02-10-2010, 05:48 PM
She is known to her family and friends as 'Sleeping Beauty' - but her life is no fairytale.
Louisa Ball, 15, sleeps for two weeks at a time because she suffers from an incredibly rare disorder.
She misses school exams, dance lessons and even missed an entire week’s holiday away with the family as she slept the whole way through.
Sleeping beauty Louisa Ball suffers from Kleine-Levin Syndrome, a rare condition where people sleep for weeks at a time
Louisa, who lives in Worthing, has been diagnosed with Kleine-Levin Syndrome - also known as Sleeping Beauty Disease - where sufferers can fall into deep sleeps that can last for weeks.
She first developed the disorder in October 2008 after recovering from a bout of flu.
Her mother Lottie, 45, said: ‘She had a dose of flu that lasted for about a week but she never really recovered properly from it.
‘We afterwards found out that it was the start of a sleep mode, which comes before the deep sleeps.
‘She was exhausted and didn’t seem to be getting any better. She started to fall asleep at school and was rambling about things that didn’t make sense - just like she was talking in her sleep.
‘It really scared us, we didn’t know what to do. It just didn’t seem like Louisa was the daughter we used to know - she was like a different person.’
Louisa was referred to Worthing General Hospital in November that year and the paediatric consultant there told the couple that he didn’t know what was wrong with Louisa, but it may be hormonal.
By then Louisa was sleeping for ten days at a time. She would sleep deeply for 22 hours, then her parents would wake her just long enough to give her some food and take her to the toilet, then she would fall back to sleep.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z0f9ZA6sWv
Louisa Ball, 15, sleeps for two weeks at a time because she suffers from an incredibly rare disorder.
She misses school exams, dance lessons and even missed an entire week’s holiday away with the family as she slept the whole way through.
Sleeping beauty Louisa Ball suffers from Kleine-Levin Syndrome, a rare condition where people sleep for weeks at a time
Louisa, who lives in Worthing, has been diagnosed with Kleine-Levin Syndrome - also known as Sleeping Beauty Disease - where sufferers can fall into deep sleeps that can last for weeks.
She first developed the disorder in October 2008 after recovering from a bout of flu.
Her mother Lottie, 45, said: ‘She had a dose of flu that lasted for about a week but she never really recovered properly from it.
‘We afterwards found out that it was the start of a sleep mode, which comes before the deep sleeps.
‘She was exhausted and didn’t seem to be getting any better. She started to fall asleep at school and was rambling about things that didn’t make sense - just like she was talking in her sleep.
‘It really scared us, we didn’t know what to do. It just didn’t seem like Louisa was the daughter we used to know - she was like a different person.’
Louisa was referred to Worthing General Hospital in November that year and the paediatric consultant there told the couple that he didn’t know what was wrong with Louisa, but it may be hormonal.
By then Louisa was sleeping for ten days at a time. She would sleep deeply for 22 hours, then her parents would wake her just long enough to give her some food and take her to the toilet, then she would fall back to sleep.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z0f9ZA6sWv