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# Real Life Sleeping Beauty Struggles to Live Normal Life
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/real_life_sleeping_beauty_struggles_to_live_life_0902100751/
- Published: 2010-02-09T19:49:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T12:41:14.000Z
- Description: Fifteen-year-old Louisa Ball sleeps for days at a time, most recently 13, with Kleine Levin syndrome, diagnosed in only about 1,000 people worldwide. Some physicians believe a viral infection sets it off and that it runs its course over 8 to 12 years.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Disease, Health News, #vivvo-import

While most teenagers require more sleep than any other age group, 15-year-old Louisa Ball, a real life sleeping beauty, has been forced to take her sleeping habits to the next level.

Last year, Ball had flu-like symptoms which were a prelude to days of sleeping without rousing for anything. The official name of the condition is the “Kleine Levin Syndrome” or sleeping beauty syndrome; it is so rare that only 1000 cases have been diagnosed world wide.

Her friends can tell when Louisa is about to go down for the proverbial count; she gets irritable, distant and groggy. Soon thereafter, she falls asleep for days at a time. Her most recent episode lasted 13 days; her parents awakened her only to go to the bathroom, as periods of wakefulness are not fully experienced until the episode has lapsed.

Certainly, the sickness interferes tremendously with Ball’s everyday existence. Being a real life sleeping beauty, she resents having to make up exams and homework assignments at this age, as it gets harder and harder to catch up with her peers.

Where does the sickness come from? Some physicians believe sleeping beauty syndrome is set off by some sort of viral infection that simply must run its course (from 8-12 years)

Other Sleeping Illnesses

Sleeping beauty syndrome or disorder isn’t the only sleeping sickness humans can contract. African trypanosiomiasis is a fatal condition that is spread by tsetse fly bites; symptoms include fever, headache and extreme fatigue. At some point the disease attacks the central nervous system, leading to severe infection and ultimately, death.

Narcolepsy

Most experts believe that narcolepsy is triggered by a chemical imbalance in the brain; patients with the illness suffer from bouts of daytime sleepiness, and lapse into a deep sleep within only a few minutes (the average adult enters into REM sleep after 90 minutes). According to WebMD, scientists have made great strides in identifying the genes associated with narcolepsy, even though they are still stumped over what triggers it. Symptoms of narcolepsy include excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis and hallucinations.

By Rachel Stockton