{"id":223007,"date":"2023-10-04T18:09:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T18:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allworldreport.com\/?p=223007"},"modified":"2023-10-04T18:09:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T18:09:08","slug":"im-terrified-to-go-to-bed-sleeping-beauty-syndrome-means-sometimes-i-dont-wake-up-for-weeks-at-a-time-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allworldreport.com\/lifestyle\/im-terrified-to-go-to-bed-sleeping-beauty-syndrome-means-sometimes-i-dont-wake-up-for-weeks-at-a-time-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"I'm terrified to go to bed – Sleeping Beauty syndrome means sometimes I don't wake up for WEEKS at a time | The Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NURSE is terrified to go to bed as her Sleeping Beauty syndrome means she sometimes doesn't wake up for two weeks at a time. <\/p>\n

Bella Andreou suffers from a rare disorder which puts her in a "zombie-like" slumber for more than 20 hours a day.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

It has seen her snooze through entire holidays, gigs, her own birthday parties, and even her friend's wedding while a bridesmaid. <\/p>\n

The 24-year-old only received her official diagnosis of Kleine-Levin Syndrome (KLS) – also known as Sleeping Beauty syndrome – on September 14, despite having countless episodes since she was 17. <\/p>\n

The nurse, from Newcastle, claims to have lost nearly a year of her life to it – and constantly lives in fear. <\/p>\n

She said: "I really struggle with bedtime and going to sleep because of the fear of whether I'm going to wake up tomorrow. Sleep for me is a huge issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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"I'm only recently out of an episode so my anxiety is more heightened at the moment. I'm having to sleep with the light on."\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bella first suffered a sleeping episode in 2016 after getting drunk for the first time at an A-Level results party.<\/p>\n

It sent her into a 10-day period of brain fog and dozing, which she first thought was just a hangover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between ages 17 and 18, Bella experienced episodes every four weeks, each lasting between seven and 10 days at a time. <\/p>\n

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But her GP allegedly told her she was just "doing it for attention". <\/p>\n

She said the nickname 'Sleeping Beauty syndrome' fails to capture just how bad it is, comparing the condition to a "living nightmare" that leaves her dazed and "like a ghost". <\/p>\n

Bella, who now lives in Devon, said: "For a few months I was living with the fear that I was going mentally insane, thinking somebody was going to lock me up. <\/p>\n

"I knew something was wrong with me – my parents described it as, 'The lights are on but nobody's home'.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I'm a very independent person, I'm very bubbly and outgoing, but when an episode hits, I become the complete opposite. <\/p>\n

"I'm very childlike, I talk like a baby, I'm needy and I'm very dazed. <\/p>\n

"I can't function because it's like I'm in a dream that you don't really wake up from."<\/p>\n

She added: "It's often called Sleeping Beauty syndrome, which it really isn't. It's anything but beautiful, it's more like a nightmare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"You know when you have a nightmare where you fall off a cliff and then you can wake yourself up. Well for me that nightmare is constant for 10 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"For quite a while the GP said, 'It's behavioural. She's just doing it for attention.' And my parents would have to argue and say, 'This is not Bella.' Because that wasn't me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I had never had any mental health issues before. And for them to just say it was behavioural was really hard because I wasn't that sort of attention-seeking person."\u00a0<\/p>\n

It's often called Sleeping Beauty syndrome, which it really isn't. It's anything but beautiful, it's more like a nightmare. <\/p>\n

Doctors also thought Bella's symptoms could be a reaction to the contraceptive pill, a tumour, cancer or epilepsy.<\/p>\n

Months of scans and tests finally led to an unofficial diagnosis of KLS by a neurologist in Newcastle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bella now knows her condition can be triggered by alcohol, stress, and her hormones, which she says is why her first episode occurred the morning of her first ever hangover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I had just finished my first year of A-Levels and I went to an after-school party," she said.<\/p>\n

"It was the first time I had alcohol and got drunk and I woke up the next day thinking I had a hangover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I had this brain fog, derealisation, and I was in a dream-like state. <\/p>\n

"I woke up and couldn't stay awake. I slept for the majority of the day, more than 19 hours, and it lasted for 10 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"My parents were away at the time but they then came home and saw me and thought I'd been spiked, just because of how severe the symptoms seemed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I never got drunk again to the same degree as I did. I'd go out with my friends but I would always be the weird friend who couldn't drink.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It was a very weird time because I lost a lot of friends. They didn't understand it and they thought I was just being weird. <\/p>\n

"It was a very scary chapter – the fear of the unknown."\u00a0<\/p>\n

'ILL ALL THE TIME'<\/h2>\n

Bella says she was ill "all the time' during her A-Levels, which she completed over three years, and claims KLS often disrupted her studies throughout her nursing degree at Northumbria University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the time Bella first messaged her now fianc\u00e9e\u00a0Meg Stone, 25, on Instagram in early 2022, she hadn't had any sleeping episodes in two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair spent six months dating long-distance before Bella made the move from Newcastle to Devon to live with Meg's family.<\/p>\n

But the stress of the move sent Bella into a 10-day-long slumber last August – the first of three episodes that her partner witnessed first-hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meg, an engineer from Barnstaple, said she will sometimes have to take time off work to become Bella's full-time caregiver – waking her up periodically to give her water and snacks, such as oranges and crisps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meg said: "I just miss her when she's in an episode. It's a weird situation because I miss her yet she's right there, but she's just not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"She's like a ghost. She doesn't really know what's going on. Her eyes are open but you can see straight through them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"As soon as she's out of the episode she feels very guilty because she says I don't deserve to be in a relationship where she's ill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It makes me feel upset because I don't ever want her to feel like that.<\/p>\n

"I reassure her all the time that I don't care if a plan has to be cancelled because I'd rather be with her and make sure she's okay."\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can't function because it's like I'm in a dream that you don't really wake up from.<\/p>\n

Bella said she feels her and Meg are "robbed of time" by KLS, but having her fianc\u00e9e\u00a0there to support her has brought the couple closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bella said: "Meg and I do everything together – we're best mates. <\/p>\n

"Then to suddenly be a zombie unable to do anything, she often feels like she's just lost me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"The only way I get out of my episodes is always a night of insomnia. <\/p>\n

"Then I get up the next morning and that's it – I'll be right as rain again."<\/p>\n

Meg reached breaking point when looking after Bella in her latest episode three weeks ago – and posted a video to TikTok to help raise awareness of KLS and appeal for help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said: "It was almost a cry for help. I had taken her to A&E and they would just look at us as if we're stupid – as if there's nothing wrong with her. No one had a clue about KLS and it was ridiculous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"KLS can happen in an instant and all of a sudden your life just changes – which is what happened with Bella. It was just completely out of the blue."\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bella added: "I just wish people would understand and not make jokes about me sleeping all day. I wish I did just sleep all day and that was it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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"Especially because the lighter my episodes become – in regards to the sleeping aspect – the more of the other symptoms I get, like the child-like behaviour, the anxiety, the fog, the insomnia. These are the symptoms I hate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I'd far rather have the deeper episodes because I'm asleep and I don't know what's going on."\u00a0<\/p>\n


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