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A rare disorder has turned a woman into a real-life sleeping beauty. Due to her condition, she sleeps for 18-22 hours a day. Joanna Cox from Castleford, West Yorkshire in England, was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia in October 2021 after she struggled for years to stay awake during the day. This rare condition causes people to experience extreme daytime sleepiness. People with this disorder struggle to wake up, and feel unrested and mentally foggy. She said, “It’s honestly ruining my life – I’m like a real-life Sleeping Beauty,” as mentioned in a report by Mirror. She added, “I can’t be woken up once I’m asleep.”
According to Cox, she can’t work and drive. She even says that she can never make any plan as she is never sure if she will be awake. Cox first started to experience the symptoms in 2017 when she felt extremely tired during the day. She operated her own cleaning company and struggled to go about her work without the need to rest and eventually nap.
Cox found herself falling asleep in unusual places before she was diagnosed with the disorder. The 38-year-old has even slept through flights, and missed going on a holiday to Spain with her daughters Isabelle and Caitlin. She survives on protein shakes and ready meals as they are fast to consume before she goes to sleep again.
Cox also experiences vivid hallucinations while she fights to stay awake. She even gets a recurring vision of hundreds of spiders crawling on her bed.
The 38-year-old had to go to the hospital due to low blood sugar after she spent four days sleeping without eating anything. However, the mother of two doesn’t know how she got this condition. She is desperately seeking a doctor who can provide her relief from the symptoms.
According to Cox, she began to experience the symptoms out of nowhere. She first thought she was going through depression and was referred to a mental health specialist. But it was found that she had no other signs of depression apart from tiredness. She also had to quit her job in 2019 because of her condition.
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