This is the first of a series of teasers for The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up. It was originally going to be a chapter in the book itself, but I decided to slice it out, because word count is getting high and it's peripheral to the narrative of the main story and doesn't have to do with genuine IH or narcolepsy. Someday I will visit the Lucca area and see Camigliano for myself.
With respect to hypersomnia, the Camigliano episode was essentially a giant red herring or "the emperor has no clothes" story. It made sleep researchers around the world skeptical when Rye et al came along to propose a GABA-based mechanism. It does illustrate how the concept of "endozepines" was attractive. The book will still have case reports and clinical trials on flumazenil + hepatic encephalopathy.
The downfall of "idiopathic recurring stupor"