Sleepy Hollow - sleeping sickness solved

The first cases of the "sleeping epidemic" were reported in March 2013. Everyone in the village had a family member or a friend who had fallen asleep for no apparent reason, according to locals. 

For three years people in the Kazakhstan village Kalachi – nicknamed 'Sleepy Hollow'  was hit with a mysterious “sleeping sickness.” Residents were falling asleep at random; they were passing out while walking, in school and even on their motorcycles. Some fell asleep for up to six days at a time and when they woke up they couldn’t remember what happened. Others suffered from bizarre hallucinations, especially children, led one girl to see an elephant trunk on her mother and a boy imagine horses and light bulbs flying around his head. The mystery of the 'Village of the Damned' where a sleeping sickness causes people to fall unconscious for days, mild-mannered pensioners swear and men have unusually-high sex drives has been solved.

 An old disused Soviet-era uranium mine called the culprit is pumping out high levels of carbon monoxide, poisoning the villagers. "Radon and other inert gases which release as a result of the decay of uranium are squeezed out by groundwater and through the cracks in the ground rises to the surface"  says Russian scientist Leonid Rikhvanov. Tests – independently verified by experts in Prague and Moscow – showed levels of carbon monoxide in the air to be ten times normal levels.

'After numerous medical tests, researchers have confirmed that carbon monoxide is to blame for sleeping epidemic in Kalachi village.' The residents will now be evacuated and given new homes. 

(Source)