Swedish Sleeping Beauty and her life in dreams and reality (6 photos)

The average person spends about a third of their life sleeping. This is nature, and sleep is necessary to replenish strength, even if someone sleeps significantly less. In any case, periods of sleep alternate with wakefulness.





But there are cases in history - controversial, little-studied and strange, which serve as clear evidence of the existence of exceptions. Among them is the Swede Caroline Olsson.



Caroline in childhood

The girl was born on the island of Okno in a large large family in 1861. One day in 1876, she was returning from school when she slipped on the ice and hurt her head. When she returned home, she began to suffer from severe toothache.

The mother put the teenager to bed. And Caroline fell asleep peacefully. For as much as 32 years. At first, the relatives could not afford a nurse, so they looked after the girl themselves. Then caring people, having learned about the situation, collected money for help and medical examination. But the doctors were unable to wake Caroline. According to their recommendations, her mother kept her alive by gently pouring sweetened milk into her mouth.





April 14, 1908, just a few days after awakening

After numerous examinations, the patient was taken to the hospital and an attempt was made to administer electric shock. They even tried to prick their fingers with needles so that the body would react to the pain. But to no avail...

Ultimately, Ohlsson was diagnosed with paralytic dementia and left alone. According to some accounts, the girl woke up. But only for a moment to turn over, mutter something incomprehensible, or pull the blanket tighter.

The most unusual thing was that Caroline, despite her meager diet of milk and sugar, maintained a normal weight and did not lose weight. In addition, Caroline's body remained in more than excellent shape for a bedridden person.

In 1904, her mother died. The father tried to care for his daughter himself, but was unable to do so and hired a nurse. It was then that Carolina began to lose a lot of weight. This got some people thinking.

Awakening



In adulthood, after waking up

Finally, in 1908, 46-year-old Caroline suddenly began screaming and crying. The nurse rushed upstairs and found the woman on the floor. The father and brothers came in and were delighted to see that Caroline had woken up.

Caroline did not recognize her brothers and had no idea what had happened over the past 32 years. However, she remembered some moments of her life in childhood, retained all the knowledge acquired at school, and mastered all social and everyday skills.

Caroline began to eat regular food little by little and soon fully recovered. Although Ohlsson was an adult, she exhibited more typical teenage behavior - energetic, curious, playful.

The patient completely retained her intellect, as well as her surprisingly youthful appearance. Visually, she looked like a 25-year-old woman.

Mysteries of Ohlsson



Postcard depicting Ohlsson

Although Caroline and her family claimed that she had been in this state for 32 years, expectedly and rightly, there were skeptics who did not believe them.

Her nurse claimed that while her mother was still alive, she heard voices upstairs, as if women were talking. In addition, some objects in the room mysteriously moved, and food left behind disappeared.

Even more suspicion arose when psychiatrist Harald Fröderström, fascinated by the story, decided to conduct his own research and try to find out what happened. Until this moment, the patient had not been examined by any psychiatrist.

Fröderström concluded that Ohlsson could not have hibernated for 32 years. First, she would starve to death, losing most of the weight she hadn't lost until the last couple of years.

According to him, Caroline suffered some kind of severe trauma or psychosis, which is why she was in a psychotic state for so long. And my mother helped hide the truth from others.



There are many different theories about what happened. Some say that the girl really fell into a coma, and she was force-fed not only milk. Others claim she was a victim of violence, perhaps heryawned his own mother. Having suffered a serious injury, the girl decided to hide under the blanket from the cruel reality, and her body, as they say, played along.

After awakening, Caroline lived another 42 years and died in 1950. People who knew her say she was hardworking, content with life and showed no ill effects from what she endured for 32 years. But the riddle of Sleeping Beauty remains unsolved.