Think about going to sleep and then waking up years later. Sounds like it may be from a fairy tale. But a teenage girl discovered she had slept for a portion of her life when she awoke. Everyone was puzzled by her astounding tale, which is still a mystery today.

Sleeping Beauty of Oknö

The Girl Who Slept for Over 30 Years After Getting a Toothache: Her True Story

Karolina Olsson was born in 1862 and had a tranquil life on the Swedish island of Oknö with her four siblings. But following a fall, her life and the lives of her family members drastically changed. She slipped on her way home from school and smacked her head hard on the icy pavement.

Everyone assumed the girl had fully recovered because she was already enjoying a bowl of soup after her injuries had healed. But on the same February 22, 1876, something unexpected happened. Karolina, who was 14 years old at the time, reported having tooth pain. Her relatives put her to bed because they thought it was the result of witchcraft. Nobody anticipated that she would awaken 32 years later.

A puzzling situation

The Girl Who Slept for Over 30 Years After Getting a Toothache: Her True Story
The doctor examined the girl for several days after arriving on the island, but the situation was mysterious. Karolina appeared to be both dead and alive at the same moment, unlike the typical coma that follows an accident. It was unexpected that neither her hair nor nails grew in any way, nor did she lose any weight.

Six years later, in 1882, Karolina was moved to Oskarshamn for electroshock therapy treatment, which proved unsuccessful. The doctors once more sent her home with instructions for her family to pray for a miracle. She had milk with sugar instead of solid food for the duration of her slumber.

The Girl Who Slept for Over 30 Years After Getting a Toothache: Her True Story
Her condition, according to the hospital’s diagnosis, was some sort of dementia-related paralysis. The peculiar thing about this example is that despite her physical state, she was still capable of reacting to her surroundings, demonstrating that her mind was still functioning. When one of her brothers passed away several years later, her parents became aware of this. Karolina was crying, yet she was still in a deep sleep.

The morning of awakening

The Girl Who Slept for Over 30 Years After Getting a Toothache: Her True Story

Finally, Karolina was discovered on the floor, crawling, on April 3, 1908, by a maid. She was frail and pale, sensitive to light, and found it a little challenging to speak. The announcement caused a lot of enthusiasm. Reporters, medical professionals, and curious spectators visited Oknö to inquire about her experience, but when she awoke, she claimed to have no memory of those 32 years.

Even though she was 46 years old, to her, she was still a 14-year-old girl who had just woken up. Her looks, however, suggested that she was much younger—between 25 and 30—in age. She underwent psychiatric evaluations in Stockholm, where it was discovered that she had kept all of her mental skills.

Deciphering the enigmas

The Girl Who Slept for Over 30 Years After Getting a Toothache: Her True Story
There are situations of people today who sleep the majority of the time. One illustration is Beth Goodier, who has Kleine-Levin syndrome and sleeps for months at a time, only occasionally waking up for a few hours in between.

Although it cannot be proven with precision, there is a notion that Karolina also had awake periods during which she was able to communicate and feed. What is certain is that she was nice and truthful with her community during her 40 years of trouble-free life following awakening. We are thrilled that her tale had a pleasant conclusion.

There are a lot of intriguing mysteries in the world, like the one surrounding the plane that went missing in the Bermuda Triangle.