Louise Ball, a 15 year old girl in the UK has just be diagnosed with a very rare disorder called Kleine-Levin Syndrome. Her parents call her Sleeping Beauty because she sleeps for two weeks at a time. She's had to miss out on school exams, dancing lessons and she once slept right through a family holiday.
It all started with a bad dose of the flu. She was very sick for about a week but didn't recover properly from it. Her mother said "We found out that it was the start of a sleep mode which comes before deep sleep. She started to fall asleep at school and began muttering things that didn't make any sense, as though she was talking in her sleep.
Her parents were beside themselves when she started sleeping for ten days at a time. She would sleep deeply for 22 hours and then her parents would wake her up, just long enough to give her some food and take her to the toilet, then she would fall straight back to sleep again.
After many visits to doctors and hospitals who had no idea what was wrong, a consultant Paediatric eventually diagnosed her with Kleine-Levin Syndrome. It's a rare form of periodic hypersomnia, periods of prolonged sleep.
Although the doctors are having some difficulty finding the right drug for Louise, the latest medication seems to be working, she hasn't fallen asleep for about 7 weeks. Naturally, her parents were frantic that she would fall so far behind in her schoolwork, she wouldn't pass her exams. Then there was the added worry of whether she could stay awake long enough to finish them. They will be seeking help and understanding from her school.
For more information visit KLS Foundation at http://www.klsfoundation.org/
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