A British woman falls asleep every time she laughs. The rare chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy, linked to another condition called cataplexy, which is a sudden muscular weakness that is triggered by strong emotions of laughing.
A resident of Great Barr, Birmingham, the 24-year-old has faced quite a few life-threatening situations because of her condition. Once Bella almost drowned in a swimming pool at one time when she giggled while swimming.
Speaking to Metro, Bella said that her condition gets more pronounced when she laughs at something that she was not expecting to be funny. When that happens and Bella has to laugh and not just giggle, she loses control of all of her muscles and they go all weak.
When the condition kicks in her knees go weak, her head droops, and she is fully conscious and aware and able to hear everything that is going on, but she just cannot move her body.
Giving another example of how her condition affects her at times, Bella said that there have been incidents when she has knocked a hot cup of tea all over herself but was in no way able to move her arms or anything to stop the tea spilling all over her.
She also mentioned that she gets an automatic behaviour because of which when she is falling asleep, she carries on doing the task she was doing.