Mysterious lethargic dream: interesting facts from around the world. What is lethargic sleep What causes lethargic sleep

One of the most mysterious and unsolved mysteries of the human brain is lethargy or lethargy. "Sleeping Beauty" is just from this "opera". But in fairy tales everything always ends well, but in real life it often happens the other way around.

sleeping Beauty

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

The most popular story related to lethargy began in 1898. The 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 Pavlov I.P. observed the patient.

In 1918, he wrote: “A man of 60 years old, 22 years old, lying in the hospital as a real living corpse, without the slightest voluntary movement, without a single word ... In recent years, he began to make movements: now he gets out of bed ... he talks a lot and intelligently ... He talks about the past that he understood everything that was happening around him, but he felt heaviness in his muscles and it was difficult to breathe. And that was the reason why he didn't move, didn't eat, and didn't talk. The disease began at about 35 years of age.

This is stated by a sophisticated medical professional with a worldwide reputation. 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 that has ever befallen a mortal. No one will deny that this happens often.

This is an excerpt from the writer's story "Premature Burial". Edgar Poe goes on to retell two true stories of the buried alive that took place in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The wife of a Baltimore lawyer fell ill with an incomprehensible illness that baffled doctors. The unfortunate withered day by day and died. She lay cold, without a pulse, with a motionless dull look. The death was imaginary, but neither the 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 has died. The crypt was opened to place the coffin there. When the husband opened the door, the skeleton of his wife fell on him in the still undecayed shroud.

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. Getting out of the split coffin, the woman, trying to attract attention, knocked his fragments on the iron door of the crypt. Completely weakened without food and water, she lost consciousness and, falling, caught her shroud on the door bracket. In this position, the unfortunate woman died and decayed.

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

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

Three days later, another funeral procession arrived at the cemetery. One of the mourners stood to one side and suddenly felt the ground moving under him. He took a frightened step to the side and called people. The place was the grave of a recently buried officer. They took shovels and dug it up. The pit turned out to be shallow, somehow covered with soft earth.

The "dead man" was sitting in a coffin; the lid was torn off and lifted up. After the man was taken to the hospital, he said that when he woke up, he even heard the steps of people above his head. Apparently, the soil was so loose that the air calmly entered the place of the involuntary and terrible imprisonment of an artillery officer.

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 the doctor. He arrived, checked the pulse, breathing; the verdict was disappointing - a respected person, unfortunately, is dead.

Grieving relatives, already near the unburied body, quarreled over the inheritance. Veiled insults, taunts, caustic remarks soon turned into bazaar showdowns that shook the air in the room where another owner of a huge fortune lay untimely gone into the world. By the way, in the heat of the battles, 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 in a coffin, which shocked everyone present. What happens next can only be guessed at. But most likely the new will of the owner of the family was not long in coming.

In our time, with the current level of medicine, such punctures are almost 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 it does not contract sixty or eighty times a minute, but only two or three times. These contractions are very weak and barely noticeable. Breathing is practically not felt, and the mirror brought to the mouth does not fog up. The body becomes cold as the 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 can fully restore their functions.

Of interest is the fact that with lethargy the entire human psyche slows down: the mental abilities of the patient do not develop, the intellect freezes at the age mark of the onset of sleep. Biological age also freezes in place. True, after the “awakening”, the aging process goes by leaps and bounds, and in a very short time, the passport age begins to be reflected on the faces of people who have come out of a lethargic sleep.

What causes lethargy? Why some of us are able to fall into a deep and serene (at first glance) sleep. Modern medicine calls such a cause 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 the peak stressful situation, and it includes defense mechanisms. Such dreams are usually short-lived and short-lived.

Another cause of lethargy - organic disease of the brain. A special form of such sleep is observed in the so-called catatonia, a neuropsychiatric disease that occurs in patients with schizophrenia.

Not a single person is immune from stress and strong nervous experiences. There are really very "thick-skinned" people, but they also have their own "Achilles heel", the defeat of which can lead to a serious mental shock. So what happens is that we are all potentially prone to lethargy?

Healthy people with a certain mindset can fall into a lethargic sleep. If a person has a very vulnerable and easily excited psyche, increased suspiciousness, uncertainty about the near future, constant nervousness and obsessive black thoughts, then with a probability of one in a hundred thousand, an 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 Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich (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 the writer’s right hand were broken, and on the coffin lid on the inside there were old scratches.

