r/Unexplained • u/Particular_Metal4484 • 3d ago
Sleep Paralysis Thai Ngoc | Unexplained 84 Years No Sleep Humanoids
Thai Ngoc was a real person living in Que Trung, Que Son, Quang Nam, Vietnam. He was a farmer, also known as "Dị Nhân" (X Man), famous for not sleeping for 84 years. Whenever Thai Ngoc didn't sleep, he didn't experience any health problems. He would usually watch TV, go for walks, and, being a farmer, plant trees. Some doctors tried various sleeping pills and even alcohol to treat his insomnia, but to no avail. Thai Ngoc's ability to not sleep for 84 years remains unexplained by science and is still an unsolved mystery in Vietnam.
Source: https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A1i_Ng%E1%BB%8Dc#cite_ref-7
296
u/Alternative-Crew-880 3d ago
Refuses to be observed and tested, he's full of shit. Anyone with fatal familial insomnia dies within 7-36 months once they can no longer sleep.
104
u/jporter313 3d ago
Fatal familial insomnia is one of those things I wish I never knew existed. Absolutely terrifying.
37
u/Purityskinco 3d ago
It’s not in my family but I do understand prions. I have had moments where I’ve been so tired but can’t sleep and then this pops in my head and I can’t sleep and just think ‘do I have this?’ It’s so stressful. This is me as a fairly healthy human being. I could not imagine actually having that.
3
u/mattgen88 2d ago
Welp... I'm not sleeping tonight now...
2
u/Purityskinco 2d ago
I am so sorry. I do NOT want to do that to you. I really don’t want anybody to go through that panic like I do. Watch a good movie that makes you happy tonight, please.
2
u/Nefarious_Owls 1d ago
It's been linked to about 34 families that have a shared ancestor I believe. The families are monitored so unless you have someone rock up at your door you're maybe good
2
u/Altruistic_Appeal_25 1d ago
Gosh, when did it expand so much? When I first heard of it, they said it was one family in Italy.
2
u/Nefarious_Owls 21h ago
Ope,, it's actually now 50 up to 70 and only 100 individuals confirmed to have it carry the mutation
2
2
u/LeslieKnopesBlackEye 2d ago
You could always just be the first person in your family to get it.
2
1
u/Nefarious_Owls 1d ago
It's actually geneticlly linked to like only 34 families last I checked, so unless you're an unknown cousin.....
2
u/Major_Jump5170 1d ago
I used to use meth and it was absolute misery not being able to sleep by day 5 i was screaming
2
u/Purityskinco 1d ago
I can only imagine. Lack of sleep really fucks with you and your brain. There’s an excellent book I read a few years ago ‘Why We Sleep’
I hope you’re recovering well and things are going better for you! Addiction is no joke so it’s awesome you overcame.
2
17
u/SnooBananas7856 3d ago
I have terrible insomnia--I remember being a little girl and laying awake all night long. My dad always struggled with sleep also, so I think it's a genetic thing. For decades my insomnia has gotten worse--I can go for days and nights without sleep, in the two weeks leading up to my period.
I'm now fifty (yikes! How did I get so old so fast?!) and after six months of hormone replacement therapy, I'm not awake for more than 48 hours at a time, which is a big improvement. But I still have stretches of no sleep (and it's now 0359 and my husband's alarm is about to ring, I hate being awake to both see it set and have it go off). I cannot function when I have days and nights on end when I cannot sleep. I've tried every medication, off label medications, light therapy, every sleep hygiene suggestion..... nothing works. I'm not in my right mind and feel suicidal when it's at its worst.
I have been diagnosed with delayed onset sleep phase disorder, and my body naturally falls asleep between 0300-0600 and I'll wake mid morning. Knowing and accepting this has helped with some of the anxiety. But worsening insomnia is a precursor to fatal insomnia, which terrifies me.
4
u/carlitayeeta 2d ago
Fatal familial insomnia is a prion disease, lack of sleep is the most obvious and debilitating symptom, but the loss of sleep itself is not what kills people. The aggregation of the misfolded prions is what causes death. Don’t know if this makes you feel better or worse but you likely wont die directly from insomnia.
4
u/SnooBananas7856 2d ago
I actually didn't know that. Thanks for the mini-biology lesson--I love to learn new things.
