Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like by A. J. Jacobs

Author:A. J. Jacobs [Jacobs, A. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Biography, Essays, Form, Humour, Literary Collections, Personal Memoirs
ISBN: 9780307522986
Google: ipQDHj1aAe4C
Amazon: B003FCVDWE
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2010-06-03T23:00:00+00:00

What it Feels Like to Have Narcolepsy

[By Melody Zarnke, 45]

For a normal person to understand what narcoleptics feel like, they would have to forfeit sleep for forty-eight hours. That is how we feel every single day.

I was about twenty-one when I noticed I couldn’t drive long distances without pulling over to nap. I thought I just needed more sleep, but it turned out to be the first indication that I had narcolepsy.

When a normal person goes to sleep they do not enter dream sleep for maybe 90 minutes after falling asleep. When narcoleptics like myself fall asleep we enter dream sleep right away. I am still awake when I begin to dream and I experience my dreams as hallucinations. Believe me, they are very, very real. If I dream that I got bit, I can feel it.

Sometimes I’ll nod off and it’s like an out-of-body experience. Other times it can happen during repetitive motion or while doing monotonous work and lasts only seconds. I don’t even realize that anything has happened. Once I blacked out while I was laughing at a movie. My head rolled back and everything went dark and I wasn’t able to return my head to the correct position without help from my husband.

They’re getting close to a drug they hope can treat my condition. I’m not getting my hopes up but the thought of going to bed without fear is wonderful.

—AS TOLD TO KEVIN MCDONNELL

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