Remember the tale of Sleeping Beauty? Well, it turns out a person really can sleep for that long…well almost! Meet the modern-day equivalent of the fairytale character, 15-year-old British girl, Stacey Comerford. She recently fell asleep….and woke up two months later!
Comerford has Kleine-Levin Syndrome, often known as "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome," a condition that causes "episodes" in which people who have it sleep for as long as 20 hours a day for periods of time. Comerford's last episode lasted two entire months, from April to June. CRAZY RIGHT?!
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But apparently, she wasn't entirely unconscious during the time. "When she's in an episode, she might get up to go to the toilet or get a drink but she's not awake. I call it sleep mode," Comerford's mother, Bernie, told The Sun, also adding that she feeds her when she's in this trance-like state. "When she wakes, she thinks it's the following day. She doesn't have any memory of it."
Another side effect of Comerford's "sleep modes?" Her mother explains that the teen also becomes quite childish and moody. The condition is apparently pretty rare and almost always manifests itself in teens, with symptoms stopping once they reach adulthood. According to the National Institutes of Health, there is no exact treatment for the condition.
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What! I can't believe something like this actually exists! I wasn't aware of this sleep disorder before today, but it's so strange just hearing about it that I can't imagine what it must be like actually having it. How do you just put your whole life on pause for all that time? And does that mean the mom has to stay with her daughter throughout the entire duration of her episode? It must be extremely difficult to live normally, knowing you can fall into a "sleep mode" at any time.
I hope for Comerford's sake that she grows out of the symptoms and sooner rather than later. And I, for one, am never going to complain about my own less-than-perfect sleeping patterns again!
Learn more about the condition here:
What do you think of this sleep disorder? Tell us in the comments below!
Image via Thinkstock
