Karolina Olsson – The Sleeping Beauty of Okno

Old Business: I’m wondering if those of you that read my blog are also aware of the other pages on this website. I should have explained the site when I first developed it. Running horizontally across the top of the home page are other pages you can click on. Every week I change the weekly tidbit and the weekly photo and will also update you regularly  on “Bound by Secrecy” under the book tab. Remember though that to visualize any of these pages after clicking on the appropriate tab, you must scroll down – they won’t come up automatically.

New Business: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fall asleep for an extended period of time – let’s say thirty-two years and then wake up? How would the world have changed? How would your family have changed? How would you have changed?

This is the story of Karolina Olsson, also known as the Sleeping Beauty of Okno, Sweeden.  In February of 1876, it’s been reported that Karolina hit her head on the ice, and within a few days developed a toothache. Her family thought the toothache was due to witchcraft (which was prominent in that area at the time) and they ordered her to go to bed. Little did they know that she would not awaken for more than three decades.

Her mother force fed her two glasses of sugar sweetened milk every day to keep her alive. The family reported that Karolina would occasionally sit up and mumble prayers she had learned earlier in her childhood. Some articles say she was also observed sleep walking at times.

Doctors were brought in to examine the fourteen year old. Some thought she was in a state of hibernation. Some thought she was pretending to sleep. Others labeled it as psychological problems. Some thought it was a form of hysteria or that she was in a comatose state.  But no one seemed to know for certainty what was going on with Karolina.

Various tests were performed on Karolina throughout the years. Pins were inserted into her fingertips and elicited no response from the woman. At the age of thirty-one she was treated with electroshock therapy. This likewise, elicited no response and she went home in the same condition she had arrived.

When her mother passed away and again when her brother passed three years later, she was said to have cried hysterically, although she remained asleep.

On April 3, 1908, at the age of forty-seven, Karolina woke up. She barely recognized herself as she looked in the mirror. The same went for her remaining family. She willingly went for a psychiatric evaluation and testing in Stockholm. Her mental faculties were intact just as they were before she fell asleep. Her responses were that of a fourteen year old however, not a forty-seven year old. Physically, the long sleep had slowed the aging process and Karolina looked like someone in her twenties; not her forties. It had been reported that during her sleep, her hair, fingernails, and toenails did not grow.

When she awoke she suffered from severe bedsores and malnutrition, but Karolina went on to live another forty one years; dying at the age of eighty-eight.

When I happened upon this story this week, I thought it one amazing story! I couldn’t help thinking how sad to have slept thirty plus years of your life away. It reminded me what a blessing each and every day is and that I never want to take one day for granted.

Until next time – keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin’.