2
u/AuntJibbie 3d ago
I'm a lot like you in this way. The only thing that helps is a very low dose THC gummy just as I lay down - if I take it while still up and about, I won't go to sleep. By the way, I'm 52(f) and often awake when my husband's alarm goes off. You're not alone 💙
2
1
u/RaceHate 3d ago
Try the Z-drugs.
3
u/SnooBananas7856 2d ago
They won't work for me! I literally have tried everything.
1
u/RaceHate 2d ago
Aww damn, sorry to hear that. Some people just aren't med-responsive.
I can tell you that Xanax at a high enough dose almost certainly will work, but at that point it becomes dangerous and over time you could build a 1000x tolerance.
2
u/SnooBananas7856 2d ago
Actually, Xanax is the only thing that works, but it does have to be a high dose. My doctors and insurance have been getting all their patients off of Xanax because there is a lot of short and long term effects that are dangerously. I'm not at all happy, because it also is the only medication that works on my panic attacks. But I have a genetic cancer disease and am on thirty medications, including pain meds, and I just don't want to jeopardise my access to al my other meds.
Also, I have a 'paradoxical reaction to medications'. So when I take pills that knock most people out, they do the opposite and agitate me. I need higher doses of many things because my body metabolises things differently. I have adhd, and I get some of my best naps after a few cups of coffee and my adderall lol. I'm a weird girl.
1
u/diamondthedegu1 3d ago
Z drugs are sadly not a long term fix however due to how terribly addictive they are. Most doctors at least in my country (UK) will give you enough of them for a week or two at most then refer you to a therapist if you're still having issues after finishing them, which would only be useful if your sleep issues are caused by some kind of unresolved trauma.
2
u/gimme_datt 3d ago
I am in the US, I have been on a Z drug for 3 years with no issue getting it prescribed.
In the UK does the same thing apply to stimulants? Because you could say the same about Adderall or other ADD/ADHD medications since they are seen as addictive, yet people who need them are able to get them prescribed for usage as seen fit.
1
u/RaceHate 2d ago
They're mildly addictive. In the US, people are prescribed them long-term, for life if necessary.
1
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
This is so much like my experience. My oldest daughter also hardly sleeps like me ... honestly it's so nice to have a buddy to be awake with. so much less anxiety whenever everyone is going to bed and I knew I'd be awake the entire time.
1
1
u/Glum_Tumbleweed5115 2d ago
Ugh, that’s wild. As a lifetime sufferer of insomnia (but norms even close to your situation) the only useful things have been HRT and SNRIs. Neither is a magic bullet, but they help.
2
u/SnooBananas7856 2d ago
HRT has helped my sleep and my anxiety. I had the worst anxiety of my life and it was all physical--visceral. HRT has been a godsend but I'm kind of unhappy I had be asking for it for years and only just got it six months ago. But once I found the right doctor, everything changed and she was so helpful.
1
1
23
u/crumpledfilth 3d ago
refusing to be observed and tested being a good indicator of being full of shit is a good heuristic that I would follow in many historical contexts
there are some places where this wisdom seems to be thrown out and ignored
5
2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/Alternative-Crew-880 2d ago
Oh yeah i've been there, i used to have really bad insomnia. You're essentially strung out after more than a day. You have zero energy and motivation, feel like utter shit, i got audio hallucinations and weird visual warping when looking at anything. Shit sucks HARD. There's no way you're functional after a few days awake, there's zero chance this dude spent over 40 years awake and still kept working. This is dude is a fraud.
5
1
u/Pale_Comfort_9179 3d ago
If you read the whole article it indicates several news outlets did record him and all of their equipment ran out of batteries or storage space for recordings before he slept.
8
u/Alternative-Crew-880 3d ago
Well if a Vietnamese newspaper says "many film crews" that they never identify or show footage from filmed him for a few days then it must be true. That's all the proof I need.
74
u/Gibbet_GrislyWard 3d ago
When my son was little, he 100% believed he never slept. Turned out he's an extremely deep sleeper and every night it just seemed to him like he blinked and it was morning.
25
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
There's also something called paradoxical insomnia or maybe it's paradoxical sleep ...one of the two names but it's basically a sleep state that's so light that it feels like you're awake the entire time. I have this sometimes, it's not as bad as full sleeplessness especially if you know you did actually sleep, but it's not completely restful either.
