About me

Since I was a little kid I was always sleepy whether I was at school, hanging out with friends, in a car, and everything in between. If I wasn’t getting up every so often my eyes would get heaving and my ability to stay awake disappeared. For most of my childhood, me and everyone around me just thought I was sleepy or tired because I was having a growth spurt or because I was a swimmer. There were times though that I noticed all my friends and teammates were doing the same things as me, but not nearly as sleepy and fatigued on a daily basis as I was. 

It wasn’t until I got to middle school and was entering into high school when the sleepiness really started to negatively impact my life. If a teacher turned off the lights for a presentation or video, I would dread it because within a few minutes I would be overcome by sleepiness and fighting to keep my eyes awake. Sitting for an hour to take a test without getting sleepy became harder and harder. It became apparent how no matter how much sleep I got or how healthy I ate, my body didn’t recover from intense swim training like my teammates. Then my sophomore year of highschool is when everything came crashing down. I was falling asleep in every class, falling behind in school work, and taking 3 hour naps after school that felt impossible to get up from. After pulling myself out of my naps I would make it to my 3 hour swim practices and barely make it through the practice. I was not making intervals or close to hitting my times and I was trying to survive each practice and each day of school. Suddenly, I didn’t recognize or feel like myself as a student swimmer, or teenager. After weeks of this cycle of severe sleepiness, my family, my coaches, and myself knew something was not right with my body. So to the doctors I went to try to find answers. 

I went to my primary care and at first one of them suggested that I just wasn't eating healthy enough and referred me to a dietitian even though myself and my family knew that wasn’t the issue because I ate very healthy. I went to about 4 or more different doctors including endocrinologists, allergists, and GI in attempts to explain these extreme fatigue and tiredness. Luckily, just as I was close to giving up in finding answers and questioning if it was all in my head, one primary care doctor suggested I see a sleep specialist. From there, I did a sleep study and finally had an answer. I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy type 1 with cataplexy. 

It was a huge relief to have an answer after so many years of not knowing why I was so sleepy and tired all the time. At the same time I didn’t know anything or anyone who had narcolepsy. I came to learn how Narcolepsy is commonly misunderstood and can often take 10+ years to get diagnosed because of the lack of awareness about the sleep disorder. That all led me to starting a blog about narcolepsy in hopes others can learn more and those who have narcolepsy feel less alone.