Sleeping beauty syndrome is scientifically called Kleine-Levin syndrome. This is a rare disease that manifests itself initially in adolescence or early adulthood. In it, the person suffers periods in which he passes sleeping days, which can vary from 1 to 3 days, waking up irritated, agitated and eating compulsively.
Each sleep period can vary between 17 to 72 hours in a row and when you wake up, you feel sleepy, going back to sleep after a short time. Some people still have episodes of hypersexuality, this being more common among men.
This disease manifests itself in periods of crisis that can happen 1 month per month, for example. On other days, the person has a seemingly normal life, although his condition makes school, family and professional life difficult.
Kleine-Levin syndrome is also called hypersomnia and hyperphagia syndrome; hibernation syndrome; periodic somnolence and pathological hunger.
How to identify
To identify sleeping beauty syndrome, check for the following signs and symptoms:
- Episodes of intense and deep sleep that can last for days or average daily sleep over 18 hours;
- Wake up from that sleepy, angry sleepyhead;
- Increased appetite upon waking;
- Increased desire for intimate contact upon waking;
- Compulsive behaviors;
- Agitation or amnesia with total memory loss or loss.
There is no cure for Kleine-levin syndrome, but this disease apparently does not present seizures after 30 years of life. But to make sure that the person has this syndrome or another health problem should be performed exams such as polysomnography, which is the study of sleep in addition to others such as electroencephalography, brain magnetic resonance and computed tomography. In the syndrome these tests should be normal but are important to rule out other diseases such as epilepsy, brain injury, encephalitis or meningitis.
Causes
It is unclear why this syndrome develops, but there is a suspicion that it is a problem caused by some virus or changes in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain that controls sleep, appetite and sexual desire. However, in some reported cases of this disease, a non-specific viral infection involving the respiratory system, specifically the lungs, gastroenteritis and fever were reported prior to the first episode of excessive sleep.
Treatment
Treatment for Kleine-Levin syndrome can be done by taking lithium-based medications or amphetamine stimulants during the crisis period to make the person have regularized sleep but does not always have an effect.
It is also part of the treatment to let the person sleep as long as necessary, only by waking her up at least 2 times a day so that she can eat and go to the bathroom so that her health is not impaired.
Usually after 10 years of the onset of exaggerated episodes of sleep the crises cease and never again manifest, even without any specific treatment.
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