. At first she struggled in the coffin: it fell to the floor. Having climbed out of the split coffin, the woman, trying to attract attention, knocked its fragments on the iron door of the crypt. Completely weakened without food or water, she lost consciousness and, falling, caught her shroud on the door frame. In this position, the unfortunate woman died and decayed.

The second story is no less creepy than the first. The artillery officer rode around the horse, was thrown to the ground by it, hit his head on a stone and lost consciousness. The doctors bled him and took other measures, trying to bring the man to his senses, but everything was useless. The victim was considered dead and, after due date, buried.

It was summer and the weather was hot. Apparently, the gravediggers, tormented by the heat of the sun, did their work in bad faith and buried the coffin with the unfortunate man very carelessly.

Three days later another one came to the cemetery funeral procession. One of the mourners stood aside and suddenly felt that the ground was moving under him. He stepped aside in fear and called out to the people. The site was the grave of a recently buried officer. Taking shovels, they dug it up. The hole turned out to be shallow, somehow covered with soft earth.

The “dead man” was sitting in a coffin; the cover was torn off and lifted. After the man was taken to the hospital, he said that when he woke up, he even heard the footsteps of people above his head. Apparently the soil was so loose that air calmly flowed into the place of the artillery officer’s involuntary and terrible imprisonment.

There are also comic cases associated with lethargy. One of them took place in beautiful France in the eighties of the nineteenth century. In one of the rich houses, right at the table, the head of the family lost consciousness. They put him on the bed and called a doctor. He arrived, checked his pulse and breathing; the verdict was disappointing - a respected man, unfortunately, was dead.

Grieving relatives, already near the unburied body, squabbled over the inheritance. Veiled insults, barbs, and caustic remarks soon turned into market showdowns that shook the air in the room where another owner of a huge fortune lay untimely departed into the world. By the way, in the heat of battle he also got it.

But the most interesting thing happened in the church during the funeral service. The deceased “rose from the dead”: he sat down in the coffin, which shocked everyone present. One can only guess about what happens next. But most likely the new will of the owner of the family did not take long to arrive.

In our time, with modern level medicine, such punctures are practically impossible. No matter how deep the lethargic sleep is, a specialist can always determine whether a person has died or fallen into lethargy. After all, vital processes in the body do not stop.

The heart works, but does not contract sixty to eighty times per minute, but only two to three times. These contractions are very weak and barely noticeable. You can hardly feel your breathing, and a mirror brought to your mouth does not fog up. The body becomes cold because blood circulation is very slow. As a result, a person is in a state between life and death, but the brain, liver and other vital organs live, but only God knows when they will be able to fully restore their functions.

It is also of interest that during lethargy the entire human psyche is inhibited: the patient’s mental abilities do not develop, the intellect freezes at the age mark of the onset of sleep. Biological age also freezes in place. True, after “awakening” the aging process proceeds by leaps and bounds, and in a very short term passport age begins to be reflected on the faces of people emerging from lethargic sleep.

What causes lethargy? Why some of us are able to fall into a deep and serene (at first glance) sleep. Modern medicine names such a reason as the consequences of severe mental trauma. Lethargic sleep in this case acts as a special kind of self-defense. The body needs to survive a peak stressful situation, and it turns on defense mechanisms. Such dreams are usually short-lived and short-lived.

Another cause of lethargy - organic disease brain. Special shape Such sleep is observed in so-called catatonia, a neuropsychiatric disease that occurs in patients with schizophrenia.

No person is immune from stress and strong nervous experiences. There are indeed very “thick-skinned” people, but they also have their own “Achilles’ heel”, the defeat of which can lead to serious mental shock. So what happens - we are all potentially prone to lethargy?

Healthy people with a certain mindset can fall into lethargic sleep. If a person has a very vulnerable and easily excited psyche, increased suspiciousness, uncertainty in the near future, constant nervousness and obsessive black thoughts, then with a probability of one in a hundred thousand, imaginary death can be provoked by a continuous series of events that require enormous nervous tension.

An example of this is the image of the great Russian writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1952). There are persistent rumors that during the reburial of his body in 1931, when the coffin was opened, those present saw a strange picture: the body lay on its side, the head rested against the side wall, two fingers on right hand writer were broken, and on the coffin lid with inside there were old scratches.

Is this true or not? Most likely an invention of people who cannot live without sensations. But considering psychological picture great classic, we can say with an acceptable degree of confidence that Nikolai Vasilyevich could well be in that small percentage of people who are predisposed to lethargy.

