5 Things I Want You To Know About Narcolepsy

It took me 10+ years for a formal diagnosis

Beds are regular for narcolepsy

There’s a lot of misconceptions surrounding narcolepsy. Let’s take a second to go over some things I wish people knew about narcolepsy.

1. Some of us lose control of our muscles.

“Narcolepsy with cataplexy” is a type of narcolepsy where when one experiences a strong emotion (laughter, anger, happiness, fear, etc.) they essentially lose control of their muscles, often falling down or feeling like they’re about a fall. About 10% of those who have the narcolepsy diagnosis have narcolepsy with cataplexy (according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke).

2. We normally have some kind of warning before a “sleep attack”.

A “sleep attack” for narcoleptics is when we suddenly feel very fatigued from our otherwise normal baseline (how we typically feel during the day). A lot of us will often have some kind of “warning” for when a sleep attack is about to happen. For myself, my eyes will suddenly feel extremely dry and like I have to run to put in eyedrops. I might feel some minor dizziness or like my head suddenly feels “very heavy”. I know I am going to have to either grab an energy drink to bring me back at least to baseline or get myself comfortable on a chair or bed. We very…