It’s SLEEPY CATURDAY so it’s time to pull out another cat post from my drafts folder! ICYMI my cat posts run deep. Without further ado here is me as a cat “waking up”. Keep an eye on the cat on the right, Misty Bear.
This is what I look like when I’m “waking up”. I think I look awake. I’ll tell you I’m about to wake up. I’ll say “just give me 7 minutes.” Friends, this person is not awake and they are NOT waking up. If a person with narcolepsy tells you they’re waking up you shouldn’t believe them. Or at least you shouldn’t believe them any more than you believe them when they tell you to move out of the way of the unicorn/tarantula/”insert narcoleptic hallucination here” that is in the corner. Because they are going back to sleep just as quickly as…wait they never woke up.
The best way to wake up a person with narcolepsy is…I have no idea. Unmedicated I can’t get out of bed. It’s almost physically impossible because my brain has nothing going for it and it won’t stop REMming. My best bet is 17 hours of sleep, half a liter of water, and a light lamp. When I was taking stimulants, I would set my alarm for 1 hour before I needed to be out of bed so that they would have time to kick in and then I could groggily and sleepily go about my day. Now on Xyrem I actually wake up more easily than I ever did before. Getting out of bed is still my least favorite part of the day, but when I wake up I feel like I’m actually conscious more often than not.
Before Xyrem? Misty Bear and I were one.
Do you have any recommendations for PWN who are not taking medication?
This is us these days. 