A Teenage Sleeping Beauty

A lot of people have trouble waking up in the morning, but for fifteen year old Louisa Ball, it is sometimes almost impossible. The British teenager has Kleine-Levin Syndrome, also called Sleeping Beauty Sickness, a rare illness that causes victims to fall asleep for days, even weeks.

For Louisa, it started over a year ago when she began to experience symptoms similar to those of the flu. But it was soon clear that it was something more than that which was causing her grogginess, as she soon fell into her first prolonged sleep.

Her mother, Lottie Ball, recalls that Louisa could not be woken up. “It was just really constant ‘Louisa, will you get up, please. Have something to eat.’ She couldn’t have the energy to just open her eyelids”, she said in an interview with NBC News. Her parents almost have to force-feed her when she falls into these extended periods of sleep and they struggle to awaken her so that she can use the bathroom.

For weeks to months, Louisa lives the life of a normal teenager. But then she starts to become easily irritated and starts talking less, and she knows that she needs to get to bed. The teenager has missed tests in school, dance recitals, family vacations, and other social events that most girls her age get to experience. Her longest time asleep has been thirteen days straight. Louisa's friends do their best to update her on what she missed and help her live out her teenage years normally, but it's often hard for her to be up to date with both her social life and school work. “I’m so upset about having this illness. I know there’s so much I’m missing out on", the fifteen year old said. She has even been accused of simply being an attention-seeker by people who refuse to believe that she really can't wake up.

Not much is known about the mysterious illness, although some doctors believe that it is caused by viral infections.

Worldwide, there are only about 1,000 known victims of Kleine-Levin Sydrome. Currently, there is no cure for the illness, although the condition, which is developed in the teenage years, should be grown out of in eight to ten years. Still, people like Louis are missing what can add up to years of their life asleep.