Is it true or not? Most likely an invention of people who cannot live without sensations. But given the psychological portrait of the great classic, it can be said with an acceptable degree of certainty that Nikolai Vasilyevich could well be in that small percentage of people who are predisposed to lethargy.

His whole life is constant throwing and doubts of a subtle creative nature. Having taken upon himself an overwhelming task through the power of the word to show people the way to the ideal, the revival of the human spirit, he desperately convinces himself that he is not succeeding. It seems to him that he is not convincing enough in his works, not sincere enough, far from the truth of life.

The result is that in 1845 he burns the second volume of the Dead Souls manuscript. Then several years of 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 a new edition of the second volume of Dead Souls, and on the morning of February 21, the 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 overload, which can 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 a 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. Lethargy is one of them.

And in conclusion, one cannot fail to say that peace of mind, a calm, ironic attitude to life will forever protect any of us from such an unpleasant and little-studied disease as lethargy and give many years of happy and serene life on this beautiful earth.

The article was written by ridar-shakin

Marina SARYCHEVA

“After severe suffering, death or a state that was considered death ... All the usual signs of death were found. His face was haggard, his features sharpened. Lips became whiter than marble. Eyes clouded. Rigor has come. The heart didn't beat. So she lay for three days, during which time her body became as hard as a stone.

You, of course, recognized the famous story of Edgar Allan Poe "Buried Alive"?

In the literature of the past, this plot - the burial of living people who fell into a lethargic sleep (translated as "imaginary death" or "little life") - was quite popular. Famous masters of the word addressed him more than once, describing with great drama the horror of awakening in a gloomy crypt or in a coffin. The state of lethargy for centuries has been shrouded in a halo of mysticism, mystery and horror. The fear of falling into a lethargic sleep and being buried alive was so common that many writers became hostages of their own consciousness and suffered from a psychological illness called taphophobia. Let's give some examples.

F. Petrarch. The famous Italian poet, who lived in the 14th century, fell seriously ill at the age of 40. Once he lost consciousness, he was considered dead and was about to be buried. Fortunately, the law of that time forbade burying the dead earlier than a day after death. The forerunner of the Renaissance woke up after a sleep that lasted 20 hours, practically near his grave. Much to the surprise of everyone present, he said that he felt great. After this incident, Petrarch lived for another 30 years, but all this time he experienced an incredible fear of the thought of being accidentally buried alive.

N.V. Gogol. The great writer was afraid that he would be buried alive. It must be said that the creator of Dead Souls had some grounds for this. The fact is that in his youth Gogol suffered malarial encephalitis. The disease made itself felt throughout life and was accompanied by deep fainting followed by sleep. Nikolai Vasilyevich was afraid that during one of these attacks he might be mistaken for the deceased and buried. In the last years of his life, he was so frightened that he preferred not to go to bed and slept sitting up so that his sleep would be more sensitive.

However, in May 1931, when the cemetery of the Danilov Monastery, where the great writer was buried, was destroyed in Moscow, during the exhumation, those present were horrified to find that Gogol's skull was turned to one side. However, modern scholars refute the reasons for the writer's lethargic sleep.

W. Collins. The famous English writer and playwright also suffered from taphophobia. According to relatives and friends of the author of the novel "Moonstone", he experienced torment of such a strong form that he left a "suicide note" on his table by the bed every night, in which he asked to make sure of his death by 100% and only then to give the body to burial.

M.I. Tsvetaeva. Before her suicide, the great Russian poetess left a letter with a request to carefully check whether she really died. Indeed, in recent years, her taphophobia has become very aggravated.

In total, Marina Ivanovna left three suicide notes: one of them was intended for her son, the second for Aseev, and the third for the “evacuees”, those who will bury her. It is noteworthy that the original note was not preserved by the "evacuees" - it was confiscated by the police as material evidence and then lost. The paradox lies in the fact that it contains a request to check whether Tsvetaeva has died and whether she is in a lethargic sleep. The text of the note “evacuated” is known from the list that was allowed to be made by the son.

