Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. Kleine-Levin Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, Treatments Sleeping Beauty Syndrome Specific Stories

The disease was described as early as 1786 by the French physician Edme Pierre Chavot. He encountered an inexplicable phenomenon when the patient could fall asleep for ten days, and then return to normal life again. But after some time, everything repeated again. According to Shavo's conclusions, various brain disorders could be the cause of such a disease.

For a long time, psychology and medicine could not explain all cases of the syndrome, since the disease is rare. But in 1925, a doctor named Willy Kleine described in detail several cases of the syndrome. And ten years later, Max Levin managed to identify the relationship with indigestion. Today, the disease in official sources is called the Klein-Levin syndrome.

The disease is characterized by constantly recurring periods of sleep, and this period lasts for quite a long time. First, the person becomes drowsy, and then falls asleep for most of the day. Awakens only to satisfy natural needs. Each episode can last from a day to several months. At this time, the entire daily life of patients stops. People who have been diagnosed with this disease are not able to take care of themselves, study and work. During the break between such episodes, the person feels quite normal. There is also no physical or behavioral dysfunction. Each episode can last up to ten years.

Since the disease is diagnosed quite rarely, doctors have not yet established the causes of the disease. Most experts believe that the main cause may be various kinds of disorders in the reticular formation of the brain. In addition, the hypothalamus and limbic system can become the basis for the occurrence of the syndrome.

The activator for the development of the disease can be hormonal changes that occur in adolescence. Thus, the occurrence of the syndrome in patients aged twelve to sixteen years becomes clear.

According to research, it can also be established that head injuries, viruses and an increase in body temperature for unexplained reasons can become the root cause of the disease. A group of specialists to the causes of the development of the syndrome also include heredity, when only men suffered from this disease. Scientists agreed that the disease is based on some defect in the genes, which is the cause of the failure in the functioning of the limbic system of the brain and hypothalamus. In adolescence, it is precisely this nature and kind of breakdown that is activated during hormonal changes. Consequently, children in adolescence are most at risk of developing sleeping beauty syndrome, since changes in the body can provoke this kind of deviation.

Clinical picture

Like any disease, Sleeping Beauty Syndrome has its own symptoms and characteristics. You can identify the disease by the following signs:

1. Long sleep time. Its duration is on average from eighteen to thirty hours. The rest of the time a person spends on satisfying his own needs, for example, eating, going to the toilet. It is worth noting that during periods of wakefulness, the patient consumes food in large quantities.
2. Sleep attacks can last up to several days or weeks. In medical practice, there are cases when the patient slept for more than six weeks.
3. Even such a long sleep does not bring good rest. After awakening, the patients did not have a feeling of cheerfulness. After a few hours, the person again feels tired and has an overwhelming desire to sleep. It was also noted by doctors that patients were worried about the feeling of hunger.
4. The main symptoms are prolonged sleep and hunger. Patients after sleep eat everything, without giving preference to any individual dishes or foods. In one plate, they can combine, for example, meat and sweets. Having drowned out the feeling of hunger, the person wants to sleep again.
5. Those diagnosed with Sleeping Beauty Syndrome can be irritable, nervous, and aggressive. In addition, excitement often has a positive character of feelings of happiness and euphoria. In some cases, on the contrary, the patient's behavior resembles schizophrenia.
6. hallucinations and hypersexuality. These symptoms appear a few hours before falling asleep and during an exacerbation of the disease.
7. Patients are also characterized by excessive sweating, blue upper or lower extremities, nasolabial folds and lips. These signs refer to vegetative symptoms.
8. People with Klein-Levin syndrome have low blood sugar levels. During the breaks between sleep states, doctors do not notice deviations and pathologies. The only thing is uncontrollable and irresistible hunger.

Treatment

Physicians have not yet developed a clear system for the treatment of Klein-Levin syndrome. Many doctors do not see the expediency in the use of drug treatment, since the exact causes of the development of the syndrome have not yet been established. In addition, attacks occur suddenly and leave no traces behind.

