She doesn’t sleep, she hibernates.
A UK woman has dubbed herself a “real-life Sleeping Beauty” due to her unusual condition, which causes her to sleep up to 22 hours a day.
“I can’t be woken up once I’m asleep,” Joanna Cox, 38, told SWNS of her unusual condition. “I wake up not knowing what day it is or how long I’ve been asleep for.”
She added, “It’s honestly ruining my life — I’m like a real-life Sleeping Beauty.”
The Castleford resident suffers from idiopathic hypersomnia, a rare sleep disorder that causes the sufferer “to be very sleepy during the day even after a full night of good sleep,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
“It also often causes difficulty waking up after you’ve been asleep,” they write. “If you take a nap, you generally don’t feel refreshed and you may wake up confused and disoriented.”
Due to her condition, Cox says she never “feels rested” despite sleeping between 18 and 22 hours per day. “It’s really upsetting when people just say I’m ‘lazy’ or need to set more alarms,” she said.
The human hibernator first noticed something was awry in 2017 after she felt preternaturally tired at all times and couldn’t get through the day without a nap. “It started out of nowhere — nothing triggered it, I just felt really tired,” lamented the Brit, who owned a cleaning company at the time.
Cox eventually found herself falling asleep in unusual places, such as behind the wheel, which resulted in her giving up driving altogether.
The big sleeper even recalled a time when she dozed off during a night out. “Before I was diagnosed, I fell asleep in a booth in a club on a night out,” the mother of two lamented. “The bouncer thought I was just drunk and kicked me out — it was so embarrassing.”
Hoping to get to the bottom of her fatigue, the consummate slumberer reported to the doctor, who misdiagnosed her with depression. However, medics quickly ruled that out as Cox didn’t exhibit any other symptoms besides tiredness.
This kicked off a years-long saga of fruitless doctor’s visits with medics incorrectly claiming she had everything from infections to cancer.
Finally, in October 2021, doctors referred Cox to a sleep clinic at Pontefract Hospital in Yorkshire, where doctors revealed that she had idiopathic hypersomnia.
Unfortunately, the cause of the condition is yet unknown, meaning there is no existing cure. Not to mention that she’s tried dozens of so-called treatments but to no avail.
By that point, Cox’s over-dozes had snowballed to the point that she struggled to stay awake for more than a few hours each day. “One day recently, I was awake for 12 hours and that was the longest I’ve been awake in nearly six years,” she said. “The shortest is usually just a few minutes, enough time to wake up, have a drink and then fall back to sleep again.”
Her condition got so bad that Cox had to quit her job in 2019 due to her inability to stay awake. The perennially fatigued gal also frequently misses flights, including one trip to Spain that she had planned with her daughters Caitlin, 20, and Isabelle, 18.
“I can’t work, I can’t drive and I can never make any plans because I don’t know if I’ll be awake,” said Cox.
Cox’s hypersomnia is more than just a major inconvenience. The real-life Rip Van Winkle recalled one time when she ended up in hospital with low blood sugar after embarking on a four-day slumber bender without any food breaks.
It’s a horrible catch-22 as fighting to stay awake results in “vivid hallucinations.” Cox said one of her more horrific visions involves “hundreds of spiders” crawling all over her bed.
Interestingly, the only time the over-dozer is awake is in the early morning around 2 a.m., which is when she walks her cockapoos, Autumn and Bobby.
Cox, who lives alone, said she wouldn’t be able to survive the nap-ocalypse without her daughters’ support.
“Isabelle has seen me at my worst and basically had to step up and be mum – waking me up as best she can to make me eat or help me to the loo,” she said. “I’ve had carers in the past, but no one really knows how to look after me because it’s such an unusual condition.”
She added, “I can wash and feed myself but it’s just getting me to wake up which is impossible.”
In addition, the hypersomnia has put to bed any notions of a love life for Cox, who says she’s been single for seven years. “I don’t entertain the thought of having a partner ever again — it doesn’t even cross my mind,” she said. “I can’t imagine being with anyone with this condition.”
Ultimately, Cox says she wants her life to return back to normal. “I’m really hoping that sharing my story will help me reach out to others with the condition, and hopefully, find a doctor who can help.”
