This mum’s rare condition meant she fell asleep while giving birth

Jessica Southall first began experiencing symptoms of narcolepsy when she was 15-years-old.

Now, 20, the pregnant mother-of-one from Nottingham, UK revealed her rare condition is so bad, she even fell asleep while in labour with her one-year-old daughter, Briella.

That’s because Jessica has narcolepsy with cataplexy, which means her muscles completely relax when she has a strong emotional reaction - making it look like she’s asleep.

"It's hard to explain but I am fully awake and I can hear everything, but I can't talk or move,” she told The Sun.

"It's like I'm trapped and my body is asleep, but my brain is awake.

"It happens until the emotion stops and until then it looks like I'm asleep.”

These emotions include laughing but can even occur when the mum simply giggles - making her head drop to her chest.

“One minute I'll be there in stitches laughing my head off, not able to stop and the next moment my head is on my chest or I'm lying on the floor,” she told the publication.

It also takes place when she cries a lot and even when she orgasms - making the start of her relationship with her partner an awkward one.

RELATED CONTENT: The latest Life Bites podcast looks at divorce
https://omny.fm/shows/9honey-life-bites/divorce/embed?style=artwork

And while Jessica tries to remain humorous about it all, some of the side-effects to her condition are a lot less funny.

There are vivid and frightening dreams, as well as hallucinations as she falls asleep - something she needs to do a lot because of her condition, sleeping 11-13 hours a day.

Jessica says after having her daughter she was “sleeping when the baby sleeps” and that helped ease her condition, which had stopped completely while she was pregnant.

Now expecting her second child, the UK mum still experiences the cataplexy attacks -- which she manages with sleep and ADHD medication -- when she laughs and cries but Jessica can now giggle without passing out.