Lethargic sleep is a condition in which a person becomes motionless, and all vital functions, although preserved, are noticeably reduced: the pulse and breathing become less frequent, the body temperature drops.

Patients with a mild form of lethargy look asleep - their heart beats at a normal rate, breathing remains even, only it is very difficult to wake them up. But severe forms are very similar to death - the heart beats at a speed of 2-3 beats per minute, the skin becomes pale and cold, breathing is not felt.

Buried alive

In 1772, the German Duke of Mecklenburg announced that it was forbidden to bury people in all his possessions earlier than three days after death. Soon a similar measure was adopted throughout Europe. The fact is that both the nobility and the representatives of the mob were very afraid of being buried alive.

Later, in the 19th century, coffin makers even began to develop special "safe coffins" in which a person buried by mistake could survive for some time and give a signal for help. The simplest design of such a coffin was a wooden box with a tube brought out. A priest visited the grave for several days after the funeral. His duty was to sniff at a pipe sticking out of the ground - in the absence of a smell of decomposition, the grave was supposed to be opened and checked whether the one who was buried in it was really dead. Sometimes a bell was hung from the pipe, with which a person could let know that he was alive.

More complex designs were provided with devices for supplying food and water. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, German doctor Adolf Gutsmon personally demonstrated his own invention. The extreme doctor was buried alive in a special coffin, where he was able to spend several hours and even dine on sausages and beer, which were served underground using a special device.

forget and fall asleep

But were there grounds for such fear? Unfortunately, cases when doctors took those who fell asleep in a lethargic sleep for the dead were not uncommon.

The victim of a "medical error" almost became a medieval poet Petrarch. The poet was seriously ill, and when he fell into a heavy oblivion, the doctors considered him dead. Petrarch woke up a day later, in the midst of preparations for the funeral, and he felt better than before he fell asleep. After this incident, he lived another 30 years.

Other cases of lethargy have also been described. For example, the famous Russian scientist, biologist Ivan Pavlov observed for many years peasant Kachalkin who overslept ... 22 years! Two decades later, Kachalkin came to his senses and said that while he was sleeping, he could hear the conversations of nurses and was partially aware of what was happening around him. A few weeks after his awakening, the man died of heart failure.

Other cases of lethargic sleep are described, and in the period from 1910 to 1930, almost an epidemic of lethargy began in Europe. Due to the increasing cases of lethargic sleep, people, as in the Middle Ages, began to be afraid of being buried by mistake. This condition is called taphophobia.

The fears of the great

The fear of being buried alive pursued not only ordinary people, but also famous personalities. Taphophobia suffered the first American President George Washington. He repeatedly asked his loved ones that the funeral take place no earlier than two days after his death. I experienced a similar fear poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel.

When the grave of the writer was opened for reburial, they found that the body was lying in a coffin in an unnatural position, with its head turned to one side. Similar cases of the position of the bodies were known before, and each time they suggested thoughts of being buried alive. However, modern experts have given this phenomenon a completely logical explanation. The fact is that the boards of the coffin rot unevenly, fail, which violates the position of the skeleton.

What is the reason?

But where does the lethargic dream come from? What causes the human body to fall into a state of deep oblivion? Some experts believe that lethargic sleep is caused by severe stress.

Allegedly, faced with an experience that the body cannot bear, it turns on a defensive reaction in the form of a lethargic sleep.

Another hypothesis suggests that lethargic sleep is caused by a virus unknown to science - this is precisely what explains the sudden increase in cases of lethargic sleep in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.
Scientists have discovered another interesting pattern - those who fell into lethargy were prone to frequent sore throats and suffered this disease shortly before they forgot about a heavy sleep. This gave impetus to the third version, according to which lethargic sleep is caused by a mutated staphylococcus that affected the brain tissue. However, which of these versions is correct, scientists have yet to figure out.

But the causes of some conditions similar to lethargic sleep are known. Too deep and prolonged sleep can occur in response to taking certain drugs, including antiviral agents, it is a consequence of certain forms of encephalitis and a sign of narcolepsy, a serious disease of the nervous system. Sometimes a state similar to true lethargy becomes a harbinger of coma with head injuries, severe poisoning and large blood loss.

