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Article: Altered state: what makes Eric Haller a teenage zombie with a craving for gummy worms?(kleine-levin syndrome )
- Article from:
- Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- October 20, 2006
- Author:
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Ever feel as if you never want to get out of bed? Well, what if you couldn't?
For weeks at a time, 16-year-old Eric Haller of Placentia, Calif., sleeps up to 20 hours a day, waking occasionally to eat, shower, or use the toilet. He sleeps so much, he was out of commission last year for 100 days, most of them school days.
Eric has Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS), a condition that occurs mostly among teenagers. KLS is extremely rare; only 500 known cases exist. Researchers are just beginning to wrap their minds around this bizarre type of sleeping sickness.
NOT MONO
Eric was 11 years old when KLS symptoms first appeared. His mother guessed ...