But drugs are used only in cases where the patient, along with the syndrome, is diagnosed with mental disorders that cause inconvenience to the people around him. There is no evidence of the effectiveness of these drugs, since for the great practice of doctors there were very few cases of diagnosing the disease. But a number medicines, as doctors noted, led to a decrease in the duration of attacks and smoothing of symptoms. Therefore, their use is more than justified. When establishing the Klein-Levin syndrome, use:

• tranquilizers;
• antidepressants;
• neuroleptics;
• lithium preparations.

In this case, all of the listed drugs only relieve symptoms, but are not able to completely cure the disease. Most of all, they will help not the patient, but relatives. And relatives in this difficult period only need to be patient, as the disease will end with an independent recovery.

Sleeping beauty syndrome is a terrible reality from a well-known fairy tale. But here the heroes are not beautiful princesses, but most often men. Unfortunately, they do not wake up from the kiss of a beautiful lady. The exact causes of the disease have not been established to date. The main group of symptoms include prolonged sleep, a huge and uncontrolled appetite in conjunction with mental disorders. They bring the most anxiety to the relatives of a person with Klein-Levin syndrome. To date, doctors cannot completely cure the disease, since there is no effective scheme. Patients and their relatives can only survive the time of long sleep, as it will end in spontaneous recovery for a while. But experts continue to study the disease and the cure for the disease is a matter of time.

From childhood, we all remember a beautiful fairy tale about a princess who slept for a hundred years in her castle, until the kiss of a handsome prince brought her back to life. But today we remembered her not by chance. The fact is that modern psychology and psychiatry also faces a similar phenomenon, when a person falls into a deep sleep, and it is almost impossible to get him out of this state. It got beautiful name sleeping beauty syndrome, although such a life is a little like a fairy tale.

Modern realities

With the wild pace of life, many of us dream of getting at least a few extra minutes of sleep, torn between household chores and work. It would seem that it would be very cool to spend the whole day in bed. And someone in anticipation of a vacation wants not to get out from under the covers at all, except to eat. However, there are people in the world who spend their whole lives in the arms of Morpheus. At the same time, the desire to extend the time of their rest causes them horror, but they cannot do anything.

sleeping beauty syndrome

This is a rare disorder that experts put on a par with schizophrenia. This disease develops suddenly, a person can be completely healthy, and then fall into "hibernation", in the truest sense of the word. Relatives are usually completely confused, because they do not know how to help him return to normal life. Doctors shrug their hands, saying that all processes in the body are running normally, and what is the reason for such an anomaly, no one in modern world does not know.

Story

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome was first described in 1786. The French doctor Edme Pierre Chavot spoke about him. During his practice, he encountered an inexplicable phenomenon when patients fell asleep for 10-14 days, then returned to normal life, but soon everything repeated. At the same time, the doctor only stated the presence of a strange anomaly, and suggested that the cause could be a violation of the brain.

For a long time, medicine and psychiatry had little to say about these cases. This is also due to the fact that such patients are extremely rare. In a lifetime, a practicing physician may not have a single such patient. Already in 1925, Willy Kleine described in detail a series of cases when a person was diagnosed with the sleeping beauty syndrome, which significantly replenished the treasury of world medical practice. Ten years later, Max Levin added several cases, and he also found a relationship with eating disorders. It is thanks to these two people that official name this ailment. Now in official reference books it is called the sleeping beauty syndrome or the Klein-Levin syndrome.

How the disease manifests itself

This property is characteristic of any neurological disorder. Depending on the state of the nervous system, age, gender and other characteristics of a person, it can manifest itself in different ways. Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is no exception. What is this disease, and how it manifests itself, we will now talk in more detail. Usually, until adolescence, a child is no different from his peers. He normally attends school, gets up in the morning and hardly fits in the evening. The first signs occur between the ages of 13 and 19. Parents are, to put it mildly, shocked when their beloved child falls asleep for several weeks. Examination in the clinic leads to the diagnosis: sleeping beauty syndrome. Symptoms that occur in all patients are "hibernation", which comes on suddenly, and which a person is unable to fight, as well as increased appetite.

