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An entire village of people who suffer from a mysterious illness that causes them to fall asleep for DAYS is to be relocated, after doctors finally found the cause.

Experts were drafted in after local GPs reported residents in the remote village of Kalachi, in northern Kazakhstan, suffered from a condition that could cause them to sleep for days at a time.

Examining the villagers in the village dubbed 'Sleepy Hollow', medics found that they suffer from excessive fluid in the brain, but were baffled as to what was causing it.

(Image: Siberian Times)

Medical expert Doctor Egor Korovin who examined some of the sufferers said: "In medical terms they are suffering from encephalopathy, a disorder of the brain but the cause is unclear.

"Scans have shown that many of the sufferers have excessive accumulation of fluid in their brains.

But now after four years of examinations and thousands of tests scientists have finally discovered the cause behind the condition – radon gas.

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Tomsk Polytechnic University’s scientists concluded that the former local mines were to blame after ruling out a mystery illness caused by a virus or bacteria and instead concentrating on environmental factors.

(Image: Siberian Times)

Professor Leonid Rikhvanov from the Department of Geo-ecology and Geo-chemistry said: "We eliminated viral and bacterial infections but also obtained test results that ruled out the possibility of radiation sickness too.

"We also failed to find any evidence that toxic chemicals were buried in the area as many locals claimed."

The village was built near to former Soviet-era uranium mines that are now abandoned but although they have not left dangerous radiation levels, the legacy remains.

Radon is a chemical element that although radioactive, is a colourless, odourless, and tasteless noble gas, occurring naturally as an indirect decay product of uranium.

Prof Rikhvanov said: "The mines left open spaces underground which were slowly filled with water that has risen upwards, driving pockets of gas inside them to the surface.

"The gas has a toxic effect that pushes a person into a dream like state, and the person then falls asleep."

(Image: Siberian Times)

Conventional methods of radiation measurement cannot detect radon in the air, said the scientist, explaining why previous studies have shown nothing.

Scientists stepped up the investigation recently after locals complained that incidences of the strange sleeping disorder were getting worse, with nearly one in five of the village's 600 residents now affected.

And after the cause was identified, local government officials said they were considering plans to move the entire village as it was impossible to tackle the root cause of the problem, the radon gas.

Over last summer, 60 people were taken to hospital suffering from the condition, which leaves people feeling dizzy, unable to stand, fatigued and with memory problems.

Children affected by the mystery illness are so dizzy they can barely stand up by themselves and spend days at a time in bed.

He said the fact that some miners appeared not to have been affected at all was explained by the fact that some people have more natural immunity than others.

(Image: Siberian Times)

Alsu Shjeladeva, 54, a local resident, said some men from the area had gone down the shaft in one of the mines and detected a sweet smell while down there.

She told Russia Today: "We are afraid of what lies in store. We're afraid that we may all fall asleep."

Igor Samusenko, 43, another local resident whose son suffers from the condition, said: "He runs around and then he gets inert, starts staggering.

"When he turns his head his eyes stay fixed at what he was looking at. If you try to wake him it seems the wants to open his eyes but can't."

"Sleepy valley, sleepy hollow, that's what people call us."

Lyubov Belkova, 60, claims to be the first resident to have fallen asleep in April 2010 and has since suffered repeated episodes seven times. She was initially diagnosed with ischemic strokes but then her neighbour began suffering the same symptoms.