Teenager with 'Sleeping Beauty Syndrome' slept for 64 days

19 November, 2012

Sleeping beauty syndrome is a rare kind of sleeping disorder. Nicole Delien, 17, from Pennsylvania is suffering with this syndrome and 64 days sleep was her longest episode of illness.

KLEINE-LEVIN syndrome is the technical name given to this rare sleeping disorder. This is characterized by recurrent episodes of excessive sleep and a change in behavior. The person with this syndrome can sleep up to twenty hours a day; they do sleep walking to eat or to use the washroom.

The common symptoms of sleeping beauty syndrome are irritability, lack of energy, lack of emotions, disorientation, compulsive overeating, impulsive behavior, abnormally uninhibited sex drive and hallucination. The episodes of this rare disorder may not occur frequently, but they appear without any prior warning and between the episodes the individual behaves normally.

Vicki Delien, mother of the Nicole Delien said that Nicole sleeps for 18 or 19 hours a day, and she wakes up to eat in a sleepwalking state and she doesn't remember the things she does during her sleep. She also said that the diagnosis of this syndrome was very difficult; they went to various hospitals to know about the problem but the syndrome was finally diagnosed when a doctor at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania finally realized that the girl was suffering from Kleine-Levin syndrome.

The syndrome usually affects the people between the age group 15 to 25 years and is very rare after 40 years. Till now there is no specific treatment for this disorder. The physician may prescribe stimulant medications that may help to treat sleepiness, medication to treaty depression and to treat mood disturbance.

Nicole says that she has missed many important events in her life like thanksgiving, birthday, Christmas and the family’s first trip to Disney World due to this rare sleeping disorder. She also missed an opportunity to meet pop singer Katy Perry who was one of her favorites. But after knowing about the problem Perry made sure that she will meet her again, reported Mail Online.

Nicole said that she is very scared of repetition of the episode again. Her last sleeping episode was in March.