EDS

Sometimes coffee isn't enough

If you're like me, you suffer from at least one type of sleep disorder like narcolepsy, insomnia, or apnea.  If you're extremely unlucky (like me), you suffer from all three of the disorders I've already listed.  To clarify, I've never actually been officially diagnosed with any of these because I didn't think it was necessary. 

Insomnia seemed pretty self explanatory and would usually strike during periods of stress and/or increased caffeine intake.  I had short bouts of it in high school and throughout university, with frequency increasing as I slowly reached the end of my academic rope.  These days I'm usually too exhausted to stay up late as evident on Monday when I failed to post.  I passed out after sitting down in bed after working an 11 hour day but I was still ahead in posts so it was all good (as per my agreement) unless someone actually missed having something random to read!

These days, I fall more towards the narcoleptic end of the sleep disorder scale. While this can prove to be even more inconvenient than insomnia, it is also significantly scarier (now that I've actually done some research).  I used to think that narcolepsy meant you could fall asleep anywhere at any time.  Can you see the appeal for someone who suffers from insomnia?  The most common symptoms of narcolepsy (as listed on the PubMed Health website) are:

1) Periods of extreme drowsiness every 3-4 hours during the day - also known as EDS (extreme daytime sleepiness), or sleep attacks (short naps) that can happen at ANY time, occurring most often after eating

2) Dream-like hallucinations during the stage between sleep and wakefulness

3) Sleep paralysis - when you are unable to move when you first wake up or when you first become drowsy

4) Cataplexy - a sudden loss of muscle tone while awake, resulting in the inability to move for less than 30 seconds or as long as several minutes.


This looks cute/funny but what
about passing out while driving?



Freaking out yet?  I did when I realized I have the first two symptoms!  I had to think about the sleep paralysis one because I'm extremely lazy about getting out of bed and do tend to just lay there as my brain slowly wakes up which is a voluntary decision (or so I'm continuing to tell myself).  Aside from drugs that can keep you awake or put you to sleep, there is no cure for sleep disorders.  All you can really do is climb into bed and hope for the best - which is exactly what I'm going to do tonight!