This UK Girl Slept At the Age of 11 And Woke up at 21, due to some sleeping sickness

The 19th century was an interesting era in Britain as the Medical industry was being modernised and the industrial revolution was underway. Besides these interesting incidents, there was another fascinating story, still remembered with great curiosity. The story of a girl, who slept at the age of 11 and woke up after 9 years. Unbelievable, right? Let’s find a bit more.

The girl was the first case of Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness. The young girl who suffered from this problem was Ellen Sadler. Ellen was born on May 15, 1859, in a huge family of 12 children. Ellen’s father William Sadler was a farmer, who died young in an accident. Ellen’s mother Anne Sadler was remarried to Thomas Frewen.

Until 1871, Ellen, 11, had shown no symptoms of any illness. On March 29, she slept and didn’t wake up the next morning. Ellen was shaken and shouted at but to no avail.

Medical experts from all over the world started



visiting Ellen’s home but were not able to detect anything. People started coming up with all kinds of techniques but nothing worked. Ellen became popular as the sleeping girl and people started paying for small strands of her hair.

Ellen’s mother used to feed her porridge, milk, and wine via a small teapot. Feeding a sleeping person is tremendously difficult. These problems were aggravated when one of Ellen’s jaws was locked. Her mother would then feed her through a small gap in her teeth.

The medical problem Ellen suffered from was called Narcolepsy, which is caused by the lack of Orexin. Orexin is a brain chemical hypocretin that helps us in waking from sleep.

At the age of 21 in 1880, Ellen woke up. Unfortunately, her mother had passed away by then.

Ellen married a farmer and gave birth to 6 children. Ellen died in 1901. Timaru Herald, one of her six children, carried forward this story.