A group of armed operatives known as "Rested" kidnapped ten people and locked them in a holding cell. The cell was completely dark, had no beds or furniture, and had no windows. The walls were wet and stayed that way. The subjects were allowed to sleep as long as they wanted; that was the only thing they could do. The temperature inside stayed comfortable enough to sleep, even though everything else about the place was harsh. A hidden camera watched them the whole time, placed where they could not see or reach it. Water ran from an open pipe on the floor as their only drink. They were also given soggy, expired food that would keep them alive for several months.
The ten kidnapped people were rookie soldiers from different countries, mainly Cubans and Guatemalans, with a few Americans mixed in.
The first two weeks were quiet with no major incidents. Sleep gave the subjects some relief from the cramped, uncomfortable space. The cell was small enough that ten people crowded it badly, which made physical discomfort grow over time. Some subjects had trouble falling asleep; when that happened, the operatives pumped sleeping gas into the cell to knock them out. Their behavior was watched at all times. Some subjects said they still felt tired even after sleeping for a long time, while others said they felt fine. By the end of the fifth week, their behavior had changed in ways that were hard to ignore.
Several weeks in, subjects who had slept woke up to find the cell looked different: it had more open space than before. Those who had stayed awake reacted with visible terror when they noticed the change. After that, everyone tried harder to stay awake. Some hit others who looked like they were about to fall asleep, trying to stop them. Around that point, the operatives stopped using the sleeping gas. When all of them fell asleep at the same time, the changes upon waking were far more extreme: the cell appeared flipped upside down or stretched out into what seemed like endless space. Some subjects started doing repeated exercises to stay awake.
At the one-month mark, one subject went to a corner and started crying out loud. Camera footage showed he had stayed awake the longest and had been pushing the others to resist sleep. He pressed his face against the wall, dragging his skin across it and scratching hard while trying to produce more tears. No tears came; instead, his actions made the others around him go still. One observer noted that the repeated scratching had caused his fingertips to visibly shrink down in size. The others, watching him fall apart, and with one of them showing early signs of the same, stepped in. They hit his head against the wall several times until his forehead was badly damaged and he collapsed. The rest kept working to stay awake; whenever someone looked close to falling asleep, others forced their head against the floor to jolt them back. Some bit into their own arms to stay focused, while others went to corners and held themselves tightly. Those who were still mentally stable kept their distance from the more disturbed ones.
By the two-month point, nearly all of them had managed to stay awake for very long stretches. The operatives watched them for extended periods but saw no further major changes in behavior. The subjects sat without moving, staring at nothing. They seemed confused about how they were managing to stay awake for so long. The supply of sleeping gas was running low, and the operatives chose to hold off on using it to see what would happen naturally.
On December 6, with little activity in the cell, the operatives prepared to release the sleeping gas again. Before doing so, they spoke into the cell through a microphone to test the subjects' responses. The subjects were sitting upright and showed signs of life.
The message said: "We want to make an announcement. Sleeping is required now. If you don't sleep, we will use the gas. Cooperate. It's better for everyone."
One operative grew tense when a subject looked directly toward where the camera was, even though the darkness made it impossible to know where it was. The subject spoke in a low, cracked voice: "No… sleep? Please… I can't… don't make me sleep again."
The operatives did not expect that reaction. They decided to try a different approach: sending people into the cell. This was risky given how unstable the subjects had become.
The next day, three operatives approached the cell entrance without fully going in, carrying heavy rifles in case of violence. Heavy breathing could be heard right away. A voice kept repeating "Don't sleep… don't sleep… don't you dare sleep" over and over. The operatives turned on flashlights to see better. The moment the light hit the subjects' skin, intense screaming broke out, loud enough to produce a gurgling, choking sound mixed with the cries. The operatives pulled back, both from the noise and from what they saw, having had no prior access to the camera feed (their role was limited to body removal, not observation) and no way to prepare for the state of what was inside.
Of the original ten subjects, only one was still alive. This person had killed all nine others within a single day. Later investigation found that the repeated failed attempts to keep the others awake had driven the killings. The expired food rations had been used up, leaving the bodies as the only food source. The corpses were spread across the floor; the survivor had blood and tissue around his mouth and on his body. The survivor had removed his own eyes, leaving empty sockets, and kept muttering in a rough voice: "Sleep is hell… pain keeps me awake… sleep is hell… pain keeps me awake."
Earlier studies had shown that subjects could not die inside the cell unless their brain or heart was severely damaged or removed.
The operatives assigned to maintenance did not have access to the camera controls; their job was limited to tasks like removing bodies. They entered the cell with rifles aimed at the survivor while others pulled out the corpses. Several bodies had exposed sections of skull with parts of the brain removed. Other remains were warped and misshapen. The survivor kept his distance and did not attack during the removal, muttering the same phrases under his breath.
This went on until all bodies had been cleared. Then the cell was sealed again to keep the remaining subject in for continued observation. He wept in a corner despite having no eyes; no tears came, only dry, choking sounds.
