Man dies during sleep study, “we just thought he was really tired”

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers at the Columbus University of Neuroscience Technology were shocked to discover a participant passed away in the middle of their recent sleep study.

Marc Shaver, 48, volunteered for the study because he was suffering from severe bouts of insomnia and, even after he fell asleep, couldn’t stay asleep for long.

Shaver, like the other participants, was put in a private room with numerous sleep aids, such as a dose of melatonin and a white noise machine, to help him fall asleep fast. After about thirty minutes of restlessly tossing and turning in the bed, he finally fell into a deep REM sleep. For the first few hours of the study, everything appeared to be going as expected—until it wasn’t.

“We were monitoring his heart, brain, and lungs and everything looked normal, but then everything just sort of flatlined,” said Harry Kolk, the lead somnologist at CUNT. “At first, we thought he may have just rolled over and our monitors fell off. One of our staff went to go reattach them but didn’t want to disturb him when she saw how peacefully he was sleeping after being so sleep deprived.”

Except he wasn’t sleeping peacefully, he was dead.

“Looking back on it now, it was a little suspicious that all his readings, brainwave, pulse, and respiration, were zero,” said Kolk. “That wasn’t normal.”

An autopsy revealed that Shaver’s body was riddled with malignancies and, according to Dr. Deborah Donner, the city of Columbus’ coroner, his death was long overdue.

“It’s incredible that Mr. Shaver was alive as long as he was,” said Donner. “Scientifically, he should’ve died months ago. I don’t think half his organs were functioning. Lack of sleep was the lack of his concerns, to be honest.”

News of Shaver’s death has rocked the local area, but it wasn’t so much his passing that has caused the commotion, but the amount of time it took for CUNT officials to reach out to first responders. From the time his vitals flatlined to when EMS was called was about four days.

“We would pop our heads in his room a few times a day and saw he was still in bed,” said Kolk. “Looking back, it was odd that he hadn’t rolled over or repositioned in any way. It was odd but we just thought he was really tired.”

Kolk also said they became seriously concerned about Shaver’s wellbeing when the rancid smell of death began emanating from his room whenever they checked on him.

“It smelled bad, like, really bad,” said Kolk. “We sent one of our interns into Mr. Shaver’s room to physically check on him. When his skin began to slide away from his muscles, we made the executive decision to call the medics.”

EMS arrived on scene about thirty minutes later, removed Shaver’s body, and escorted it to the local morgue. Officials attempted to contact his next of kin but were unsuccessful. Local police are also launching an investigation into CUNT’s failure to take action in the aftermath of Shaver’s death.

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