Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26392556-20150410163652/@comment-25926288-20150601105714

Yeah, I agree with Hm. It's just a stronger version of the sleeping spell. We've seen Regina do it to Pinocchio and Geppetto, to the lost boys, and Zelena do it to the Merry Men, but Maleficent with her staff managed to do it over the whole town (and even the whole castle town in a flashback).

The sleeping curse makes them sleep a long period of time or forever (which a strong sleeping spell can effectively do if they were immortal), but also drags their soul to the Netherworld for I assume torture.

Side-Note: I wish they made Mal a bit more like the Original Disney version who wasn't foiled by TLK, but knew that it would break, but wanted Phillip (or Stefan) to break it after countless years had past. And yes, during sleeping curses, you don't age.