His whole life is a constant tossing and doubting of a subtle creative nature. Having taken upon himself the impossible task of showing people the path to the ideal, the revival of the human spirit, through the power of words, he despairingly convinces himself that he is not succeeding. It seems to him that he is not convincing enough in his works, is not sincere enough, and is far from the truth of life.

The result is that in 1845 he burns the second volume of the Dead Souls manuscript. Then a few years psychological suffering and self-torture. Every day is spiritual torture for him: hopes, disappointments, doubts about the correctness of his ideas. Already on the verge of complete nervous exhaustion, on the night of February 11-12, 1852, Gogol burns the new edition of the second volume of “Dead Souls”, and on the morning of February 21 great writer dies.

Whether the death was imaginary or real - we will never know. Maybe the brain, exhausted from many years of internal struggle, asked for mercy and temporarily turned off all vital organs, plunging the classic into a saving lethargic sleep, or maybe the heart, undermined by continuous suffering, could not stand it and stopped. In any case, the finale came from incredible nervous overloads that could kill any person no worse than poison or a dagger.

Lethargy is directly related to the activity of the human brain, because its main task is to maintain our body in normal, working condition. If black destructive thoughts begin to dominate in the gray matter, then it is forced to save itself and all controlled organs by any means. Lethargic sleep is one of them.

And in conclusion, one cannot help but say that peace of mind, a calm, ironic attitude towards life will forever protect any of us from such unpleasant and little-studied disease like lethargy and they will give long years Have a happy and serene life on this beautiful earth.

The article was written by ridar-shakin

The first mentions of lethargy go back to ancient times. Myths and legends about the resurrection of the “dead” or those buried alive have been described many times in the literature. These stories are shrouded in an aura of mystery and mystical horror. Writers and science fiction writers wrote about lethargic sleep in their works. There is a mention of this mysterious human condition in A. Dumas’s novel “The Count of Monte Cristo.” The famous science fiction writer Herbert Wales in the work “When the Sleeper Awakens” “put to sleep” the main character for two hundred years, who, after the “resurrection”, began to rule the world.

Lethargic sleep, what is it - terrible disease or a mystical phenomenon?

According to legend, N.V. Gogol was buried during a lethargic sleep. During the exhumation of the writer in 1931, when the decision was made to move the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery, the Bolsheviks discovered an unusual position of the body and torn clothes. In addition to the legends and fantasies of writers, there are also officially confirmed cases of lethargic sleep. A fact is described when an English priest, having served a prayer service, plunged into lethargy for the next six days. The Guinness Book of Records records the fact of Nadezhda Artyomovna Lebedina’s lethargic sleep. A woman fell asleep in 1954 and slept for twenty years. After waking up N.A. Swan was declared absolutely healthy.

Today, scientists and ordinary people are asking the question: “What is lethargic sleep really?”

Signs of lethargy

The term lethargy has Greek roots and means lethe - “oblivion” and argia - “inaction”. According to modern concepts, lethargic sleep is a disease with characteristic clinical signs:

• A sharp slowdown in metabolism and internal organ functions.
• Breathing is not visually detected.
• Reactions to painful stimuli, other types external influence(sound, light) are absent or suppressed.
• The aging of the body slows down during sleep. After leaving pathological condition, a person quickly “catches up” with his biological age.

One glance at the list of symptoms of the disease is enough to understand that they are all a consequence of significant inhibition of metabolism. However, why does this happen? Medicine has not yet found a comprehensive answer to this question.

Reflections on the causes of “imaginary death”

It has been noted that lethargic sleep occurs more often after stressful situations

According to modern ideas, lethargic sleep has nothing to do with physiological sleep. Analysis of electroencephalograms of these states revealed interesting fact. It turned out that the biocurrents recorded during lethargy are identical to the electroencephalogram indicators characteristic of the waking state! Moreover, the brain of a person in lethargic sleep reacts to external stimuli.

Modern medicine tends to view lethargic sleep as extreme degree manifestations hysterical neurosis. For this reason, the most acceptable term is “hysterical lethargy.” The theory is confirmed by known facts:

• The condition occurs after a nervous shock. People suffering from hysteria exhibit an overly strong emotional reaction to even minor everyday difficulties.
• In the initial phase of the lethargic reaction, the activity of the sympathetic nervous system changes similar to the body's response to stress healthy person: increases arterial pressure, the work of the heart increases, body temperature and respiratory rate rise.
• According to statistics, lethargic sleep occurs more often in young women. This same social group predominantly susceptible to hysterical neuroses.

