My Life with Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a health condition.It is caused by a reduction of a certain protein produced by the brain called hypocretin, which affects sleep cycles. Normal sleep should consist of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non REM stages. REM is the stage of sleep at which dreams occur. When I go to sleep I will start dreaming within 10 seconds, and my dreams wont stop until I wake up.This due to lack of non REM sleep. This is both energy consuming and exhausting. Sleep is the only time your brain get to actually rest.To me, my brain is never resting. That beautiful filtering process scientists talk about when you sleep never happens to my brain. Toxins over time will eventually build up. Is it affecting my cognitive abilities? I have watched my self slowly transform from the child who had the highest IQ, to the adult that cant spell words correctly, to an adult who cant calculate simple additions, who sometimes struggles to read.The answer is yes.I have a very strong will. I was the student always sleeping in the back of the class room, all through my high school years.I watched my teachers watch me sleep and I didn’t say a word, I got yelled at, and even kicked out of class room, still didn’t say a word. Although I was already diagnosed with Narcolepsy, I chose to keep it to my self.By the end of the year I was still the Valedictorian student. This continued during my college years,I was notorious for being sleeping in classrooms,in hallways,everywhere.Still succeeded to astonish my professors.This has been my coping mechanism to this damn disease, to constantly have an inner challenge that no one knew about. By accomplishing a healthy person’s accomplishment I felt rewarded. I did not need anyone else to know that. I have always hated to look weak. I remember fighting with my mother when I found out she had told couple of our family members. I can fall in sleep on the couch and no one can tell that I had a condition, but once they knew, they looked at me differently. I HATED IT! Don’t look at me differently, don’t treat me differently,don’t worry about me or feel sorry for me. I GOT THIS.This Mother F***er is not getting the best of me. NOT YET.

Follow my next post as I will be talking more about the signs and symptoms of Narcolepsy, especially the early ones to spread more awarness about this health condition and to encourage patients in doubt to get tested.