Any Narcoleptics around? Few questions

hatrickpatrick

Hey I'm starting to wonder if I might have a mild form of Narcolepsy and I figure it's about time I went and got a sleep study done, I know it can't be cured but everyone says it can be managed in ways which make life a lot easier so why not?

I don't have cataplexy, the extreme form of Narcolepsy in which one falls asleep suddenly from emotional experiences. What I have is the classic "still tired after a long night of sleep, and experiencing sudden onset bouts of drowsiness during the day, then not being able to sleep until very late at night". I never used to be a napper when I was younger, good night of sleep was more than enough for me, but in the last few years I've had serious trouble adjusting my sleep pattern. It's like I'm jetlagged constantly, but my body clock refuses to adjust to new ways of sleeping. For example: I couldn't get to sleep until about 6/7AM last night, woke up at noon (on holidays from college mercifully), but I can tell you for an absolute fact that I'll get an overwhelming urge to curl up on the couch at around 5PM which last maybe an hour and then I'll be fine again, but come normal "bedtime" I'll be wide awake and won't feel like sleeping for hours afterwards. It's not uncommon for me to have several bouts of this "nap urge" during the day, while it's very rare for me to be able to easily fall asleep at night, and if I do, I rarely get an uninterrupted sleep cycle.

Now I realise this could easily be apnea or something else, point is I'd like to get a sleep study done because although it doesn't affect my life that negatively, there are times when I know I'm going to crash mid afternoon and I'd much rather be alert and awake

So my questions are thus:
Firstly, does anyone else have any experiences like what I detailed above? My family assume I'm just someone who chooses to be a night owl and am consequently tired throughout the day because of sleeping too late at night but I seriously doubt that's the case as I often choose to go to bed early and end up staring at the ceiling for hours until I fall asleep, and even though I sleep late, I usually do get a long enough amount of night time sleep that you'd imagine the overwhelming nap urges 2-3 times a day would be obsolete. So is there anyone else who has experience of this? Am I right in going for a sleep study with Narcolepsy in mind or are there other sleep disorders this might be? The reason I'm going towards narcolepsy is because it's very common for me to have very vivid hallucinations when I'm on the border between sleeping and waking, dreams which I tend to remember vividly and would suggest that I'm hitting REM sleep much sooner after falling asleep than would most people. I've also struggled with sleep paralysis during sleep onset and all the horrible things associated with it (brain zaps / shivers being the most unpleasant, you know the tingling + "shock" sound through your ears as you lie in sleep paralysis!). But I guess I'll never know for sure until I get myself checked out.

Secondly: What's a sleep study like? What does it consist of, how does one prepare for it, how much does it cost, is there anything particularly unpleasant involved which I should be aware of? Can a sleep study truly tell you about your normal sleeping pattern since the study is undertaken in such unusual circumstances (not in your own bed, presumably wired up to a bunch of monitors, knowing you're being watched etc - all of these things surely affect your sleep quality, so can a sleep study truly give a picture of how you sleep on a normal night in your own bed?)

Thirdly: If I am indeed diagnosed with any form of narcolepsy, what's it like living with it? How much can be done to improve sleep quality and lessen the daytime drowsiness which is tedious at best, and very inconvenient at worst? Is it a case of "Well, at least you know what you have, but basically you just have to live with it still" or can sleep quality genuinely be improved following diagnosis? Are there treatment options which really do help (preferably without screwing up other things)

I realise everyone's probably going to tell me to pitch all these questions to a sleep doctor, which I will, just figured this might be a good place to get ballpark answers while I'm researching sleep studies - I'm in South Dublin so I presume the Mater is the best option for me and from what I've heard, they're quite busy so I could be waiting a while?

whizbang

Vincent's or St James' are the places for sleep studies.

Next time you feel like a nap, go for a 15min fast walk/run/cycle whatever exercise you can do.