Close to twenty percent of the people in these villages (there’s actually more than one) just keel over one day and sleep for a full day, a week, or more, and then awake feeling vaguely lousy, but certainly alive.
(“No big deal,” say the doctors, and thankfully “no one’s died from this.” “How can it not be a big deal?” ask Moms who see their kids fall into this scary, confusing syndrome, with no clear explanation, no end in sight.)
With the clusters of “sleepers” in certain villages, very geographically delineated, it’s a no-brainer to say that it must be something environmental. But what, pray tell?
The mines were open for years, and exposure to uranium may not be recommended for your health, but it didn’t produce sleepers. Scientists measuring this, measuring that, may not have come up with a clear answer even yet, but it’s not for want of trying. You can see them in some of the videos, scouring hill and dale.
It does seem like carbon monoxide levels are higher, among other things, and that crowds out oxygen. But everyone lives in the same place, breathes pretty much the same air.
Why do these environmental peculiarities affect a large minority of people severely, but others not at all? Those individual reactions to the same environmental stimuli are often the most intriguing mystery of all.
Over time the number of mini-docs on the subject increases, most saying pretty much the same thing as all the others. Below we recommend a slow-moving thing, almost a 27-minute investment, and what’s more you listen to the local Russian and have to read subtitles. Why this one?
We’re not trying to bore you to death–the video obviously is optional–but if you want a sense of life, on the ground, in a village in a remote part of the world, if you want some taste of the lives of the people, it brings you an intimate sense of what’s happened there.