RHODA DOZES OFF IN EXAMS

A STUDENT suffers from a rare condition which means she sleeps for weeks at a time – and she even napped through her exams.

Rhoda Rodriguez-Dias, 21, has “Sleeping Beauty syndrome” and can kip for up 22 hours a day, only waking in a dream-like trance to eat junk food, drink and go to the toilet.

At its worst, the sleeping episodes can last as long as three weeks.

It meant she failed her second year of university because she slept through crucial exams.

Rhoda said: “Reality hits me when I wake up and realise I’ve missed, like, a week of my life.

“I feel a huge setback when it does happen. I miss out on so much. That’s the hardest part of it.”

As a child, Rhoda was diagnosed with hyper-insomnia by her GP.

It wasn’t until last September that doctors discovered the psychology student had the one-in-a-million Kleine Levin syndrome. She goes months at a time without an episode, but when it strikes she is totally wiped out.

Rhoda, from Leicester, said: “Because it’s so rare, a lot of people struggle to understand. They think I’m lazy, but I can’t help it.”

The frustrations began when Rhoda was four, when her tiredness left her unable to play with her friends.

She said: “When I was four or five, I would sleep for two or three weeks at a time and the doctors had no idea what it was. It didn’t happen again until I was a teenager.

“When I was 15 or 16 I remember finding myself sleeping more and more. Even at school I would fall asleep in the study area.

“I was really into my sports, but I couldn’t do as much as I wanted to because I was constantly tired.”

Between February and June last year, Rhoda had a particularly bad run of sleep, which left her unable to study. She was dismissed from her course in July when she failed to show up for exams and missed coursework deadlines.

That was when she demanded to see specialists. She said: “I tried to explain to uni that I had a condition that was stopping me from doing work. But because I wasn’t diagnosed, I had nothing to back it up. I didn’t have enough credits to pass the year and I was dismissed.”

She has re-enrolled to resume her studies and is trying to sit her second year again. People with Kleine Levin syndrome are known to grow out of the condition eventually, and Rhoda says she has learned to manage her condition.

She added: “It used to feel like I was in a dream – it feels like you’re not really there.

“I’m determined to not let it have a big impact on my life. It is one part of me and not who I am.”