| Narcolepsy and Insomnia -NOT oxymorons |
Arizonahugs - 4/20/2009 02:20 |
People know so little about narcolepsy that assumptions, such as this supposed oxymoron, are made all the time, and almost always they are wrong. While narcoleptics have an indescribable urge to sleep, they do not sleep well, ever, and are up many times during the night, oftentimes have a hard time falling asleep, and wake up in the morning more tired than they were when they went to bed.
Narcoleptics suffer from
EDS (EXCESSIVE DAYTIME SLEEPINESS), CATAPLEXY(sudden collapse into a paralyzed state lasing mere moments or in rare cases hours,
HYPNOGOGIC HALLUCINATIONS (being stuck half in a dream and half in a waking state - these hallucinations are beyond bad dreams, and are usually, but not always terrifying,
SLEEP PARALYSIS where they are lying in bed and are unable to move,
DISRUPTED NIGHTTIME SLEEP already mentioned above,and when they do fall asleep,
they go into REM sleep within seconds or minutes, while a 'normal' person takes 90 minutes to reach that state,
AUTOMATIC BEHAVIOR where they appear to be awake and can even converse and seemingly are functioning as awake, but in fact they are asleep and will have no recollection of what they did.
Narcolepsy is a auto-immune neurological illness, generally, but not always, beginning in adolescence, and goes misdiagnosed for years, sometimes decades by doctors. They endure family/friends telling them they are lazy, have no willpower, seeking attention, malingering among some things. Doctors often diagnose them as being depressed, schizophrenic, having MS, myasthenia gravis, chronic fatigue syndrome, among many other things. It is estimated that in medical school, doctors spend a total of 7 minutes on the topic of narcolepsy. It is a debilitating illness, and it is common for narcoleptics to become so disabled by this illness, that they can no longer work, drive a car, run errands, maintain friendships, to name a few. There is no cure, only treatment and most treatments help only minimally. One drug is most helpful, but is so expensive it is simply not available to patients as many insurances will not cover it. Even at that, many cannot tolerate the side effects from it.
Narcoleptics can become almost housebound and oftentimes are isolated by the very nature of their symptoms.
And narcoleptics do not like to hear "Gee, you're so lucky to get to nap whenever you want to." Trust me, none of us feel lucky.
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