ASLEEP SINCE 1926. AWAKE IN 1969. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

In 1926, a young woman fell asleep, and didn't really wake up for 43 years. In the summer of 1969, a new drug brought her and dozens of other frozen patients back to life. Then the miracle began to fail. This is the real story behind Awakenings (1990), the Oscar-nominated film with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. We go back to the mysterious sleeping sickness epidemic that swept the world after World War I, meet the real patients of Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx, follow the summer they woke up, and uncover what the private journals of Dr. Oliver Sacks revealed in 2025. CHAPTERS 00:00 Asleep since 1926 01:23 What you'll learn 01:50 The sleeping sickness 04:11 The ones who never recovered 05:32 The doctor 06:38 Leonard 08:11 The drug 09:29 The summer of 1969 11:10 When the miracle broke 12:36 From a hospital to Hollywood 14:13 The movie vs. reality 16:03 What really happened to them 18:07 The journals 22:36 What is left 24:08 The people behind the story IMAGE CREDITS Oliver Sacks at TED 2009: Erik Charlton, CC BY 2.0 Oliver Sacks 2009: Luigi Novi, CC BY 3.0 Constantin von Economo bust: Hubertl, CC BY-SA 4.0 Economo title page: Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0 Beth Abraham Center: Jim.henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0 Panther at Jardin des Plantes: Paolo Gamba, CC BY 2.0 Robin Williams 1990: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Italian Wikipedia) Robert De Niro: Petr Novák, CC BY-SA 2.5; David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0 Lawrence Weschler: David Shankbone, CC BY-SA 3.0 Rachel Aviv: Frypie, CC BY-SA 4.0 L-DOPA diagrams: CC BY-SA 3.0 / 4.0 Public domain: NARA, Library of Congress, NASA, Carl Van Vechten, Anefo, ABC, William Gowers, National Photo Company, Smithsonian NMAH, Mark Goff, Wikimedia Commons Stock footage: Pexels, Pixabay This video is an independent documentary and commentary. It is not affiliated with Columbia Pictures, the Oliver Sacks Foundation or Beth Abraham. Patient names are the pseudonyms used by Oliver Sacks. Brief film and TV references are used for commentary under fair use. #Awakenings #OliverSacks #TrueStory #RobinWilliams #RobertDeNiro #MedicalMystery #Documentary TAGS awakenings true story, awakenings real patients, oliver sacks, encephalitis lethargica, sleeping sickness epidemic, l-dopa 1969, robert de niro awakenings, robin williams awakenings, what happened to the patients, oliver sacks journals, oliver sacks fabrications, medical mystery, true story behind the movie, documentary