Patients sleep 18 or more hours a day. They may sometimes not wake up for several days. When relatives try to wake up to feed and take to the toilet. However, this is not so easy to do, patients become very aggressive. But that's not all. Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is a complex set of symptoms. In patients, all cognitive and perceptual processes are disturbed. They do not understand where they are and what is happening to them. Patients, even during periods of wakefulness, are as if in a fog, speech is incoherent, everything that happens is quickly erased from memory, as if it were in a dream. Patients cannot attend school or take care of themselves.

Eating disorder

In addition to the fact that a person spends a lot of time in a dream, he is very different from himself in those moments when they try to wake him up. Relatives and attending physicians note that, being kind and accommodating people, during the period of "hibernation" they change beyond recognition. Awakened, they are very sensitive to noise and light, complain that everything around is not in “focus”, too blurry. They can fall asleep at the table and in the toilet, just on the floor, so that a person does not have exhaustion, they will have to feed him very quickly.

At the same time, waking up from sleep, they, on the contrary, demonstrate all the signs of bulimia. In 75% of cases, they have voracity without a feeling of fullness. That is, they suffer. metabolic processes, then the body is completely deprived of food, then it begins to flow without any measure.

Gender differences

In most cases, sleeping beauty syndrome, the treatment of which is currently not possible, occurs most often only in men. However, there are cases in world practice when young girls also suffered from it. All of them are severely disturbed by the usual rhythm of life. During the period of "hibernation" they miss classes, control, important meetings, which is reflected in Everyday life strong enough. In men, hypersexual behavior is formed as compensation, and women are more prone to depressive appearances.

The duration of the disease

It is a chronic disease for which there is no cure. Episodes may occur every 3-6 months. They last 2-3 days or more. The maximum period was fixed at six weeks. In the intervals between them, a person looks quite healthy. In addition to the violations described above, he is no different from his peers. However, the periodic loss of real life has a strong effect. Such people are lagging behind in development, they cannot fully work. When the patient wakes up after an attack, he does not recognize anyone, he does not understand anything. This continues until it is complete. Usually relatives over time already begin to notice the approach of an attack. The patient becomes more aggressive and begins to eat a lot, as if stocking up for a period of hibernation.

Statistics

In total, 1000 patients with this diagnosis have been registered in the world today. Of these, 70% are men. Medicine cannot help them in any way, so relatives have to keep a round-the-clock watch, quit their jobs and forget about normal, ordinary life. It should be noted that in most cases, the symptoms gradually soften, become less pronounced. If the first attack can last more than 10 days, then subsequent ones are usually shorter. The period of remission between them increases, however, bulimia may well cause weight gain.

Psychology and psychotherapy

Both the patient and his family are in dire need of professional help. The sleeping beauty syndrome in psychology is studied very deeply, since all its manifestations need to be corrected. Many experts agree that the cause of the disease is a disorder of the subcortical centers of the hypothalamus, which regulate hunger and thirst, sleep and sexual desire. At the same time, during an attack with a person, no therapy can be carried out. The only thing that psychotherapists and psychiatrists agree on is that lithium helps to improve the condition, at a dosage of 600-1000 mg per day. After about three weeks, the patient's condition improves enough that further work can be carried out.

Even today, we don't know much about Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. What kind of disease, doctors continue to study, and have not yet come to a consensus about its treatment. The choice of a corrective program depends on the patient's condition, his characteristics and complaints. Today, there are many effective techniques, including within the framework of psychoanalysis, symbol drama or art therapy, that will help to correct sexual and eating behavior. Unfortunately, this work only with symptoms, the cause remains unknown. But you don't have to choose. Help is needed not only by the patients themselves, but also by their loved ones. They have to learn how to respond correctly to the patient, to survive the feeling of resentment for the limited own life, and a sense of guilt for this offense. A competent psychologist will teach you how to correctly respond to attacks of aggression before "hibernation" and after waking up. This work is extremely important for all family members, so do not neglect professional help.

Kleine-Levin syndrome is a sleep disorder in which a person is in a state of deep sleep for an abnormally long period. Most often, the patient sleeps for several days or weeks. A case of pathological sleep lasting one and a half months is known.

