A mysterious sleeping epidemic have been spreading in the remote village of Kalachi, in northern Kazakhstan, for nearly four years, making the residents of the town doze off for days at a time.
Locals from the said town, which has been known as Sleepy Hollow, say the strange sleeping disorder is worsening, with nearly 14 percent of the 600 residents having been affected, adding that over the summer, 60 people were taken to hospital suffering from the condition.
The disorder leaves people feeling dizzy, unable to stand, fatigued and with memory problems, with some reports of vivid hallucinations.
Doctors said that this epidemic is caused by excessive fluid in the brain without being able to identify its source, but ruled out viruses and bacterial infections like meningitis.
Scientists have also been unable to find any chemicals in the soil or water that might be causing the sleeping sickness.
Many locals believe the cause may be coming from nearby former Soviet-era uranium mines that are now abandoned. Some locals claim wind and smoke coming from the mines may be responsible for the illness.
Others claim toxic waste has been buried in the area.
However, miners who worked down the mine have not been affected, while tests have shown that radiation levels in the village and the neighboring town of Krasnogorsk are the same as background levels.
Baffled doctors diagnosed the sufferers with encephalopathy, a disorder of the brain, of unclear origin. Scans indicated that many of them have excessive fluid on their brains - known as oedema.
Experts fear that prolonged diffuse brain oedema could have long term consequences on the neurological development of the children's brains.