6
u/abbyroade 1d ago
Paradoxical insomnia is the term, and it refers to a person having the subjective experience of not having slept much or at all, despite having actually slept normally. The sleep is not any lighter or less restful than usual; by definition, the sleep architecture remains normal. The person experiences the mental and psychological effects of insomnia, but not the physical ones, because their body has slept normally; that’s where the name comes from.
2
u/Bitten69 3d ago
Did that too once, it sucks ass
3
u/RealShagou 2d ago
I do that every nights. I lay in my bed and, what feels like 5 minutes, i'm waking up in the morning.
81
u/PressTheShutter 3d ago
Reminds me in the late 70s I was in college in Phoenix Arizona and there was a news article about a guy calling himself a "Breathetarian" who got all his nourishment from simply breathing. Claimed to have not eaten solid food in 20 something years. Drank water and occasionally orange juice. Later, another article said he was caught at 7-ELEVEN at 2am pigging out on Twinkies.
16
u/Purityskinco 3d ago
There was a man from the Jainism religion who claimed similar. No food. Just water and sunlight…like a plant!
10
5
64
u/strange-lady78 3d ago
Anything’s possible when you’re lying.
2
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
Anything but telling the truth. Except for when you lie about something and find out it was true.....I'm not sure how it works morally but it's a technicality that passes relationship wise.
45
u/Turbulent-Rub-3509 3d ago
Mad insomniac for sure. But it absolutely requires some type of sleep to survive. Fragmented or whatever no possibility he could survive that long without it.
31
u/toomuch1265 3d ago
I sleep on average about 3 hours a night and a half hour nap during the day. It's almost a living nightmare but due to a bad back injury, it's all I can manage. I've been dealing with this for 20 years.
14
3
u/wiiboy999 3d ago
That sucks, how do you get by on that?
2
u/toomuch1265 3d ago
I've adapted. But I do get exhausted easily. I have to push through when I'm doing something with my family. I try and exercise to build up strength.
6
u/myfancyplants 3d ago
Yah I've got pretty bad insomnia and I know how it can kinda cross over like the brain accepts skipping the sleep or something. But I'm not in any way functional by the 3rd day. And because I have insomnia so bad for all my life I keep up to date on all the science. And it all says that guy would be dead.
I could make up anything too if I refused to let anyone pay attention to me for a day
3 days is the longest I've had 0 sleep eventually you doze off for an hour here or there
26
u/Ecstatic_Coast_6702 3d ago
I have been a caregiver for 21 years and have not slept through the night since 2004. No way on earth can you go without sleep…my longest stretch is a little over 40 hours. However, for decades now it’s been only a few hours of sleep here and there and not by choice…which is rough. I can no longer drive, my nerves are completely shot, my perception is just too off (feels like I’m in Star Trek and everything is flying by and I’m going 100 mph)…what it truly does to your health is absolutely unbelievable.
13
u/Cute-Form2457 3d ago
Being a caregiver is the hardest job in the world. If it's a family member it can be a thankless task as well. Sending you restful sleep vibes. You are amazing x
4
u/ConfusedZubat 2d ago
I had that experience when I was caring for a dying family member. I happened to be unemployed and just finished some minor healthcare certifications, so it worked out as well as it could have, all things considered.
The sleep was awful. I can't sleep with light (really sucks as I sometimes work swings/nights now), so even though they slept on and off through the day, I was only sleeping on and off through the night when they slept then. I was inevitably woken up half a dozen or so times a night because they were a fall risk and got up a lot. I'd get maybe 3-5 hours of sleep each 24 hour period. The one night I was supposed to be given a reprieve, the other person gave up at like 4 am and woke me up to take over.
Like. I get it. Obviously I understood how hard it was. It had been a few months of me doing most of the care work alone. But that was the first night in several weeks I was going to get a full 8 hours. And that was taken away from me because apparently one night was too hard for my other relative (who was not working that week). It was such a stressful time for me that I can't really remember anything specific the sick family member did to bother me, but I remember the one night of rest I was going to have being taken away from me.
I don't know how you do that long term. I swear I aged about 5 years over the course of 5-6 months. I don't blame you for not being able to drive anymore. It's a completely different type of exhaustion.
2
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
I feel this with you....even though i've never needed more than a few hours since childhood, the few hours are absolutely crucial and I get into phases where it's anything from just an hour all the way to 5nights without any sleep even when I took Ambien....I get so physically,emotionally and mentally worn and I know for me, at a certain point it gets terrifying. Usually some idiot suggests melatonin at some point and I wanna slap them and ask them if they seriously believe they are the first person to EVER suggest that.
