Three-year-old boy has never slept; parents maintain 24-hour vigil

By Mark Frauenfelder at 9:24 am Saturday, May 10

A St. Petersburg, FL TV station reports on a family with a 3-year-old boy who has a rare medical condition that prevents him from sleeping. His parents must watch him around the clock, taking turns to sleep during the day.

Rhett has never taken a nap or gone to sleep at night, forcing his parents to keep watch day and night.

"(My husband) has the day shift and I kind of have the afternoon shift," mother Shannon Lamb said. "We share the night shift because no one can sleep in the house when he is up anyway."

Lamb said she is working extra to pay for Rhett's large medical bills. She also said her husband, David, has given up his job to care for their child.

In Nancy Kress's novel, Beggars in Spain, there were kid genetically designed not to sleep. Link