No matter how much sleep I got the night before, or how many naps I can take, I’m always tired. It’s quite exhausting being tired all the time.  When I fell rapidly asleep at work for the third time in a week, I told my friend L that I was narcoleptic, just to joke. L then sent me the link to the Wikipedia entry on Narcolepsy. Oddly enough, I found some similarities between their posted symptoms and my symptoms, like this excerpt for instance:

“A person with narcolepsy is likely to become drowsy or fall asleep, often at inappropriate times and places. Daytime naps may occur without warning and may be physically irresistible. These naps can occur several times a day. They are typically refreshing, but only for a few hours. Drowsiness may persist for prolonged periods of time. In addition, night time sleep may be fragmented with frequent awakenings.”

Hm, I do fall asleep randomly at work all the time, even with nights of full restful sleep (usually aided by Benadryl). In fact, I fell asleep so quickly at work one day that I bit my tongue! That actually scared me a bit.

Other symptoms include cataplexy (Cataplexy is an episodic condition featuring loss of muscle function, ranging from slight weakness (such as limpness at the neck or knees, sagging facial muscles, or inability to speak clearly) to complete body collapse. Episodes may be triggered by sudden emotional reactions such as laughter, anger, surprise, or fear, and may last from a few seconds to several minutes), and sleep paralysis (Sleep paralysis is the temporary inability to talk or move when waking {or less often, falling asleep}. It may last a few seconds to minutes.)

Ahhhh, Cataplexy. Otherwise known as the Fainting Goat syndrome. You know those cute little goats that keel over when scared, momentarily paralyzed? It’s sad, right? Well, you know who else may suffer from that? Yeah, me. Fun. Although I don’t keel over, I do black out. I get nauseous, dizzy, my vision goes, I hear a rushing in my ears and get cold sweats. If I don’t get on the ground right away I faint. Due to this, Hubba has been referring to me as “Goat”, which I choose to believe stands for “Greatest of All Time”. Perhaps he and L prefer to use the term as something else, something that smells a little bit more like a hay/poop mix, but that’s okay.

The only conclusion I have come to is this: One other thing gone wrong in my wiring. Oh well, right? Seriously, after dealing with asthma, cataracts, an auto-immune issue that leaves me uber sensitive to sun (tested for lupus, and it was a negative), and eczema, a little bit of chronic sleepiness won’t kill me (hopefully).

Hear that, world? I accept your challenge.

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