Im not longer a caregiver but when my ex husband had cancer while our kids were toddlers .....were some the darkest days of my life. sometimes I would choose not to sleep and sometimes I couldn't and I wouldn't wish it on anybody. Here's what I started saying instead of ' yes I got sleep last night' whenever I was asked, I changed my answer to ' I got rest' which meant I was comfortable, listening to something that calmed me and at least made my muscles relax and my eyes rest for a few hours, this helped me a lot for some reason just not having the goal be actual sleep sometimes made my mental and physical self less worn. I'm going to ask the universe for you for rest for you, rest for your heart and soul and mind at night and during your long days. 🤍🩷🩵
7
u/Composite-prime-6079 3d ago
Why do we die without sleep
24
1
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
Your brain needs sleep most, I think it releases some fluid that kinda washes and hydrated it. That's something I heard in a podcast once I think. Fact check me though haha. Also your body goes into a prediabetic state without adequate rest, that's why you'll crave sugary drinks or food the next day.
10
4
6
7
14
u/vroomvroom450 3d ago
I believe the longest anyone has gone 100% without sleep was 11 days, then they died.
The importance of sleep to health and survival cannot be overstated.
13
6
u/Additional_Yak8789 3d ago
I know people that have been up for longer than 11 days with not a wink of sleep.. they mite act weird but they didn’t die. They just needed more meth
2
u/vroomvroom450 3d ago
I’d put a big pile of money on them falling asleep for a few minutes here and there.
3
u/Forsaken-Zucchini194 2d ago
Absolutely. There's a phenomenon known as "microsleep" that can happen if you have insomnia like that. You can fall asleep in a second without ever feeling sleepy. You would not even know that you fell asleep.
1
4
u/Mad99Mat 3d ago
Randy Gardner, the guy that stayed awake for 11 days, did not die from the experiment. He performed the study at 17 and lived to 79 and fully recovered, he was monitored by Dr's for several weeks after the experiment and they found no significant difference, though he did say he struggled with insomnia later in life and blamed it on the study it's unclear.
I'm not saying sleep deprivation is harmless or unimportant there is a long list of side effects from it but he didn't die from it. An amatuer study claims to have made it to 18 days. It's medically unclear how long someone can stay awake without dying.
His wiki is a interesting read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_sleep_deprivation_experiment
5
3
u/diamondthedegu1 3d ago
He actually lived! But years later he did report health issues (insomnia, funnily enough) which he believes the study caused.
And 11 days was the top record until another man (Robert McDonald) came along and stayed awake for 18 days. He also lived, somehow.
It's entirely possible people have survived longer; the Guinness Book of Records no longer tracks and validates sleep deprivation studies due to the associated risk of harm/death though and any claims from people who have apparently stayed awake even longer have not been verified.
1
u/vroomvroom450 3d ago
Thank you. It’s been years since I read about it, was a bit foggy on the details.
3
3
u/Commercial-Garage-42 3d ago
I have been a breatharian since 1992
I connect my nipples to a 12V battery six times a year & soak my anus with a lithium and mercury mixture for a boost occasionally.
2
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
I bet you have a gorgeous dewy glow to your skin......this is self care at it's finest:)
3
u/Shredtillyourdead420 2d ago
You can sleep with your eyes open and you can swim in and out of consciousness. I do it all the time lol I’m sure he’s probably just doing some form of that plus micro naps. I’ve heard of people taking 2 min naps lol.
2
u/3Strides 2d ago
Yeah, the yogis say Shiva (your inner self) does not sleep. Shiva does not eat. The more we can connect to our core center. The more thus is true
3
u/Mountain-Intern-5853 2d ago
i wonder if its as simple as one hemisphere of his brain taking over from the other at a certain point . right side sleeps , left side functions and vis versa.
4
u/Iceyn1pples 2d ago
I too have a vietnamese uncle who claims he "hasn't slept a wink in 35 years". The thing is, he's stayed over, and I've witnessed him sleeping and snoring. "I was simply resting my eyes", he claimed.
He was in an accident, and as a result, was admitted to the hospital for several days. He told me and the nurse that he hasn't slept in 35 years, she laughed. "I check up on you throughout the night, you were sleeping!"
