If I had a heart I could love you
If I had a voice I would sing
After the night when I wake up
I'll see what tomorrow brings
If I had a voice I would sing
-Vikings
The classic fairy tale “ The Sleeping Beauty” originates in the 14th century. It is a story of a princess cursed by an evil spirit to sleep for one hundred years until the moment a young prince puts an end to the curse and wakes her up with a kiss.
Usually, fairy tales have little to do with reality, but quite often some real-life events resemble those of fiction.
But what if this story was partially derived from real-life events?
Can someone sleep for an extended period and wake up having aged just slightly, and is it possible for a person to enter a state of hibernation or suspended animation, only to wake up decades later, having normal functioning of consciousness and cognitive?
One of the biggest real-life unexplained mysteries is the story of Karolina Olsson also known as “The Sleeping Beauty of Oknö”.
The Sleeping Beauty of Oknö ("Soverskan på Oknö")
Karolina Olsson became famous as “The Sleeper of Oknö”. In 1876, 14-year-old Karolina suffered a head injury after tripping over and falling on ice while on her way home from school.
The details of this accident are not given with certainty, however, it is recorded she was injured albeit not heavily. Perhaps she slipped and hit her jawbone since it is also recorded she complained about a toothache later.
Her family consisted of Karolina, her parents, and four more brothers. They were living on a remote island of Sweden called Oknö, situated in the southern part of the country.
The 32 Years Sleep
It was February, 22th, 1876 when 14-year-old Karolina went to bed, only to wake up 32 years or 11,730 days later at the age of 46.
The Olsson family was a poor one and living on an isolated island with no doctor near them. Karolina’s father, a fisherman, couldn’t afford to pay for a doctor. The family initially sought help from the small community of Oknö.
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Being poor and not able to afford a doctor, their community paid for one to visit the poor girl. The doctor, after finishing the examination concluded she was in a state of coma and more examination was required. He kept visiting and examining Karolina for a year more and during this time he tried to convince the medical community and mobilize other doctors to help with a cure for Karolina’s condition.
More doctors visited the Olsson family and examined the poor girl. One surprising fact was that Karolina’s hair and fingernails didn’t seem to be growing at all.
Moreover, she wasn’t losing weight despite the fact her diet consisted of just two glasses of milk, daily.
Hospitalization - Diagnosis
In the sixth year of Karolina’s sleep, in 1882, her parents transferred her to the city of Oskarshamn after the doctor’s recommendation for therapy treatment with electroshock, as a final attempt of the medical community to revive her.
A month later and after no improvement to her condition she was discharged from the hospital and her parents took Karolina back home. The doctor explained there was nothing they could do for her, and the family would just need to wait and pray for a miracle to happen.
No other doctor was appointed to Karolina again, and the diagnosis the hospital had given was that she suffered from some kind of paralysis connected to dementia (dementia paralytica).
The Awakening
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Years later one of her brothers died and she was noticed to be crying, but there were again no signs of exiting this deep sleep. Her mother, died in 1904 and a maid was appointed for the full-time care of Karolina.
On April 14, 1908, the maid entered Karolina’s room and found her crawling on the floor crying.
Karolina Olsson had finally awoken from her 32 years long sleep.
A Possible Explanation
I went through great lengths to find an answer, an explanation to what might have actually happened.
There is a real possibility Karolina was waking up in between her sleep but it is impossible to know for certain. Her mother was attending her most of the time, and some suggested that there was possible collusion between the two to hide the fact that she was waking up.
There are psychiatric cases of people just staying at bed all day speaking only a few words and eating very little, but in this case, Karolina was medically proven to be in a deep state of sleep, or coma.
Her brothers stated she never said a word during her sleep and only her father overheard her a couple of times standing up on her bed and praying to Jesus.
But that could have been during a dream inside her sleep-state.
Doctors were visiting the family quite often and they had performed multiple neurological examinations. She was admitted to a hospital in a nearby city, where doctors didn’t manage to wake her up, no matter trying electroshock therapy.
She didn’t have any recollection of these 32 years and after waking up.
There is a part in this story that is illogical though, and has to do with the fact that her whole daily nourishment was just two glasses of milk with sugar and water.
This was also a reason that many were skeptical about the whole ordeal of the Olsson family, and a psychiatrist later suggested that Karolina might have been at times closing her eyes shut, and not responding of her own volition, probably suffering from a rare psychiatric condition.
There were many derogatory remarks for her and her family. However, the fact that she wasn’t responding to basic neurological tests proves that this story wasn’t just a case of a person unwilling to talk, stand up, or even not wanting to open her eyes. It wasn’t a case of fraud either, as often the family was accused. There was a medical case, an incident, and a condition that this woman suffered from.
Possibly for the first few years and until she was treated to the hospital, Karolina didn’t wake up at all, but this may have changed later.
Maybe the electroshock treatment improved her condition, since, after that, no more doctors visited again and the family was told to wait and hope.
Karolina was certainly taken care of by her mother most of the time and possibly she was waking up, or entering a state between dream and reality where she could speak a few words and eat food, but not completely wake up and reach wakeful consciousness.
A Happy Ending
When she woke up at the age of 46, she didn’t look like a middle-aged woman but a lot younger, possibly between 25 and 30. This is another confusing fact that adds to the mystery.
The news of Karolina’s awakening was welcomed with excitement and many were interested to learn her side of the story. Reporters and doctors as well as many others that were just curious visited the family cottage at Oknö.
She couldn’t give any information at all though. She couldn’t remember anything at all from these 32 years.
It seems that the Karolina Olsson case was one of a kind case since no other person was ever recorded being in such a state for so long.
Image from : Source
Karolina started anew after waking up and after that incident, she lived for another 40 years. She died on April 5th, 1950 at the age of 88. She was always kind and open to everybody in her community.
She lived the rest of her life at Oknö and became famous as the “The Sleeping Beauty of Oknö.”
The woman that slept for 32 years.
References:
This story is part of the real-life unsolved mysteries I have been studying for a long time and find extremely interesting. This case should have been a priority in research by the medical field, although a century earlier everything was different.
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Sad that no one tried to wake her up with a kiss, just kidding.