Kleine-Levin syndrome forces sleep to excess

Louisa Ball can sleep up to 10 continuous days due to a strange neurological disorder called Syndrome Kleine-Levin (KLS). This is a strange case, because KLS usually affects male adolescents at the beginning of the second decade of life, who, in addition to presenting the somnolent state, also develop other associated symptoms such as inappropriate behaviors and excessive interest in sex.

People who have another sleep disorder called narcolepsy they fall asleep immediately, but people with KLS start to sleep day to day a little more , until they finally sleep uninterruptedly. If parents try to wake up patients they become aggressive.

Patients with these symptoms have abnormalities in the temporal lobe, the area of ​​the brain that is related to behavior and memory. A scanner of Louisa's brain revealed that she has certain differences in the frontal lobe , but there are no signs that this is affecting your behavior or your memory.

In addition to sleeping too much, symptoms include behavioral changes , irritability, the sensation of being as in a dream and compulsive desire to eat, some of which may be confused with characteristics of adolescent behavior.

The good news is that this disease can disappear in the same way it appeared. It usually happens after 10 or 15 years. So Louisa is currently going through a good period and has not had an episode in more than 3 months; however, Louisa's parents constantly watch her for signs of a somnolent state.

The expert doctors take them close to4 years confirm a diagnosis of this syndrome since it is necessary to discard other types of disorders.

The syndrome received its name due to the contributions of Willi Kleine, a neurologist from Frankfurt, and Max Levin, a psychiatrist from New York, made about the identification of patients with the same symptoms in 1925 and 1936.

Text source: BBCMundo

Video source: youtube.com