Have you ever taken a nap and woken up feeling like you’ve been asleep for decades? This actually happened to Karolina Olsson from Sweden, who is known as a ‘sleeping beauty’ after falling asleep at the age of 14 and waking up at the age of 46.
While many of us might wish for 32 years of sleep every once in a while, Karolina’s extended slumber was not due to a tiring week. To understand the story better, let’s go back to the beginning. Karolina was born on October 29, 1861, and was the only girl among five siblings.
Karolina grew up with her family and lived a normal life for the first 14 years. However, in 1876, she arrived home with a swollen face and toothache. Karolina told her family that she slipped on some ice while crossing a frozen river. Her parents sent her to bed when the pain became unbearable. Sadly, Karolina never woke up from her sleep until 1908.
Initially, her family and neighbors raised funds to have a doctor examine her, but when they couldn’t wake her up, they conducted regular checkups instead. Karolina’s condition remained unchanged even after being taken to the hospital and having electric currents passed through her body. Medical professionals from various fields were puzzled by her condition as it defied conventional understanding of sleeping disorders.
Karolina’s mother took care of her throughout the years, allegedly feeding her milk while she slept. After her mother’s death in 1905, a housekeeper was hired to assist in caring for Karolina.
Three years later, the housekeeper heard strange sounds coming from Karolina’s room.
They rushed upstairs, and found the now 46-year-old woman staggering about her room, crying. She is said to have had no recollection of the 32 years she’d been asleep, and she no longer recognised her brothers.
Doctors flooded to test Karolina, and were shocked to find that apart from weight loss and acting much younger than her actual age, Karolina was largely unaffected by her years spent horizontally.
She regained her strength and speech in a matter of weeks, leaving some people to speculate whether she really had been sleeping, or whether the entire ordeal was an elaborate rouse to prevent Karolina, for whatever reason, from interacting with the world.
Swedish psychiatrist Harald Fröderström expressed belief Karolina may have suffered some sort of psychosis brought on by a harrowing event, but to this day her story remains one surrounded by intrigue and mystery.
After she woke up, Karolina went on to live for another 42 years before she died in 1950.
