Meet the real-life 'Sleeping Beauty' who didn't wake up for six months

Beth with her boyfriend Dan, who she met during an 'awake' phase three years ago. PICS/TWITTER

Currently, Beth is two-and-a half months into another deep sleep episode. Nothing – not drugs, loud noises, pleading or cajoling – will wake her. Her life is spent asleep on the sofa or bed. On the rare occasion she leaves her home to see a doctor, she is pushed in a wheelchair because she is too tired to walk. "It is like night and day,” her mother says. “She might wake up tomorrow, catch up with her friends and get her hair done. But, no one knows when she might fall asleep again."

"It is like someone has pressed pause on my life. I was lucky to be awake for my 18th birthday and I’ve only miss one Christmas so far," Beth told The Mirror, in an earlier interview. "But I’ve missed so many birthdays, I’ve lost count. It might seem trivial to other people but these are really important milestones in growing up."