Thai Ngoc The Vietnamese Peasant Who Never Sleeps Country: Vietnam

1. A Vietnamese Who Never Sleeps
2. A Life Without Sleep
3. The Unexplained Phenomenon
4. A Night Watchman
5. A Lone Struggle

A Vietnamese Who Never Sleeps

According to the Vietnamese newspaper 'Thanh Nien', by 2006, a Vietnamese man named Tai Ngok had not slept once in the past 33 years. Ngok, who contracted a severe fever in 1973, forgot what sleep was like ever since. It is remarkable that despite the constant lack of sleep, Ngok considered himself perfectly healthy and led a normal life. However, the fever left him with an unpleasant complication - he lost the ability to sleep. No matter how hard Ngok tried to deceive himself and nature, he could never fall asleep. This inability to sleep made the ordinary Vietnamese man not only famous but also gave scientists new grounds for research.

A Life Without Sleep

For more than three decades, Ngok did not experience the effects of chronic insomnia on his health. Despite staying awake all night, he felt perfectly healthy. He continued to work on a farm, carrying two 50-kilogram bags of fertilizers four kilometers from the farm to his house without any health issues. After undergoing medical tests at the Hoa Khanh Mental Hospital, Ngok received the conclusion that he was overall healthy, except for a minor decrease in liver function. It was phenomenal - a man who had not slept for 33 years was completely healthy!

The Unexplained Phenomenon

Chronic sleep deprivation almost always leads to anorexia, lethargy, and irritability - none of which were observed in Ngok. Over the years, Ngok tried various remedies to fight his insomnia, including new medications, traditional remedies, and Vietnamese traditional methods, but nothing worked. Ngok humorously mentioned that he had counted countless sheep, but even they couldn't lull him to sleep. As the years went by, Ngok never managed to sleep, not even for a few short minutes.

A Night Watchman

Ngok's nighttime wakefulness made him an indispensable night watchman. He often stayed on the farm overnight to earn extra money while also protecting it from thieves. Once, during three months of sleepless nights, he dug two large pits for fish breeding. He also helped relatives and neighbors during funerals, as it is customary in Vietnam to play drums all night long for the deceased. Only in 2006 did Ngok admit that he finally began experiencing the consequences of his strange condition, describing his discomfort as being a "plant without water."

A Lone Struggle

The detrimental effects of insomnia on the body are well-known, but what happened to Ngok defied any medical explanation. If Ngok had lived in, for example, New York instead of a Vietnamese province, he would have become a Medical Miracle, receiving help from the brightest minds in science. However, this elderly Vietnamese man's life goes on far away from the medical center of the world, and he must deal with his problems on his own.