Post by hi224 on Apr 22, 2019 6:17:17 GMT
The Kazakhstan 'Sleep Hollow' mystery
Kalachi is a rural locality in Esil District of Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. In 2014, it was reported that almost a fifth of the population had been affected with a 'sleep syndrome' otherwise referred to as Sleep Hollow Disease.
Sleep Hollow is a possible medical disease in humans causing them to sleep for days or weeks at a time. This disease has only been reported in the remote villages of Kalachi, nearby ghost town of Krasnogorsk and nowhere else on earth.
The first person to fall ill was a middle-aged woman called Lyubov Belkova. She was working at a market in April 2010 when she was suddenly overcome with an intense drowsiness. Four days later, she woke up in a hospital where she was told she had had a stroke. Soon afterward, several others were struck by this strange "sleeping sickness". One time, five women fell ill all at once. Misha Plyukhin, a child, saw hallucinations. There was even an incident involving an animal, Marquis the Cat, who was affected by a "foolishness" before he fell asleep and started snoring "like a man".
It was first reported on by international media in March, 2013 and so far 152 victims of the town's population of 680 have been affected. The disease is probably non-communicable as those who have studied the population have not suffered the symptoms. The disease disappeared for some time but has re-emerged in mid 2015. The disease affects all age groups and genders.
Other than excessive sleep, the disease causes vomiting, hallucination, nausea and disorientation. Victims of the disease often feel hallucinations described like a "snail walking over their face". Some described visions of monsters or extremely realistic but terrifying nightmares. In a statement, a professor from Tomsk Polytechnic University, Leonid Rikhvanov, of the department of Geo-ecology and Geo-chemistry said that radon gas from a nearby mine could be the cause of the symptoms.
The victims fall asleep during day-to-day activities and always feel sleepy regardless of sleep. One of the doctors studying the victims said, "You wake them up, they can speak to you, reply to you, but as soon as you stop talking and ask what bothers them, they just want to sleep, sleep, sleep." Medical specialists still argue whether the case is an actual diagnosable medical illness such as something in the water supply, food or air, while others argue it is psychiatric in nature like an episode of Mass Hysteria.
Kazakh officials have given their report about the disease stating that carbon monoxide, along with other hydrocarbons as a result of a flood around the abandoned Soviet-era uranium mine nearby is causing Sleep Hollow, by spreading through the village's air.
This explanation has been disputed by international bodies and the villagers themselves as villages nearer to the mine have suffered no ill effects. Also the release of large volumes of Carbon Monoxide would only occur if the mines were still active which they have not been since the early 1990's.
Since this announcement in 2015 the wider world media has lost interest in Kalachi and it's sleep problems, it is not clear as of 2019 if the villagers are still experiencing these symptoms however the last reports in 2018 suggested over half the villagers planned to move away.
Wikipedia link
Kalachi is a rural locality in Esil District of Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. In 2014, it was reported that almost a fifth of the population had been affected with a 'sleep syndrome' otherwise referred to as Sleep Hollow Disease.
Sleep Hollow is a possible medical disease in humans causing them to sleep for days or weeks at a time. This disease has only been reported in the remote villages of Kalachi, nearby ghost town of Krasnogorsk and nowhere else on earth.
The first person to fall ill was a middle-aged woman called Lyubov Belkova. She was working at a market in April 2010 when she was suddenly overcome with an intense drowsiness. Four days later, she woke up in a hospital where she was told she had had a stroke. Soon afterward, several others were struck by this strange "sleeping sickness". One time, five women fell ill all at once. Misha Plyukhin, a child, saw hallucinations. There was even an incident involving an animal, Marquis the Cat, who was affected by a "foolishness" before he fell asleep and started snoring "like a man".
It was first reported on by international media in March, 2013 and so far 152 victims of the town's population of 680 have been affected. The disease is probably non-communicable as those who have studied the population have not suffered the symptoms. The disease disappeared for some time but has re-emerged in mid 2015. The disease affects all age groups and genders.
Other than excessive sleep, the disease causes vomiting, hallucination, nausea and disorientation. Victims of the disease often feel hallucinations described like a "snail walking over their face". Some described visions of monsters or extremely realistic but terrifying nightmares. In a statement, a professor from Tomsk Polytechnic University, Leonid Rikhvanov, of the department of Geo-ecology and Geo-chemistry said that radon gas from a nearby mine could be the cause of the symptoms.
The victims fall asleep during day-to-day activities and always feel sleepy regardless of sleep. One of the doctors studying the victims said, "You wake them up, they can speak to you, reply to you, but as soon as you stop talking and ask what bothers them, they just want to sleep, sleep, sleep." Medical specialists still argue whether the case is an actual diagnosable medical illness such as something in the water supply, food or air, while others argue it is psychiatric in nature like an episode of Mass Hysteria.
Kazakh officials have given their report about the disease stating that carbon monoxide, along with other hydrocarbons as a result of a flood around the abandoned Soviet-era uranium mine nearby is causing Sleep Hollow, by spreading through the village's air.
This explanation has been disputed by international bodies and the villagers themselves as villages nearer to the mine have suffered no ill effects. Also the release of large volumes of Carbon Monoxide would only occur if the mines were still active which they have not been since the early 1990's.
Since this announcement in 2015 the wider world media has lost interest in Kalachi and it's sleep problems, it is not clear as of 2019 if the villagers are still experiencing these symptoms however the last reports in 2018 suggested over half the villagers planned to move away.
Wikipedia link