Sleep is an activity that almost every living thing needs, and if not performed, it can leave irreversible effects on the body. Our body, which works like a nuclear power plant, performs many activities during the day and converts the food we eat into energy by burning it. Of course, like everything else, our body also needs rest. This is where sleep comes into play. When we sleep, our body rests, and our brain performs some activities that it cannot do during the day due to the intensity. Well, have you ever thought about what would happen if you couldn’t wake up for years once you went to sleep?
When we look at nature, we see that some creatures such as bears hibernate. In humans, this is not the case. We can survive with an average of 8 hours of sleep in a 24-hour day instead of long-term sleep. Could you sleep for 9 years?
This is exactly what happened to a 19th century boy named Ellen Sadler. In the incident that took place in the village of Turville, England, the 11-year-old little girl slept for one night and continued to sleep for 9 years. Let’s take a closer look at the story of the real sleeping beauty, one of the most interesting sleeping events in history.
The girl who slept for 9 years: Ellen Sadler
Born on May 15, 1859, Sadler was sent to work as a caregiver at the age of 11. After a while, Sadler started to exhibit lethargic attitudes at his workplace and was fired for this reason. A doctor discovered that the little girl had bumps or an abscess on the back of her head. His symptoms suggested spinal cord injury. Sadler was hospitalized for 18 weeks due to this illness, but could not be cured.
Two days after coming home; He had a seizure on March 17, 1871. His mother, Dr. He told Henry Hayman that Sadler had put his hand under his head and pulled his feet to his stomach, turning to his left side and falling asleep. Thus, Sadler’s sleep period began. Dr. Hayman noted that when he visited the little boy again years later, he continued to lie in the same way.
Sadler’s sleep aroused great curiosity
Whether or not Sadler fell asleep or not aroused great interest not only on the local agenda, but also around the world. Those who wanted to see the little girl flocked to the house. The family started to earn money from this situation. Those who came home to see the little girl earned the family up to £2 a week. (Good money back then)
In addition to trying to wake the little girl in their own way, those who came to see Sadler in her sleep also donated in exchange for a small lock of her hair. These donations led to an investigation on the grounds that the family was gaining from the girl, but nothing came out of the investigations as they did not extort money from anyone.
The little boy that everyone thought was dead at first wasn’t actually dead. The article published by the Times magazine in 1871 presented very important statements about the little girl. The Times, which made a statement as “one of the most incredible, inexplicable physiological phenomena ever encountered”, announced the event to the whole world with an article it published.
A Bucks Free Press reporter described the young girl’s sleeping condition as follows: “Her breathing was regular and natural, her skin was soft and her body warm. Her pulse was quite fast, just like in a healthy subject. Her hands were small and thin, but her fingers were quite flexible. Her body was a little weak, her feet and her legs were almost icy, like those of a dead child… Her eyes and cheeks were sunken, her appearance dead-like but not pale, although there was no color on her cheeks.”
A reporter from The Daily Telegraph used the following expressions: “The girl’s face is definitely not a cadaver. There is a pinkish tint on the cheeks and some color on the thin lips. Eyes are calmly closed, as if in a healthy sleep. Lift one of the eyelids to the lower eye. I dared touch it, but there was not even a tremor in the eyelash… Her hand was quite warm and moist. Her nails were also neatly trimmed. There was not the slightest hardening of the fingers. He was very thin for… His feet were almost as cold as ice.”
Feeding and toileting process
Feeding Sadler was also an extremely difficult process. In March 1873, Sadler was said to be starving. Sadler’s mother fed the little girl three times a day with milk, tea and formula. Maybe the little girl who slept in her best years, after a while, her jaws locked. Wine, oatmeal, and other items were then continued to be served through the spout of a toy teapot placed between two broken teeth.
The little girl’s toilet was also a separate process. Dr. Hayman wrote that the girl’s mother had not had a bowel movement for 5 years, but some feces came out of the bladder every four days.
Have any doubts?
There were people who were skeptical of this situation because it was an unprecedented event. His mother allowed short visits from the doctors, but did not want him to be hospitalized again. Although neighbors said they saw the girl in the window at night, Dr. Hayman said that if there was a deception, every effort was made to reveal the incident, but it was ineffective. Although the family accepted donations from visitors, they never asked for money; That’s why they didn’t commit a crime. The Daily Telegraph correspondent stated, “I have no medical knowledge and am unqualified to give opinion beyond verification by ordinary kind of observation. Preparing to find a fraud, I went to Turville. I came back – baffled.”
Every sleep has an awakening
Her mother, who looked after the little girl while she slept, died of a heart attack in 1880. According to the doctors, the mother’s death was due to the stress and mental problems Ellen had experienced as a result of her losing faith that she would wake up one day. Five months after her mother’s death, she awoke from her 9-year sleep. The little boy who slept at the age of 11 woke up as a young girl at the age of 21. Waking up on New Year’s Eve in 1880, the young girl made the headlines in the newspapers on January 1, 1881.
When he awoke, his brothers were around him. Injured by the news of her parents’ death, 21-year-old Ellen had never dreamed but felt as if she had just woken up from a dream. Although he was 21 when he first woke up, he was mentally 11 years old. He enlisted the help of his aunt, Grace Blackall, in the process. The money collected while she was sleeping was spent, and Ellen was again in economic hardship. A few years after his awakening, he married a farmer and gave birth to 6 children. He died in 1901.
What is the scientific explanation for Ellen’s story?
After Ellen woke up, Dr. Gelineua began researching Ellen to figure out why she fell into a deep sleep. As a result of research on Ellen, the disease we know today as narcolepsy was discovered for the first time. .
Narcolepsy is a rare brain disorder. This disease, which causes a person to fall asleep suddenly, puts the person into sleep paralysis. Narcolepsy is caused by a deficiency of orexin, the chemical in the brain that keeps us awake. Although it does not cause long-term health problems, it causes the individual to spend most of his life sleeping, just like Ellen. This causes psychological health problems.
So what do you guys think about Ellen’s story? You can share your thoughts with us in the comments section. If you want more content like this to come, we welcome you to the comments.
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