The Re-awakening of the Sleeping Beauty Curse

The Disney Princesses
Source: silentmermaid21 on deviantart.com

Imagine going back to your childhood days, frolicking around, having nothing better to do than to watch Disney movies. Who can forget those moments we relished as a child as we were engrossed with the melodic storylines and fuzzy feelings after a happy ending? Especially as a young girl, it was easy to fantasize being the princess and maybe young boys did the same imagining themselves as the prince. However, what about now? If we were given the chance to live the life of a Disney princess, who would it be? Would it be the curious and free-spirited Ariel, or the stunning yet cursed beauty, Aurora? Whoever it might be, we are just imagining this princess life as make believe… or are we?

In a recent interview, 17 year old Nicole Delien describes her life as a Disney princess – only for her it is nothing like what the movies portray.  Who would have thought that the sleeping beauty could be seen in real life?

As mentioned above, the Kleine-Levin Syndrome (KLS) or the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome is a rare disease characterized by repeated episodes of hypersomnia and to various extent, behavioural or cognitive disturbances, compulsive eating behaviour and hypersexuality.  According to a study that reported 186 cases of KLS patients, each case proposed different variations of the above mentioned symptoms.  Firstly, hypersomnia, the major indicator, was present in all cases with the typical sleep duration during episodes to be 12 – 24 hours a day.  Secondly, a majority of patients had cognitive disturbances with concentration, confusion, attention and memory. Abnormal speech, such as being mute or use of childish language, was also common. Many patients seemed to have amnesia of the events that occurred during an episode but in between, patients were described to be normal. Lastly, frequent food cravings and hyperphagia symptomized compulsive eating behaviours and hypersexuality symptoms shown during episodes frequented more in men.

Food binge
Source: Josie Mai, VMfitness

Unlike the definite curse from the evil fairy in the Sleeping Beauty, diagnosis of KLS is very difficult since there are no distinct symptoms leading to this disease. Instead, KLS is a diagnosis of exclusion, where elimination from a long list of other conditions that could mimic the symptoms are crossed off one by one. Due to this ambiguity, people with KLS are often mistakenly diagnosed with psychiatric or bipolar disorder. On top of this, if KLS was able to get treated by a simple kiss from a “prince”, the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome would greatly be acknowledged for the rightful title of its name; however, not all relations go according to the storyline. Despite many treatment possibilities tested by drug studies, an explicit treatment still needs to be found.

Overall, Nicole’s story has yet to find a happy ending and until then, we can only hope that her princess life will not tire her out too much.

Posted by: Alice Koh