A distinctive feature of the syndrome is the presence of short periods of wakefulness. A person wakes up for the administration of physiological needs. Then he feels an unprecedented hunger, begins to consume food indiscriminately and in huge quantities, regardless of taste. Behavior is characterized by increased irritability, even aggressiveness. After the final awakening from a sleep fit, the patient cannot remember anything.

The disorder got its name from the names of two scientists who discovered and described it in 1925 (German Klein) and 1936 (American Levin) of the 20th century. Another name for this disorder is Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. It appeared due to the similarity of the symptoms with the description in the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm. This gave reason to assume that the prototype of the heroine of the work existed in reality. The "fabulousness" of the phenomenon also has a logical explanation. The syndrome is extremely rare in the human population; its manifestations cannot be called typical of mental disorders. However, everything else associated with this type of sleep disorder is no less mysterious and not always clear even to scientists.

Causes of the syndrome

The causes of the Klein-Levin syndrome are not fully understood by science. Research on this topic is ongoing. There is a version that rapid hormonal changes in the body are the root cause of the strange sleep and eating patterns. This conclusion leads scientists to analyze the prevalence of the syndrome among people of different ages. Most cases are in teenagers. Boys are subject to the syndrome many times more often than girls, which does not correspond at all to the fabulous version of the name. In girls in the pubertal period, the disorder is observed very rarely (looking ahead, we add that the kiss of the handsome prince will not help them to recover). Among older people, the syndrome is also more often diagnosed in men. In etiology, the hereditary factor is clearly expressed: people of several generations who are related by blood suffer from the disease.

The syndrome can be congenital or acquired. Congenital syndrome is most likely due to heredity. At the beginning of a child's life, it does not manifest itself, but progresses in the future. Medicine also knows cases of acquired syndrome.

According to one hypothesis, provoking factors are autoimmune disorders in the body. A special role is given to autoimmune encephalitis after SARS, affecting the hypothalamus.

Characteristic symptoms

The Kleine-Levin syndrome makes itself felt unexpectedly in the daytime or in the morning. The first sign of it is the occurrence of hypersomnia - severe drowsiness. A person who was not going to go to bed suddenly feels very drowsy and falls asleep for several days. He wakes up energetic and rested, but feels very hungry. Indiscriminate eating is similar to an attack of bulimia. When diagnosing, it is necessary to distinguish between these disorders, since the correct choice of treatment method depends on this.

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is characterized by bouts of binge eating in the evening and at night. Hunger is so strong that a person cannot control the voice of reason. He is not able, for example, to go to the store, cut food for salad, cook food. It seems like a very long time to him. The patient grabs and eats literally everything that can be eaten on the spot and immediately. He also does not care about the taste of food. For example, a piece of herring with a cake for such a patient does not constitute an uncomfortable combination.

Outside of any connection with meals, the patient has increased irritability, nervousness, sexual activity, and emotional instability. Patients have narrowing of consciousness, lack of self-control, sometimes schizophrenia-like seizures. Some vegetative disturbances are expressed, the increased sweating is especially often noted.

If at a young age a person began to suffer from this disorder, his attacks are periodically repeated. Relatives of the patient can even roughly calculate and predict the time of such an attack. This mode of the disease is observed up to 20 years inclusive. Then the periods of remission are lengthened, gradually the disease goes away by itself. The patient's family should be patient and understand that someday this will end.

Although relatives are worried, the patient usually does not have fears for his own health. A person with severe symptoms of Sleeping Beauty Syndrome cannot remember their bouts of sleep and binge eating. His memory suggests nothing but a "normal" sleep one night and a small nighttime snack. All the stories of close people about these events seem to him just a fiction, a joke, a hoax.

Diagnostic methods

A neurologist is involved in the diagnosis and treatment of this syndrome, but it may be necessary to consult a psychotherapist, endocrinologist, somnologist, infectious disease specialist, and other specialists.

It is possible to differentiate with bulimia by the presence of attacks of pathological sleep, the nature of emotional and mental symptoms.

In addition to bulimia, it is necessary to distinguish the syndrome from epilepsy, narcolepsy, depression, lethargic encephalitis.

