The fairy tale of Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" is quite soothing and love-filled as "the kiss from the prince (only true love) woke the princess from her cursed slumber--but not so for Helen Waterson from Aberporth in South Wales, who suffers from a rare condition that causes her to sleep for 21 hours a day.
Her tale and version of Sleeping Beauty is heartbreaking and pitiful. Helen cannot remember her first day at school or her first kiss.
36-year-old Helen manages to stay awake for the other three hours only by taking heavy drugs with debilitating side-effects (including poor coordination, extreme muscle pain, facial twitches and melasma, which causes black patches to appear on Helen’s face). She is exhausted and in constant agony, unable to do anything more than struggle to the sofa in the little time she is able to stay awake. Ms. Waterson said:
“At least in the fairytale she got to wake from her sleep.I go through life either sleeping or feeling like I’m sleepwalking. I’ve missed all the important moments of my life. I don’t have a social life; I don’t have a love life. With this illness you don’t live, you just exist.”
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