RUSSIAN DREAM EXPERIMENT: HISTORY, DATA, TRUTH OR LEGEND? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Russian sleep experiment, also known as "Orange Soda" in social networks, is an alleged investigation that would have been carried out in the 40s in Russia on the effects of lack of sleep on the human body.

Despite having become extremely popular on the Internet and many people think it is real, the story was first published on a page dedicated to fictional stories.

Image that went viral about the Russian experiment. They probably used the Photoshop image editing program and it's fake

According to the story of the Russian sleep experiment, several Russian researchers kept five people awake for 15 days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. The participants (who were prisoners of war) remained locked in a sealed environment from which their reactions could be observed.

Because closed-circuit cameras did not yet exist in the 1940s, the account says that researchers had to use microphones and small windows to observe what was happening with the subjects of the experiment. Although at first everything seemed to be going well, eventually the participants gradually lost their sanity; and soon after, life.

The story of the Russian sleep experiment has become one of the most widespread urban legends throughout the world. Although it is not based on real events, many people have believed at some point in its truth. Due to its popularity, novels and films based on it have been published.

History in social networks

The story known as "Orange Soda", and later as "The Russian Sleep Experiment," first appeared on a website called "Creepypasta." This portal is dedicated to fictional stories intended to make readers uncomfortable. This particular story is considered to be the most popular of all those posted on the page.

According to the account, after the Second World War, five prisoners who were considered enemies of the Soviet Union were given the opportunity to regain their freedom if they agreed to undergo an experiment. During it, they would have to stay awake for 30 days, using a special gas that would serve as a stimulant.

At this time, the prisoners would remain inside a closed room that would only communicate with the outside through microphones installed inside, as well as through small windows with armored glass through which the scientists could observe the interior.

The room itself would have been stocked with books, mattresses that the prisoners could lie on, running water, a bathroom, and enough food that the five of them could survive for more than a month without any problems. At all times, the scientists would be watching the participants to see what happened.

First days

Experiment subjects

According to the story, no incidents occurred during the first five days. The experiment participants, despite not being able to sleep, were still in a normal state of mind. The scientists observed that they talked to each other and ignored the microphones; although from the fourth day they realized that their conversations were becoming increasingly dark.

However, from the fifth day the participants stopped talking to each other and began whispering into the microphones, trying to gain the trust of the experimenters by revealing the secrets of their peers. From this moment they began to show severe paranoia, and to complain about their circumstances, saying that they had been deceived.

Strange events begin

But everything began to go wrong from the ninth day of captivity. The story of the Russian sleep experiment claims that suddenly one of the participants started running around the room screaming with all the force of which he was capable. After three hours, he suddenly fell silent, though he kept trying to make sounds. Scientists thought his vocal cords had been broken due to exertion.

However, the strangest thing was that the other four subjects did not react in any way to the screams of their partner: they kept whispering into the microphones. Shortly after, another of the captives began to scream as well, and the three remaining tore the pages from the books they were reading and pasted them on the windows of the room using their own feces.

For the next three days, both the screaming and the whispering had completely stopped. The experimenters thought the microphones might have broken, as oxygen levels in the room indicated that five people were still alive inside.

On day 14 of the experiment, they decided to try to provoke a reaction in the captives, since they could not observe anything that was happening inside. Through the microphones, they indicated that they were going to open the door, and that they should lie on the ground or they would be shot. If they did, one of them would be released immediately. However, a voice replied that they no longer had an interest in regaining their freedom.

Inside the chamber

After debating it for a while, the researchers decided to open the room and extract the captives from it. On day 15 of the experiment, they removed the gas from the chamber and replaced it with clean air; But immediately, three of the participants began to beg for gas back. Ignoring their voices, the scientists sent a team of soldiers inside to find out what had happened.

When the soldiers entered, they discovered to their horror that four of the five captives were still alive; but they were in a much worse state than death. Large chunks of their own skin and meat had been ripped off, which they had been feeding on all this time. The food they had left inside was intact.

As soon as the soldiers entered the chamber, the subjects began to attack them fiercely, demanding that they re-inject the gas inside to prevent them from falling asleep again. Several of the Russian soldiers lost their lives in the operation, and some more committed suicide in the following weeks because of what they had seen.

One of the subjects who remained alive died during the assault on the chamber due to a wound; but the soldiers managed to capture the other three and extract them from there to study what had happened.

Assumed data from the experiment

Investigations with the subjects allegedly revealed very strange data. All of them were immune to sedatives, to the point that one could endure a dose of morphine ten times greater than what an adult human would need to sleep. When he was able to sleep using another type of anesthesia, he died the moment he closed his eyes.

During the entire time it took him to fall asleep, the subject was fighting against the straps that held him; and after his death, it was found that the strength of his muscles had been enough to break a large number of his bones. Furthermore, his heart was beating with much greater force than normal, and his blood apparently had a higher amount of oxygen than usual.

Later, the scientists tried to operate on the remaining participants to prevent them from dying. Because they could not sleep, they operated on without anesthesia; and every time a surgical instrument cut their skin, the subjects laughed and asked for more damage. When one of them was asked why they had injured themselves, the answer was simply that they had to stay awake at all costs.

The end of the experiment

The leaders of the secret base where the operation was taking place wanted the three subjects who were still alive in the chamber to be locked up again and the gas turned on again. However, one of them died before he could be brought into the room, falling asleep.

When everything was being prepared to continue with the experiment, one of the soldiers who had entered the chamber for the first time broke into it and shot one of the two subjects that were left alive. While aiming at the last one, he asked what exactly it was.

The subject, in a calm and apparently lucid voice, told him that it was nothing more than the horror that lives in the back of the minds of all people, and that only the dream is capable of keeping at bay. Upon hearing this, the soldier shot him in the heart; and while dying, the last subject said the following words: "So close to freedom…".

Truth or urban legend?

Although many people believe that the Russian dream experiment really happened after World War II, the truth is that the story is nothing more than an extremely popular fictional account that first appeared on a website dedicated to scary tales.

However, the story has gone viral since its publication, and a novel and movie based on it have even been released.