Comment by MrJagil
8 days ago
My brother has narcolepsy. It is interesting how it presents itself in different people. I have never seen my brother fall asleep while occupied with something (walking, talking...) but I have seen him fall asleep so many times when he is not. The moment he gets in a car and it starts driving he falls asleep and very deeply. He would fall asleep in class all the time. The first time i really saw his narcolepsy expressed was during a daytime dinner. He had just had a big meal and while we were all sitting and talking, he just kinda nodded off.
The sad part is he has felt quite embarrassed by all this growing up. These are not dangerous situations, but it just feels awkward for a teenager. He also talks and walk in his sleep. Even worse is that no one believed him when he suggested he might have narcolepsy. Our mom is a doctor but figured he was just tired like all young, growing boys. It took a brain scan to get it sorted.
He's been prescribed Ritalin or something similar, but manages without.
Heh, I often fall asleep reading technical papers. I always thought that was normal, but now, hearing all this, I'm starting to wonder. Maybe narcolepsy is another spectrum disorder.
Your eye muscles maybe just tired from constant staring, or neck tension causes brain blood flow problems or something. I struggled with this all the time, but supplementation and exercise helps a lot.
Technical papers aren't THAT boring, after all!
No, they aren't boring at all. I love reading them. And I don't fall asleep reading other things, like news articles or fiction. But my brain's response to seeing Greek symbols is to fall asleep.
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For me it is if in a cosy position and doing something cognitively demanding. Fell asleep very often during my university studies reading literature. It can happen also if trying to learn something new technical at work, but only if I don't sit at a desk.
If normal or not I can't say...
I have some books that I use as melatonin.
Me too but also use some youtube channels, eg. Monotone voices do that for me as well
> but figured he was just tired like all young, growing boys.
I feel like this assumption, at least in the US, is more of a failure of our school system than anything else. There have even been studies that show that teenagers have natural rhythms hours later than the 8 AM start times.
Edit: please disregard. I didn't read carefully enough. Obviously it's not dangerous to fall asleep when someone else is driving.
> The moment he gets in a car and it starts driving he falls asleep and very deeply
> ...
> These are not dangerous situations
Falling asleep while driving sounds quite dangerous, even with automatic breaking.
Describing this as "he gets in a car and it starts driving" seems like a pretty intentional decision; I suspect that either the brother doesn't drive, or this only happens when someone else is driving.
> I have never seen my brother fall asleep while occupied with something (walking, talking... driving?)
Can you wake him up after he falls asleep in the day time?