Students with narcolepsy can really struggle to stay awake

by Riley Crutchfield

Head on the desk, snoring in the back of the room, sleeping in school is nothing new. Is it boredom or fatigue? Or perhaps something more serious? While rare, it could be Narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy affects nearly 3 million people worldwide, and it’s something that even students in our school struggle with.

Many people may not know about Narcolepsy because the disorder isn’t common. However, a serious and taxing disorder for an individual who has it.

Narcolepsy is characterized by random sleep attacks, caused by the immune system accidentally attacking the cells that produce the chemical hypocretin in the brain or blocking the receptors that allow hypocretin to be absorbed.

Some circumstances can cause sleep attacks to occur more frequently, such as strong emotions - fear, anger, stress, excitement and even laughter. For example, someone with narcolepsy could laugh as much as anyone else, and it could potentially cause a sleep attack where they become extremely overwhelmed with drowsiness.

If they are in a place where falling asleep is inappropriate, their brain prepares to go to sleep, causing a sort of brain fog as if they were just waking up or are exhausted and ready to pass out.

Narcoleptics struggle with day-to-day life and always have a low energy state. A low-energy state for anyone will affect them mentally and physically but for someone with the disorder, it is a constant cycle.

“Not being interactive with activities causes fatigue for me because I have a short attention span, and when I lose interest with nothing else to do, I want to sleep,” says a student diagnosed with narcolepsy who prefers remain unnamed.

Daily life can be a struggle and the biggest help is a simple nap throughout the day to regain energy.

Narcolepsy tends to be misdiagnosed unless properly diagnosed by a neurologist to determine the presence and severity of the condition. Patients need to be referred to a sleep specialist for treatment and care. The common misdiagnosis is usually that the person has ADD or ADHD, but that does not mean everyone who has ADD or ADHD will have narcolepsy - there are just under 200,000 cases in the U.S. per year, which is around 1 in 2,000 people so it’s quite uncommon.

People that are diagnosed with this neurological condition can experience challenges in school or other academic settings. The disorder itself does not affect intelligence, but it will clearly affect the ability to learn if not treated properly, according to Dr. Thomas Roth, a psychologist and sleep disorder expert.