London, March 27: There are disorders that are so rare that their symptoms surprise us to no end. Rhoda Rodriguez-Diaz, a 21-year-old university student from Leicester, UK, suffers from one such unique disorder that can make her sleep for weeks at a stretch.
In fact, Rhoda recently confessed that she recently missed her annual examinations because of sleeping continuously for three weeks!
The disorder, called Kleine-Levin Syndrome, is a one-in-a-million one and people having it can sleep up to 22 hours in a day and remain in a state of trance even during other activities like eating. According to a Mail Online report, Rhoda's worst sleeping phase continued up to three weeks and she failed in her second-year exam as a result. "It's really annoying when people call me lazy. I do struggle with the effects of it but it's part of me and not who I am. It's frustrating because I can't help it," Rhoda was quoted as saying by Mail Online. Rhoda was diagnosed with hypersomnia in her childhood but it was only in September last year that doctors found out that she was suffering from Kleine-Levin Syndrome, also known as 'sleeping beauty syndrome'. The young woman said she could sleep for weeks even when she was just four. The doctors failed to diagnose the problem and Rhoda's sleeping span increased drastically when she became 15.