Possible description of Kleine-Levin syndrome in “The Daredevils of Sassoun” Armenian medieval epic poem

Samson G. Khachatryan*, Hrayr P. Attarian

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

“The Daredevils of Sassoun” is an Armenian national epic poem originating from the eighth century CE. In its “David of Sassoun” branch we found an intriguing description of a strange sleep pattern of Msrah Melik - David's enemy. In one of the main episodes he was described as being in deep sleep for three days while David was attacking his men. Melik's guards tell David that he still needs to complete his 7-day-long sleep. The pattern duration, periodic occurrence and some additional signs described in the poem's text clearly resemble Kleine-Levin syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, this could be the first description of Kleine-Levin syndrome.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)246-249
Number of pages4
JournalSleep Medicine
Volume73
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2020

Funding

The authors thank National Gallery of Armenia for permission to use illustrations of Hakob Kojoyan's “David of Sassoun” painting in this article.

Keywords

  • Armenian epic poem
  • Kleine-Levin syndrome
  • Periodic hypersomnolence
  • Recurrent hypersomnia
  • “The Daredevils of Sassoun”

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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