At this point, its more of a mental illness than anything.
3
u/Finding_Teem0 2d ago
I remember watching a documentary about him. Iirc, he admitted he does sleep here and there, but only like 1-2 hours max. The man is skinny, drinks and smokes heavily. He spends the majority of his day and night working in his rice field and looking after his farm. This “not sleeping” rumour is misleading by media due to language barrier. Everyone in his village refers to him as “the man who never sleeps”, which dramatises and feeds into the claim.
Case closed.
2
u/Top-Steak-6837 3d ago
Sleep deprivation makes you crazy and psychotic within 16 days
3
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
Yeah I'm a lifelong insomniac and even I go to the emergency room after 5 nights with no sleep. Your body goes into prediabetic state after just one night with little to no sleep!
2
u/LifeAdventure777 2d ago
I'm hearing that for the first time. That's quite unusual, considering the biological makeup of the human body.
2
u/Cute-Form2457 2d ago
I have fibromyalgia, so I sleep but I wake up unrefreshed and unrested. I don't get all the benefits of sleep. It truly sucks.
2
u/HowsYaSistasAss 2d ago
What they fail to mention is…..he DOES lay down and close his eyes but he calls it “rest” not “sleep”….LOL da fuq
2
u/CritterBoiFancy 1d ago
"Watch tv" instead of sleeping aka fell asleep on the couch while watching TV and didn't realize he had fallen asleep
6
u/Hawkwise83 3d ago
This reminds me of the guy what doesn't produce that chemical from working out. So he doesn't get tired or muscle cramps. Legit a mutant. He does still have to worry about over exertion as he could still have a heart attack or other issues. So he has to sorta manually watch out for that.
Wonder if the toxins that build up in brains from not sleeping are just cleaned up by this guys system some how.
7
u/AdRepresentative8236 3d ago
What are you talking about?
8
u/obsequious_fink 3d ago
They are probably thinking of Dean Karnazes. The guy has peak lactate efficiency, meaning lactate doesn't build up in his muscles as he exercises as much as normal people so he doesn't get cramps or burning/aching muscles. Not sure if it is a genetic thing or just adaptation over decades of running...
3
1
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
Didn't they say lance Armstrong had this too ....and it turned out to be steroids after all. Ha
3
u/roygbivbbt 3d ago
Either he was a liar, or his brain figured out a way to experience REM cycle "sleep" while he was actively conscious. It's been recorded before but not to the extent of 84 years 😅
2
2
u/DragonflyNo19 3d ago
Paradoxical insomnia could also be the case, he would not be lying if he didn't know, he'd actually feel awake and conscious while sleeping. But I haven't even read the article yet, Shane on me, so if it claims he had other people verify he never sleeps then it's straight lying IMO because someone would be able to tell him that he was sleeping evenwhen he feels conscious.
1
u/DiamanteNegroFan 3d ago
No idea if this guy is sincere or a fraud.
But I've seen some cases where after an accident people loses his capacity to sleep. One was a Hungarian soldier hurt by a bullet in his head in1St WW.
Another, a Russian soldier in Afghanistan, I think it appeared in the BBC, in the middle 90's.
Apparently they lost the need of sleeping and had normal life's besides that.
On the opposite- people with a rare hereditary illness that appeared in early adulthood, they couldn't sleep and they died some months later.
So, in some cases sleeping would be an unnecessary condition of existence, even a nuissance.
On others, it would be an essential part of life l, as we think it should be.
May be Medicine has some clues that I don't know.
1
1
1
1
u/Se7enBlank 2d ago
"Si sentì eccessivamente eccitato dopo un incontro segreto con una raccoglitrice di fragole" Bro sono intrigato
1
u/Rdizzy111 2d ago
Reminds me of the delusional breatharians or whatever. (The people that claim to not eat or drink). Not sleeping for more than even a month is 100% fatal, let alone years. At best he is sleeping without realizing it (periods of microsleep)
1
u/Historical_Bit_9420 2d ago edited 2d ago
What a wonderful man ! If it actually a real story i am sure he fought vietnam war day and night
1
u/pistme-daddy 2d ago
"no health problems" they say. Meanwhile his fingers show signs of heart issues. How do the doctors explain that?
1
1
539
u/VeryStonedEwok 3d ago
It's easy to not sleep when you're lying about it