- Wednesday, May 01, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN the Hindu epic of Ramayana, Kumbhakaran, the brother of King Ravana, was known for sleeping six months a year. In modern-day India, too, a man has been found who reportedly ‘sleeps’ three weeks every month although unlike the character from the epic, he is suffering from a neurological disorder.
Pukharam Devi from the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan ‘sleeps’ away his life because of the neurological ailment which has even made him miss the growing up of his two children. The 42-year-old man has axis hypersomnia, a chronic condition which turns a nap into a marathon sleep.
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Like Kumbhakaran who had to be violently shaken up from sleep for food, Pukharam’s family also has to do something similar to him to get him to sit upright to feed him.
“He eats with his eyes closed and they have to keep prodding him to keep him upright,” Hanuman Tanwar, a reporter who visited him at his home in the state’s Bhadwa village, said, according to The Times.
The man doesn’t even get up to go to the bathroom. His family bathes him while he sleeps and his family has to clean him.
Pukharam’s symptoms first came to the fore 23 years ago soon after he married. He had a small grocery store where he used to fall asleep often, irking his customers. When the ailment got worse, he had to stop running the shop.
Initially, the man used to sleep five or six hours daily but the duration slowly became longer. His wife Lachmi Devi and mother Kanvari Devi were ashamed of it but could not take the man to an urban hospital because of poor financial conditions.
Then a time came when Pukharam failed to wake up for an entire month, despite being shaken by his family. They panicked and consulted a local doctor who said he had “never seen anything like it in his entire life”, The Times report said.
The Times quoted one doctor who said that he could only make a tentative diagnosis of the man because no tests had been conducted. “He was physically absolutely fine. I told the family to get an MRI [scan] of his brain done and to consult a neuro-physician but I don’t think they will because they are too poor,” he said.
However, Pukharam feels he has not rested enough despite having so much sleep. “I feel achy and fatigued and I have headaches,” he said.
His wife believes that one day Pukharam will stay awake long enough to talk to her properly. She said even when her husband wakes up, he looks lethargic and his eyes remain half-shut. She could not remember when she saw him alert last time.
