Harriet Tubman's Hypersomnia: Insights from Historical and Medical Perspectives.
Journal of General Internal Medicine December 1, 2023 Evan A Balmuth, Thomas E Scammell
Harriet Tubman, a hero of the abolitionist movement, suffered a childhood head injury that led to sleep attacks and visions documented in historical accounts. Her contemporaries viewed these episodes as expressions of her faith, not illness. The authors propose that her sleep attacks, often attributed to temporal lobe epilepsy, actually represent post-traumatic narcolepsy. Using historical analysis and modern sleep medicine, they examine the long-term effects of severe traumatic brain injury, consider differential diagnoses for excessive daytime sleepiness and hypnagogic hallucinations, and review narcolepsy's pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. Tubman persevered despite intrusive sleep episodes to work for the betterment of others.