Message posted by BRaymond ( raymond@desoto.net) on 22:8:17 8/22/97
Message: I would like to hear from any others who may have Atypical Narcoplesy with a Delayed Sleep-Awake Arousal Syndrome. Mine causes me to oversleep in the morning. Once I get up (which is the hardest part) I'm okay. As long as I'm around stimulus I'm okay. I currently work alone at nights and have infrequent problems staying awake. Is there anyone else who has EDS but some control over it, as well as the other two I previously mentioned. I also have Epilepsy (since age 1 to present) and am still on medication for it. I often wonder if these medications couldn't have helped me over the years prior to my diagnosis of Atypical Narcolepsy in 1992. I didn't go into the Sleep lab for sleep difficulties, but rather to find the source of my extreme and often debilitating mixed headaches (according to the Doctor migraine, vascular, sinus, tension, and cluster all combined at one time). The only think I knew then was that the excessive sleepiness, either in the am or daytimes then, was correlated to a simultaneous occurrence of a sever headache which often lasted for days. The Epilepsy is not, nor have I ever considered it to be a problem preventing from achieving my goals with the exception of driving of course. The other medical issues and the combination of a variety of medications only complicates matters. Although I am much much better now than in 1992 (it then took 3 1/2 hours to get me up and going - now only 15-45 min. with occassional excessive oversleeping) I am still trying to reset the biological clock so I may return to my profession of social work on a am schedule. I was taken out of this position because they said patients wouldn't understand my disorder and I would be negligent, but no out of performance standards was ever found. IF YOU'RE OUT THERE AND KNOW ANYTHING RE: ANY OF THE ABOVE, OR COMBINATION THEREOF, I WOULD APPRECIATE HEARING FROM YOU. I will try to check this more often - I may forget from time to time or be too sleepy. Thanks BRaymond