Lethargic sleep is an unexplored problem. Some of those who fall into this state come back to life after some time, while others do not. I think this is due to diseases of the nervous system. And the main cause of this disease is stress.

Lethargic sleep is a special painful state of a person, reminiscent of deep sleep.

It is characterized by:

Lack of response to any external stimuli;
-complete immobility;
- a sharp slowdown in all vital processes.

As video films telling about lethargic sleep testify, a person can be in a state of lethargic sleep from several hours to several weeks, and in exceptional cases it can drag on for years. With the help of hypnosis it is also possible to achieve a state of lethargic sleep.

Causes of lethargic sleep

Studies have shown that the causes of lethargic sleep can be completely different. Most often, lethargy occurs in hysterical women. Severe emotional stress can also lead to lethargic sleep. There is a case when one young woman quarreled strongly with her husband, after which she fell asleep, and woke up only 20 years later. Also described are many cases of lethargy that arose after strong blows to the head, car accidents, stress from the loss of loved ones.
Studies by British scientists said that many patients suffered a sore throat before falling into a lethargic sleep, however, they did not receive official confirmation of the fact that bacteria were involved in this. But hypnosis can lead a person into a state of lethargy. Indian yogis, by meditating and using the technique of slowing the breath, are able to cause artificial lethargy in themselves.

Symptoms of lethargic sleep

The consciousness of a person in a state of lethargy is usually preserved, he is able to perceive and even remember the events around him, but he is not able to react in any way. This condition must be distinguished from narcolepsy and encephalitis. In the most severe cases, a picture of imaginary death is observed: the skin turns pale and cold, the reaction of the pupils to light stops, the pulse and breathing are difficult to determine, blood pressure drops, and even strong pain irritations do not cause a response. For several days, a person cannot eat or drink, the excretion of feces and urine stops, there is a sharp dehydration of the body and weight loss. In milder cases of lethargy, the breathing is even, the muscles relax, the eyes sometimes roll back and the eyelids twitch. But the ability to swallow and make chewing movements is preserved, and the perception of the environment can also be partially preserved. If feeding the patient is impossible, then it is done using a special probe.

The symptoms of lethargy are not very specific, and there are still many questions about their nature. Some doctors believe that the cause is a metabolic disorder, while others see here a kind of sleep pathology. The latest version became popular thanks to the research of the American Eugene Azerski, who noticed an interesting pattern: a person who is in the phase of slow sleep (orthodox) is completely motionless, and only half an hour later he can start tossing and turning and pronouncing words. If it is at this time (at the moment of REM sleep) that he is awakened, then the awakening will be very easy and fast, while the awakened one remembers everything that he dreamed of. This phenomenon was later explained by the fact that the activity of the nervous system in the phase of paradoxical sleep is very high. And varieties of lethargy most of all resemble the phase of superficial shallow sleep, so getting out of this state, people can describe in detail everything that happened around them.

If the immovable state lasted for a long time, then the person returns from it not without losses, having received vascular atrophy, bedsores, septic lesions of the bronchi and kidneys.

Phobias associated with lethargy

After watching videos and photolethargic sleep, many people also begin to experience the fear traditionally associated with lethargy - being buried alive.

In 1772, in several European countries, it was legally prescribed to bury the dead only on the third day after the declaration of death. It's funny that in America at the end of the 19th century, coffins were produced here and there, arranged so that the imaginary dead person, waking up there, could raise the alarm. There is a legend about Gogol's lethargic dream, although it is unreliable, but the fact that he, like other famous people (Nobel, Tsvetaeva, Schopenhauer) suffered from taphophobia is a historical fact, since in their notes they asked relatives not to hurry with the funeral.

How to distinguish lethargy from death?

A person in a state of lethargy does not react at all to the environment. Even if you pour melted wax or hot water on his skin, there will be no reaction, unless the patient's pupils react to pain. Under the influence of current, the muscles of the body are able to twitch, the electroencephalogram shows weak brain activity, and the ECG captures heart contractions.

Studies have shown that only a short time the brain of a patient with lethargy is in a sleeping state, and the rest of the time it is awake and perceives signals from noise, light, pain, heat, but does not give response commands to the body.

