Rip Van Winkle Disease

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/medical-mysteries/rip-van-winkle-disease/article_view

Summary:
The Kleine-Levin Syndrome (KLS), better known as the Rip Van Winkle Disease, causes teen to enter into hypersomnia - sleeping straight for days, sometimes weeks. KLS develops in the early teens and usually starts to lessen in the midtwenties and eventually disappears in the thirties. KLS is very uncommon and for that reason it is hard to tell what causes KLS.
One doctor, Emmanuel Mignot, at Stanford University, studied KLS and said that "KLS is without a question a distinct disorder". When studying the symptoms in many cases, flulike infection precedes KLS. Soon after the flulike symptoms the patient is affected by hypersomnia, which last usually around ten days.
When the patient is in hypersomnia most normal functions are lost. During this time they will only get up to bathe, take care of bodily functions and eat. When KLS is in effect there seems to be a hard time focusing and everything is hazy and confusing. Eric Haller, age seventeen, who suffers from KLS since age 12, says that all he can do is watch mindless videos which he has seen millions of times. When eating it is common that 60-70% of the patients would eat sweets, potato chips, and high-calorie "comfort " foods. Other characteristics of KLS show that patients may engage in inappropriate sexual behavior and difficulty focusing mentally. Also patients can not recall anything that happen during the KLS episode. When they wake up they have to be told what they missed in life.
Recent studies have suggested that KLS is a genetic disorder. When KLS patients and families were asked similar questions, it seemed that the syndrome affected Ashkenazi Jews more than any other nationality. With this information doctors were convinced that there must be a strong genetic link. In other studies of the brain researchers have seen abnormal activity in the hypothalamus and the thalamus, parts of the brain which regulate sleep, eating, and sex.
Although there is no cure for KLS, treatments that have been given to try to help are lithium, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and mood stabilizers.

Response:
Amazing. I can't believe that KLS can keep a person asleep for many days. I find it fascinating that the brain and parts of the brain control different functions and that when just one part of the brain is affected it effects many functions. Also KLS is fascinating to me in the way that one person is in a coma-like sleep but they still function by eating and having sexual behaviors. It is interesting to see that a common connection to flu leads to a state of hypersomnia. And I can't imagine falling asleep and missing some of my life and having to hear about it from others.