So what's it all about?

You think you know but you have no idea. I got diagnosed with Narcolepsy about two months ago and with the encouragement of my Fiance decided to start a blog.  So what is it all about?

No narcolepsy is not ALWAYS just randomly falling asleep. Current research suggests that narcolepsy is caused by an autoimmune disease that targets a protein that regulates sleep cycle. Most people go to sleep and experience four stages: Stage One being light sleep, stage two and three being "restful" sleep, and stage four being REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.  Most people spend a lot of time in stages two and three and get their rest for the day to come. Narcoleptics, spend much more time in REM sleep, and when falling asleep go directly into REM sleep, so they are therefore sleep deprived because they aren't experiencing restful sleep. They also have sleep attacks,   hypnogognic hallucinations (vivid hallucinations because they go into REM sleep so quickly), cataplexy, as well as a few other symptoms. 

But this blog isn't meant to be a scientific explanation. You can google Narcolepsy to get a lot of information about the disease. I created this blog to let inform others about the day to day experiences of a narcoleptic to let others know what the daily struggles are like. 

So here goes nothing. My night, like many others, was exhausting. I had many hypo-hallucinations, one of which was of my phobia of snakes, and I was terrified. I woke up screaming and in a sweat thinking that there was a snake in the room. I had a few other hallucinations, less terrifying but leading to a sleepless night. I woke up this morning and proceeded to take my prescribed Adderall and hoping for a good day. 

I will continue to update with the struggles and triumphs of a narcoleptic and hope everyone continues to follow along... it's going to be an interesting ride.