The connection between lethargic sleep and hysterical neurosis seems quite logical. But can it be said that medicine knows the cause of lethargy? Of course not. The underlying mechanisms of this disease have not been studied. To date, there is no comprehensive data on which structures and how are involved in the formation of this reaction of the body. “Blind spots” do not allow us to predict when and why attacks of lethargy occur. At the same time, people who have fallen into such a state more than once can predict its onset based on the “harbingers” characteristic of each individual case.

Theories and hypotheses

• It is believed that lethargic sleep is based on extreme “protective” inhibition in the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations after overexcitation in response to stress. This phenomenon was studied at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, a Russian physiologist who discovered many of the secrets of the central nervous system. In his research I.P. Pavlov showed that after exposure to a strong stimulus on a weak type of nervous system, protective mechanisms are first sharply activated, and then the dogs froze motionless, losing unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. The animals' functions were fully restored only after two weeks.
• Another point of view associates the development of lethargy with dysfunction of the aging gene. Autosomal recessive type inheritance of the trait explains why the disease is very rare.
• The infection theory states that lethargic sleep occurs when exposed to viral particles and bacteria. The role of the Spanish flu virus and diplococcus bacteria is considered. From the standpoint of the infectious theory, the characteristics of the immune system of individual individuals lead to the fact that the body’s “protective” cells “switch” to the pathogen and allow the infection to pass into the central nervous system, where inflammation develops.

Between life and death...

Interesting fact: in England, it is legal to have bells in the morgue so that a person waking up from a lethargic sleep can call for help. In Slovakia, a dead person is buried with a cell phone.

Drawing information about lethargic sleep from fiction and occult sources, people are often affected by the phobia of being buried alive and the fear of death. This condition, known as taphophobia, is quite common. However, the burial of living people in the 21st century is excluded for two reasons.

Taphophobia is a psychopathological fear of ending up in the grave as a result of an erroneous statement of death.

Reason 1

Hysterical sleep can occur in mild and severe forms. In the first case, despite significant depression of functions, signs of life are obvious. Immobility and decreased muscle tone develop against the background of even breathing.

At severe form In lethargic sleep, the depression of functions is so great that one may get the impression of death. It is very difficult to determine a person's pulse and detect breathing. Pale, cold skin and lack of pupillary reflex to the light. The person does not feel painful stimuli. In general, deep lethargic sleep simulating death is an extremely rare phenomenon and is easily identified by a doctor.

Reason 2

Modern medicine has sufficient arsenal means and knowledge to reliably ascertain death and distinguish it from lethargic sleep.

• Instrumental methods for assessing the function of internal organs make it possible to record cardiac biocurrents using an electrocardiogram and brain activity using electroencephalography.
• When examining a person, you can listen to heart sounds and use a mirror to detect breathing.
• A puncture or small cut in the fingertip during hysterical sleep will lead to capillary bleeding.

Currently, doctors have learned to distinguish lethargic sleep from real death.

Lethargic sleep does not pose a threat to human life, since all organ systems of the “asleep” continue to function. With prolonged lethargy there is a risk of exhaustion. Therefore, such people need artificial nutrition. After “awakening”, the functions of the internal organs are completely restored.

Elements of prevention

The lack of complete data on the cause of the disease does not provide grounds for the development of a unified concept for the treatment and prevention of lethargic sleep. However, the available data allows us to formulate a simple principle: avoid stress and strive for healthy image life!

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 the serious diseases with several clinical signs. Let's look at them in more detail:

1. Sudden slowdown in the functions of internal organs, as well as metabolism.
2. Breathing is not visually detected.
3. There is no or suppressed reaction to external stimuli (light, sound), pain.
4. 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 the extreme stage of hysterical neurosis. Therefore, the disease is also called “hysterical lethargy.” This theory is supported by several well-known facts:

1. Imaginary death occurs after severe nervous shock. After all, people prone to hysteria overreact even to the most trivial everyday problems.
2. 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. Blood pressure and body temperature rise, breathing rate and heart function increase.
3. 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 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 probability of burying a living person in modern world 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 with artificial nutrition. With proper care, even after a long sleep, all functions of the internal organs can be fully restored.

Lethargic sleep and coma: the difference

These diseases can be confused. But they are very different. A comatose state occurs due to physiological disturbances (severe injuries or trauma). The nervous system does not work at full strength, but vital activity is 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.

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, and there is almost no reaction to external stimuli.

How long can lethargic sleep last?

Lethargic sleep 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 at the modern level of 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 a 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.