Known Cases of Lethargic Sleep

Especially often, cases of lethargic sleep occurred during and after the First World War, when an epidemic of lethargy was observed, and many soldiers and residents of front-line European cities fell asleep and could not wake up. Then the epidemic grew into a pandemic.

A nineteen-year-old Argentine woman, having learned that her idol, President Kennedy, had been killed, switched off for seven years.

A similar story happened to one major Indian official who was removed from office for unknown reasons. Without waiting for clarification of circumstances, the official fell into lethargy, in which he remained for seven years. Fortunately, he was properly cared for: food through tubes inserted into the nostrils, constant turning of the body to avoid bedsores, body massage, therefore, it is possible that in such conditions he would have slept longer, but malaria intervened. On the first day after infection, his body temperature jumped to 40 degrees, but the next day it dropped to 35 degrees. On this day, the former official was able to move his fingers, then opened his eyes, and a month later he turned his head and could sit on his own. His sight returned to him only six months later, and he was able to completely throw off his lethargy in a year, and after another six years he was 70 years old.

The great Italian poet of the 14th century, Francesco Petrarca, after a serious illness, fell into a state of lethargy for several days. Since he did not show any signs of life, he was considered dead. The poet was lucky that he managed to wake up literally at the edge of the grave at the time of the funeral ceremony. But he was then only 40 years old, after which he was able to live and create for another thirty.

One milkmaid from the Ulyanovsk region, after the arrest of her husband, immediately after the wedding, attacks of lethargy began, which were repeated periodically. She was afraid of not being able to raise a child alone and had an abortion with a healer. Since abortion was banned in those years, and the neighbors found out about him, they denounced her, as a result of which the milkmaid was exiled to Siberia, where she had her first attack. The guards thought she was dead, but the doctor who examined her was able to diagnose lethargy. He attributed this to the body's reaction to hard work and experienced stress. When the milkmaid was able to return to her native village, she began working on the farm again, and bouts of lethargy began to overtake her everywhere: at work, in the store, in the club. Accustomed to these oddities, the villagers got used to them and with each new case they simply took her to the hospital.

A unique case took place in Norway, where, after a difficult birth, one Norwegian woman fell into a state of lethargy, in which she remained for 22 years. Her body has ceased to age over the years, likening a sleeping fairy-tale beauty. After waking up, she lost her memory, and next to her, instead of a tiny daughter, she found an adult girl, almost the same age. Unfortunately, the awakened woman immediately began to age rapidly and lived only five years.

One of the longest lethargic dreams occurred with a 34-year-old Russian woman who quarreled with her husband. In shock, she fell asleep and woke up only 20 years later, which is even noted in the Guinness Book of Records.

As for Gogol, around his exhumation there were only vague and contradictory rumors about his missing or turned skull.

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Lethargic sleep is a deviation, a specific condition, similar in external signs to deep sleep. At the same time, the subject, who has fallen into lethargy, does not show reactions to stimuli from the outside. This state is reminiscent of a coma. All vital indicators are preserved, but it is impossible to wake a person. In a severe manifestation, an imaginary death may occur, characterized by a drop in body temperature, a slowing of the heartbeat and the disappearance of respiratory movements. Today, the concept under consideration is considered a fictional state, mainly described in artistic creations and differing from coma in the preservation of the vital functions of organs. However, it has long been no secret that the body of human individuals cannot do without drinking for a long period. That is why maintaining life in a protracted unconscious state is impossible without medical help.

An individual in the described state is immobilized, 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, the heartbeat is also barely perceptible.

The term "lethargy" itself came into use from Latin. Leta means oblivion. This word is familiar to many from the mythological works of antiquity, where the kingdom of the dead and the river Lethe flowing in it are mentioned. According to the legends, the deceased, who drank the water from this source, forget everything that happened to them in worldly life. The word "argy" means "stupefaction". In history, cases of lethargic sleep were known, so in antiquity it was irrational to be buried alive.

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

In the 19th century, master undertakers developed special "safe" coffins that allowed a person mistakenly buried to live for a while and even signal their own awakening. So, for example, most often they brought a pipe from 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, a cadaverous smell was supposed to come out through such a tube 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, in most European countries, many ways have been developed to avoid burying a person alive. For example, in Slovakia, a telephone is placed 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 the UK uses a bell for this purpose.

