Real Life Sleeping Beauties
In 1871 a young girl called Ellen Sadler became a real life Sleeping Beauty. Ellen had been working as a nurse-maid since the age of 11, but with her distant and day-dreamy character she was asked to leave her position. Soon after she did she began often complain of a headache and was taken to the doctor. Ellen was diagnosed with an abscess and stayed in hospital to recover for seventeen weeks, upon feeling better she was released from hospital and returned home. Within 2 days she fell asleep.
Ellen stayed asleep for many years to come and doctors and journalist often visited to see for themselves the girl who always slept. Many sceptics said her mother was just wanting to make some money for her poor family, charging visitors to see the sleeping girl. Doctors viewed the girl to look for signs of life and found her breathing to be normal, but her body thin and her feet and hands cold. Ellen’s mother claimed to feed Ellen only port and water through a tube and left a hot water bottle under her feet to keep her warm. Neighbours often told tales of seeing Ellen at her window at night but until her mother died in May 1880 she stayed asleep totalling nine years altogether awaking in the New Year of 1881. When she awoke she still acted like a child and could remember very little of her time asleep. Ellen later moved away from her home town, married and otherwise lived a full and healthy life.
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Kleine Levin Syndrome
Kleine Levin syndrome is a condition which effects mainly teenagers as they reach their late teens. Patients will appear normal for several weeks at a time, before becoming drowsy and having to sleep for days on end. Within this state, which patients call “Sleep mode”, they require constant care with guardians having to wake them up once a day to eat and go to the toilet. When a patient is experiencing an episode they often become aggressive and child-like, though after their episode is finished they will remember very little from their time asleep.
The episodes can last from a couple of days to weeks at a time and cannot be predicted. Sufferers have missed holidays, exams and even Christmas within an episode. No effective treatments have been found so far for the condition, but stimulants, hormones and sometimes mood stabilisers are used to help patients but often do not have an effect on the condition. Klein Levin Syndrome patients have large portions of their lives taken away from them and on average have the condition for around 4 years or more of their adolescent lives. A cause to the condition has not been found and no abnormal brainwaves or activity have ever been found.
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