While I talked a bit about this in an earlier blog post, I feel that this is the time to fully 'fess up to all of it.
I have narcolepsy.
If you're wondering what narcolepsy is, the definition is "chronic sleep disorder that causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness." Usually, people think of this when they hear the word. And while some people do react, I don't immediately just fall asleep. Not while standing, anyway.
The best way I can explain it? Imagine your Awake vs. Asleep as Sun vs. Moon. I often live life going through a late afternoon, early evening level of awakeness. Some days are harder than others, and I'm almost immediately in nighttime mode, 2 hours after waking up from a full 8 hours of sleep the night before. There are certain triggers that make it harder to stay awake: rain, being comfortable and cozy, not using active focus, or doing things that come naturally. Driving is a really hard one for me.
And telling me to just walk around, get some water, etc. doesn't instantly wake me up. My brain is fighting for sleep every step of the way. And more often than I care to, my brain wins. And it sucks, because I want to do more in my evenings after work than eat, sleep, work-out, sleep. It's frustrating knowing all the amount of time I've slept away due to this.
This diagnosis has been a long time coming. Honestly. If you have taken college courses with me, I'm sure you can vouch for this. I could go into tons of times it's embarrassed me, or has put me (and really, others, too) in harm's way when I'm driving.
I've come up with methods to cope in the past. Just napping is the easiest, but not most effective, solution. For long drives, I always have something to listen to, or eat sunflower seeds to stay awake, or take lots of gas station stops. More often than not, it's a combination of the ones above. I've told a lie or two, in fits of denial (that cone that knocked off my right side window a few years back wasn't too far in the road; I was starting to nod off behind the wheel and had started to drift right.)
For the last few months, it's been a trial trying to get appointments and get my insurance to okay a sleep study, when come to find out I couldn't afford one right now anyway [anyone got an extra $3000 lying around? I'm only half-joking].
But today, I got a prescription. Today (or rather, tomorrow) I begin taking modafinil. Hopefully, this will work. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of not taking a nap almost every night.
If you have any questions, let me know, and I'll be glad to talk to you about them.
I have narcolepsy.
If you're wondering what narcolepsy is, the definition is "chronic sleep disorder that causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness." Usually, people think of this when they hear the word. And while some people do react, I don't immediately just fall asleep. Not while standing, anyway.
The best way I can explain it? Imagine your Awake vs. Asleep as Sun vs. Moon. I often live life going through a late afternoon, early evening level of awakeness. Some days are harder than others, and I'm almost immediately in nighttime mode, 2 hours after waking up from a full 8 hours of sleep the night before. There are certain triggers that make it harder to stay awake: rain, being comfortable and cozy, not using active focus, or doing things that come naturally. Driving is a really hard one for me.
And telling me to just walk around, get some water, etc. doesn't instantly wake me up. My brain is fighting for sleep every step of the way. And more often than I care to, my brain wins. And it sucks, because I want to do more in my evenings after work than eat, sleep, work-out, sleep. It's frustrating knowing all the amount of time I've slept away due to this.
This diagnosis has been a long time coming. Honestly. If you have taken college courses with me, I'm sure you can vouch for this. I could go into tons of times it's embarrassed me, or has put me (and really, others, too) in harm's way when I'm driving.
I've come up with methods to cope in the past. Just napping is the easiest, but not most effective, solution. For long drives, I always have something to listen to, or eat sunflower seeds to stay awake, or take lots of gas station stops. More often than not, it's a combination of the ones above. I've told a lie or two, in fits of denial (that cone that knocked off my right side window a few years back wasn't too far in the road; I was starting to nod off behind the wheel and had started to drift right.)
For the last few months, it's been a trial trying to get appointments and get my insurance to okay a sleep study, when come to find out I couldn't afford one right now anyway [anyone got an extra $3000 lying around? I'm only half-joking].
But today, I got a prescription. Today (or rather, tomorrow) I begin taking modafinil. Hopefully, this will work. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of not taking a nap almost every night.
If you have any questions, let me know, and I'll be glad to talk to you about them.