Examples of lethargic sleep were considered and studied by the physiologist I. Pavlov. 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, say 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 also 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 understood phenomenon. The reasons for the subjects entering such a 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 cases of lethargic sleep that occur after a person has suffered a serious severe shock, 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 the theory of psychologists, a wonderful world of oblivion awaits people with excessive emotionality. For them, the state of lethargy is a place where fears, stresses and unresolved problems do not exist. Chronic fatigue syndrome can also cause lethargy.

Some ailments that injure the nervous system, for example, lethargic encephalitis, also lead to the described condition. It is believed that lethargy is due to 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 shocks, severe exhaustion (for example, due to serious blood loss due to childbirth). In addition, it is possible to artificially introduce the subject into a lethargic state by means of .

Symptoms and signs of lethargic sleep

In this disorder, the symptoms are not characterized by diversity. The individual sleeps, but at the same time, physiological processes, such as the need for food, water, and others, do not disturb him. Metabolism in lethargy is reduced. Also, a person completely lacks a response to stimuli from the outside.

In accordance with modern concepts, lethargy is a serious ailment characterized by several clinical manifestations. In humans, before falling into a lethargic sleep, there is a sudden inhibition of the functioning of organs and metabolic processes. Breathing becomes visually impossible to determine. In addition, the individual ceases to respond to noise or light effects, to pain.

People who are lethargic do not age. At the same time, after waking up, they are rapidly making up for their biological years.

Relatively conditionally, 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 note the moment of transition from an easy stage to a severe one. It is known that in individuals who are in a lethargic sleep, the ability of what is happening, analysis and memory function are preserved, but there is no opportunity 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 and chewing function is preserved, physiological functions are also preserved. This form resembles a normal deep sleep.

The features of the course of a severe form of lethargy include: muscle hypotension, lack of response to stimulation from the outside, pallor of the epidermis, lowering blood pressure, lack of individual reflexes, difficulty in feeling the pulse, a strong drop in temperature, lack of need for nutrition and physiological functions, mental retardation, body dehydration.

What is the difference between lethargic sleep and coma? The violation in question and coma are two dangerous ailments, often leading to death. At the same time, if an individual is in one of the described states, doctors are unable to provide deadlines for getting out of them, guarantees of recovery. This is where the similarity of these disorders ends.

Lethargy is a serious ailment characterized by a slowdown in metabolism, the disappearance of response to external stimuli, light and difficult breathing. This state can be observed for several decades.

Coma is an acute pathological condition characterized by the absence, inhibition of the vital activity of the nervous system, a malfunction in the functioning of the body (respiratory distress occurs, circulatory disorders, deviations in metabolism). The length of stay in this state cannot be determined. It is also impossible to say with certainty whether an individual will come to consciousness or die.

The difference between the ailments under consideration is the way out of them. The individual emerges from lethargy on his own. He just wakes up. Fell into a lethargic sleep, it is necessary to provide parenteral feeding. It should be turned over, washed, and the waste products should be eliminated in a timely manner. To bring patients out of a coma, drug therapy, the use of special equipment and specific methods are required. If an individual who has fallen into a coma is not given timely resuscitation and life support is not provided, then he will die.

An individual, while in a lethargic sleep, breathes on his own, even when breathing is imperceptible. At the same time, his body continues to function normally. In a coma, everything happens differently: the vital activity of the body is disrupted, as a result of which its functioning is ensured by special equipment.

Treatment for lethargic sleep

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

The therapeutic strategy should be strictly individual. The violation in question does not involve hospitalization of the patient. It is enough if the individual is under the supervision of relatives. A person who is 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 waking up. Care involves placing a person in a ventilated and carefully cleaned separate room, parenteral feeding (or through a tube), hygiene procedures (the patient must be washed, anti-decubitus measures should be taken). It is also necessary to monitor the temperature regime. When the room is cold, a person should be covered. In hot weather, try not to overheat.

In addition, since there is a version that an individual who is in a lethargic dream hears everything that happens, 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 sensations.

With a pronounced decrease in blood pressure, injection of caffeine is indicated. Sometimes immunotherapy may be required.

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

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and cannot replace professional advice and qualified medical assistance. At the slightest suspicion of the presence of this disease, be sure to consult a doctor!