Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is a rare form of Migraine aura. The most distinctive symptom of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is this type of metamorphosia, a distortion of body image and perspective, which affected Migraine patients know is not real. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome can occur at any age, but is more commonly experienced by children.
The name Alice in Wonderland Syndrome comes from the opening scenes of “Alice in Wonderland,” after Alice jumps down a rabbit hole and lands in a hallway where she finds a bottle which she drinks that causes her to shrink:
“I must be shutting up like a telescope. And so it was indeed: She was now only 10 inches high … ” Later, she eats a piece of cake that makes her grow: ‘Curiouser and couriouser,’ cried Alice. ‘Now I am opening out like the largest telescope that every was! Goodbye feet! ‘(For when she looked down at her feet they seemed to be almost out of sight they were getting so far off.)”
Lewis Carroll, the author of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.” Carroll is known to have had Migraine disease, and it’s thought that much of the imagery for these writings may have been inspired by his own Migraine auras.