It is not difficult to diagnose the disease by analyzing the clinical picture. Multiple examinations are not required. In some cases, the doctor may prescribe:

• polysomnography;
• PEC-CT of the brain;
• electroencephalography;
• polygraph recording for positron emission scanning of the brain.

Treatment

There is no single treatment regimen for Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. Scientists from all over the world are looking for it. The direct mechanism of the disease is known to science only hypothetically; medicine is powerless to completely stop the development of the syndrome. The regularity of taking the drugs is not possible, since the patient sleeps almost all the time. It is completely unrealistic to follow a diet, because after waking up the patient is ready to eat everything that is close and edible.

But something can be done. Most often, doctors try to support only the nervous system of the patient. To do this, he can be prescribed antidepressants, nootropic drugs, sedatives (sometimes close relatives of the patient who need iron nerves to survive his illness also need a sedative). The removal of drowsiness and the correction of mental disorders are the only known ways to combat this syndrome today.

However, the effect of drugs is limited in time. In addition, it is not always easy to persuade a person to take the drug. Or he may not have time to take a pill, falling asleep again.

The surest way to treat is to wait out the attacks. The difficulty is that it will take a long time to wait, because sleep lapses are repeated for several years. But after these years, they “suddenly” pass by themselves.

Forecast and prevention

The origin of Kleine-Levin syndrome is not fully understood. There is no need to talk about guaranteed preventive measures. Science has not yet come up with a set of exercises or a special diet to prevent this disorder.

Doctors advise for the prevention of a good night's rest, a small meal before bedtime, control of the psycho-emotional state. If you have health problems - seek medical help in a timely manner.

As a rare, little-understood disease, Sleeping Beauty Syndrome can appear suddenly. But he can just as mysteriously disappear. This usually happens after the 20th year of life, often without medication.

Why and how does this self-healing happen? Medicine has not yet found an answer to this question.

Kleine Levin syndrome (sleeping beauty syndrome) is an unusually rare pathology of the nervous system, with characteristic periods of hypersomnia and excessive hunger. Due to the long duration of sleep, a sick person becomes irritable, nervous, sometimes enters a state of psychosis. He behaves inappropriately, using all products, not paying attention to the quantity and taste preferences. This disease is extremely rare and unique, requires diagnosis.

Origin history:

Frankfurt psychiatrist Willy Klein in 1925 and New York neurologist Max Lewin in 1936 identified cases of the rare, mysterious syndrome. Thanks to the research and observations of these scientists, some answers have been obtained on this disease. Therefore, this unique combination of long sleep and a strong feeling of hunger was named after Willy Klein and Max Levin.

Causes of occurrence:

There is still controversy over the cause of this syndrome. At the moment, using two-photon emission tomography and experiments, the alleged causes of the disease have been identified:

• dysfunction in the reticular formation of the brain and hypothalamus;
• puberty;
• hormonal background;
• craniocerebral damage;
• heredity.

It is difficult to determine which of the reasons is the main one. The scientific community has come to the conclusion that in order to develop sleeping beauty syndrome a combination of several factors is suitable, based on a genetic defect and a hormonal surge in adolescence.

Sleeping beauty syndrome symptoms:

Sleeping beauty syndrome the male sex, aged 13-20 years, is more susceptible, but repeated cases of the disease in the female have also been recorded. Main symptoms:

• long sleep from 20 hours to several days
• bouts of aggression
• Vestibular disorders
• Migraine
• impaired concentration
• fast fatiguability
• depression
• amnesia
• fast weight gain

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome Treatment:

At the moment, a special technique treatment of Klein Lewin's disease not yet found, however, the patient is prescribed special medications. In the fight against hypersomnia, the patient takes stimulants (modafinil and methylphenidate), to stabilize the mental state - lithium and carbamazepine.

Real life example:

A student from Britain, Imaarl Duprey, who was relaxing with friends in a sanatorium, fell to the floor and fell asleep. For 7 days the girl struggled with insane drowsiness, and when she returned home to her parents she slept for 10 days. Attacks of drowsiness happened several more times... During the period of wakefulness, Imaarl was sensitive to light and sound, there were attacks of aggression, she was afraid to go out, she was completely disoriented. During the sleep period, her relatives took care of the girl. As soon as the attacks stopped, the girl became sociable and cheerful.

