âWake up to this mystery illnessâ Peter Gruner talks to Dr Suzanne OâSullivan about a perplexing sleeping disorder suffered by children under stress 27 May, 2021 â By Peter Gruner Suzanne OâSullivan. Photo: Jonathan Greet A LEADING Bloomsbury medical consultant has shone a light on one of the worldâs most mysterious illnesses, in which groups of young children sleep, sometimes for more than a year. Now, in an interview with Review, Dr Suzanne OâSullivan, author of The Sleeping Beauties and other Stories of Mystery Illness, calls for more understanding and compassion for the worrying condition. She believes that rather than suffering from a biological disease, the children â all primary school-age girls living in Sweden â may be affected by a kind of psychosomatic illness described as âresignation-syndromeâ.