karolina olsson went to bed in sweden in 1876 at 14 years old and, according to the historical record, did not properly wake again until 1908, 32 years later. what makes the story even stranger is that after waking she could still read and write, remembered what she had learned before the episode, and was later described as mentally intact.
the part i find most fascinating is that we still do not really know what those 32 years were. sleep, catatonia, an unusual psychiatric condition, something partly performed, or some combination of things? even contemporary accounts left major questions unanswered. there is something deeply unsettling about a life containing three decades that nobody, including the person who lived them, can fully explain.
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