Real-life 'Sleeping Beauty' naps for 21 hours every day

Real-life Sleepinmg Beauty from Aberporth in South Wales has a rare condition that makes her sleep 21 hours a day.

Helen Waterson is forced to take strong drugs just to stay awake just for three hours and said that she goes through life either sleeping or feeling like she's sleepwalking, has missed all the important moments of her life and doesn't even have a social life or love life, the Mirror reported.

The 36-year-old woman has Kleine-Levin Syndrome - dubbed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome - which has no known cure and affects just 1,000 known sufferers worldwide and it leaves her 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.

The condition is also believed to have affected her long-term memory, because when she flicks through the family album she has no recollection of the holidays, birthdays and Christmases when she was pictured smiling for the camera and cannot remember her first day at school or her first kiss.

Once awake, it can take from 10 minutes to an hour for Waterson to properly open her eyes and for her limbs to become fully mobile, because her muscles become stiff and painful while she sleeps, and she added that her body is often so stiff and exhausted that she can't do the washing up, let alone socialise.