Kleine-Levin syndrome is a recurrent disorder characterized by disruption of periods of sleep and wakefulness. Its duration can vary from one day to 2-3 weeks. The patient wakes up for only a few hours, while behaving inappropriately and suffering from bouts of gluttony. This is a rather rare pathology, but with its unusual symptoms, it attracts the attention of many scientists.

general information

The first mention of an unusual syndrome dates back to 1925. German psychiatrist Willy Klein described in detail several cases of "hibernation" among his patients. Later, in 1936, the American researcher Max Levin supplemented his colleague's information with five new observations of wakefulness disorders and eating disorders. Soon pathology got its name from the names of two scientists.

Kleine-Levin syndrome, despite its rarity, is singled out as a separate disease among other sleep disorders. To a greater extent, males 15-25 years old are subject to it. Only a few clinical cases have been described in girls. According to scientists, they are all due to fluctuations in the level of progesterone in the body.

Main reasons

How does Kleine-Levin syndrome develop? The etiology of the disease remained unknown until recently. Thanks to the development of science, or rather the emergence of positron emission tomography, some of the assumptions of scientists have been confirmed.

Among the main causes of the development of the disease, experts identify dysfunction of the brain and hypothalamus. Another predisposing factor is the hormonal restructuring of the body, which is confirmed by the detection of pathology among adolescents of both sexes. A certain role is played by viral diseases, craniocerebral injuries, and an unreasonable increase in body temperature. Many patients have a hereditary relationship. Close relatives may suffer from manifestations of such

It is impossible to say which of these factors plays a major role in the development of the disease. Most scientists agree that the pathogenesis of the disease is a certain genetic defect in the regulation of the function of the hypothalamus, which is activated under the influence of hormonal disorders in puberty.

General clinical picture

Kleine-Levin syndrome is characterized by bouts of prolonged sleep (about 20 hours). Their flow is interrupted only by the satisfaction of natural needs. It is impossible to wake the patient at this time. Such attacks can last from several days to two weeks. AT medical literature a case is described when the maximum period of "hibernation" was 42 days.

With each attack, sleep is not complete. A person does not rest, and after each awakening, due to lack of strength, he falls asleep again. When the episode ends, the patient feels a strong feeling of hunger. He starts eating everything that gets in his way. After satisfying the feeling of hunger, the patient goes back to sleep.

What other symptoms does Klein-Levin syndrome have? Short periods of wakefulness are sometimes accompanied by excessive aggressiveness and irritability, hallucinations. When the exacerbation ends, the patient gradually returns to the usual pace of life. He may not remember the last few days or weeks, believing he only slept one night. Outside of attacks, a person looks absolutely healthy. However, against the background of uncontrolled appetite, his body weight may increase.

Treatment

A clear treatment regimen for this disease does not exist for two reasons. First, the exact cause of its development has not been identified. Secondly, pathology tends to spontaneous regression. Therefore, many doctors do not see the need for drug therapy.

"Hibernation" for several weeks, an uncontrollable feeling of hunger - these symptoms directly characterize the Kleine-Levin syndrome. Treatment is prescribed if such disorders cause discomfort to the patient's relatives. What drugs are prescribed to patients? As a rule, these are neuroleptics, tranquilizers and antidepressants. These funds are prescribed individually, taking into account the nature of the course of the disease. Dosed their use helps to reduce the number of seizures, promotes prolonged remission. It is advisable to use drugs only as a symptomatic therapy. They help not only the patient himself, but his relatives to survive the difficult period.

Forecast

Kleine-Levin syndrome, appearing unexpectedly, gradually reduces its manifestations. What does this mean? Over time, the attacks become not so long, and the intervals between them increase. As a result, the disease is spontaneously eliminated, leaving no visible problems with health.

Summing up

Now you know what Kleine-Levin syndrome has. The causes of this disease are not fully understood. effective ways no treatment has been developed. Patients who have had to deal with bouts of prolonged sleep and excessive appetite simply need to survive them. Pathology always ends in complete recovery. Currently, scientists are actively working on the issue of creating a radical treatment for the syndrome.