Then, without warning, exhaustion took over and he fell asleep. When he woke, the cell had changed: his hands were tied to the ceiling by ropes, leaving him hanging. He struggled against them, but the harder he pulled, the tighter the ropes became, until both wrists were broken. He stayed like that for nearly two weeks. In desperation, he pulled his body upward after failing to bite through the ropes, which felt like metal. He then ate away at his own wrist flesh bit by bit until what was left was thin enough to tear through by force, freeing both hands.
The severe pain from these injuries kept him awake far longer than intended, so the operatives were forced to use sleeping gas again. When he smelled it, he begged in broken gasps: "No… not again… sleep is hell… please, don't… I can't go back there… please."
He woke to walls pressed inward, leaving almost no room to move. He cursed quietly under his breath. The cameras kept working despite the layout changes. Some operatives noticed that anything brought into the cell became part of its structure. The subject slowly figured out a pattern: sleep triggered changes, and choosing to sleep on purpose might lead to a layout he could handle. It was hard at first, but over several days of exhaustion he managed to sleep. Each time he woke, things were worse. After enough cycles, the cell returned to a normal layout, after which he refused to sleep again and became much more aggressive. One operative asked why there were no small changes happening in solitary; another explained that the cell treated a single person the same as a full group for how changes worked; small changes only happened with partial sleep in groups, while full sleep or sleeping alone caused the same large-scale effects.
Another effect appeared, which the operatives called a "Mental Shift." Extreme distress in the subject caused layout changes even without sleep. The cell seemed to punish resistance to sleep. It brought the subject's mental state into the physical space: his skin peeled off completely and did not grow back. The subject responded by slamming his fists against the walls in sharp pain, grunting and gasping without words.
At one point, the subject turned to face the camera directly despite having no eyes, giving the impression he knew exactly where it was. His face showed pain, suffering, and anger; he stood still for the rest of the month. With the sleeping gas now gone, an operative entered the cell to knock him out by hand, since the subject refused to sleep. When the operative came in, the subject fixed his attention on him and moved forward slowly. The operative raised his rifle and shouted: "Stay back! Don't come closer!"
The subject stopped and said in a rough, wet voice: "This cell… it shows me death… every time I sleep… death waits there."
The operative ordered: "Turn around. Now. I'm putting you out."
The subject did as told without fighting, muttering: "Do it then… but you'll see… you'll see what it does."
The rifle butt knocked him out. The cell sealed and shifted right away, which went against the established pattern that changes had to wait until after sleep. The operative called out in panic: "Help! Get me out, it's closing! Help!"
But the others outside ignored the calls. The cell had formed into a pitch-black hallway. With one person asleep and one awake, the change caused no pain.
When the subject woke, the operative was still there. They barely spoke; the operative kept his rifle ready and warned sharply: "Stay awake. You sleep, I shoot."
Weeks passed. The operative grew more and more drowsy and less alert, muttering to himself: "Can't… keep my eyes open… just a second…"
The subject moved toward him slowly, visibly shaking. A Mental Shift happened, but this time it was not driven by distress. It came from what seemed like desire. The observers had never seen this before. The cell changed to pin the operative against a wall with nails through his hands and feet. The constant pain made him scream without stopping. The subject knelt down and repeated quietly, sounding almost relieved: "Finally… I can sleep now… in peace… finally."
One awake, one asleep: only a small shift. An operative watching noted this as a "desire shift," pointing out it had never appeared in any prior records.
A full year passed, longer than planned. The pinned operative stayed conscious but looked empty and unresponsive, with small shifts confirming he was still awake. The subject slept for longer and longer stretches, sometimes over 24 hours, and eventually up to a full month without waking. On the rare occasions he did wake, he said in a flat, distant tone: "Our dreams doom us," before going back to sleep. The operatives argued about what that meant without reaching any answer; the connection to dying in dreams offered some clue, but the full meaning stayed unclear.
At that point, the operatives decided the experiment had given them what they needed and ended it. Teams prepared to kill both the subject and the pinned operative. Rifles were aimed from the doorway without anyone entering. The first shots destroyed the pinned operative's brain. The subject watched without reacting. More shots hit the subject's brain and heart, but he stayed standing with the entry wounds visible. Confusion followed until they realized: after such endurance, the subject had become part of the cell's structure, making normal lethal damage useless; though prior studies had noted that inside the cell, only critical damage to the brain or heart could end life, shots to both had failed to do so. The operatives ordered: "Come out of the cell. Now. Step out."
The pinned operative also survived the head wound for the same reason, groaning faintly.
The subject moved to the cell's edge, stepping partway out.
He spoke slowly, voice cracked, a deliberate whisper: "When I die… no peace comes… but at least I walk free. Sleep showed me… showed me death… how it is… how it feels… how it tastes… we all end the same… I'll kill myself… and I'll live through that hell too… just like I lived through this… I'm not tied to peace anymore."
After saying this, the subject stepped fully outside and collapsed immediately. The pinned operative remained inside; extraction had not yet taken place. The operation ended. The cell sat unused for several years before any further attempts were made.