Can I have Fatal Familial Insomnia?
I've been experiencing sudden onset of insomnia for no reason at all. No matter how much I exercise, work, or think positive, I sleep less and less. I am lucky if I get more than 2 hours now! Does it seem like FFI? Nobody in my family had it so far, as far as I know... If someone in my family has FFI, would I have known about it? My grandfather and grandmother on mother's side died both at ages 64 and 66 but from other common diseases (cancer and heart attack). If they had a gene for FFI, would they have revealed the symptoms by ages 64 and 66? Also, does eating food like chocolates from countries with reported FFI cases put you to a greater risk of getting it? Thanks a lot. I'm 21 years old btw.
Would you rather have severe insomnia or narcolepsy?
Insomnia. I have narcolepsy. Insomnia is just not being able to sleep. Narcolepsy is sleeping, not sleeping, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. Sleeping and still being tired. I have been accused of being drunk in restaurants when I have fallen asleep with my family. I have fallen asleep during meetings with my kid's school. I am surprised I have not had any head injuries for the amount of times I have collapsed without warning from cataplexy. I do not drive and have never had a license. And of course there's so much more than this.And fyi you can't GIVE someone narcolepsy. Or it would definitely be a form of torture.
What if I love my insomania?
If you are loving your insomnia, it may not be the actual problem with you.I have gone through insomnia and it does not feel good. If you become an insomniac you will become a walking zombie. Your eyes are open but you cannot focus on anything specific. You will be able to perform everything that you were doing but you will feel your efficiency lowering by each passing day.Although I am making a huge assumption but your case could be a mild form of insomnia. Do not let it get enhanced. Insomnia does not mean your need for sleep is decreasing. It means your mind is not getting enough break and it is slowly accepting its own deteriorating capabilities.
Has anyone ever overcome insomnia?
I've struggled with sever insomnia for a little over a decade and my life's all f'd up largely because of it. I'm only 25 and i just feel dead. Has anyone ever solved & defeated their insomnia. preferably without medication?
Is there such thing as mild cases of narcolepsy? Or would that just count as excessive sleepiness/drowsiness?
There are definitely different severities of narcolepsy. My mom, brother, and I all have it, but it impacts us differently. Cataplexy for example- my brother will fall to the floor with strong positive emotions like laughter and excitement. I on the other hand, loss strength but don’t collapse with laughter. But if I’m upset, angry, or excited, I exhibit a jerking movement in my left shoulder and my head jerks to the left (looks like a partial seizure). I also start talking gibberish, but I’m aware it’s happening. My mom does not have cataplexy.With tiredness/fatigue/exhaustion- we all have different levels of this too. My brother is still kinda young (preteen) and narcolepsy often looks like ADHD in children. He can stay awake for DAYS at a time and be so full of energy, bouncing off the walls, it’s crazy. I was that way until the end of highschool. My mom has a hard time with tiredness but still functions pretty well. She will maybe take a nap on some days, but she leads an active life. Thats the extent for them, but for me, narcolepsy is a living nightmare. I’m so tired that I can barely function as a human. Before starting medication, I had fallen asleep while driving. I hallucinate often (from your brain starting to dream while you’re awake). My memory is beyond terrible, I don’t remeber most of my life up until the last few years and even that’s not clear. I’ve had to put off my masters degree until I get more in control. I’ve tried all the different medications, diets, oils, alternative treatments, etc. I was recently on bedrest and literally laid in bed and slept for 8 months. The entire time I still never had enough energy to even watch tv. A few weeks ago, I was in a building on the 4th floor and the fire alarm went off. I went to the hallway and just sat down on the ground and cried. I didn’t have the energy to go down the stairs, even to save my life from the fire. Luckily it turned out to be a false alarm.Anyways, yes Narcolepsy can effect people in different ways and to different degrees. Daytime sleepiness alone is still a serious problem worth a trip to see a sleep specialist. Sleep is sooooo important! A sleep study will make it very clear if you in fact have it. My sleep studies show that I enter REM sleep within 2 min of falling asleep and that I wake up over 40 times an hour. Bla
Is it possible to have both narcolepsy and insomnia?
Yes ... having every major and some minor sleep disorders, it is the insomnia that has wreaked most havoc in my life. Was not diagnosed with Narcolepsy until 2011 when I was 47 and up until then just thought I was a chronic insomniac with other contributing sleep issues. There is a reason that sleep deprivation is a form of torture ... sleeping during the daytime has always been easier for me ... being diagnosed with Narcolepsy answered some final mysteries that I did not know we're related. Cataplexy, Hovering between sleep and awake, sleep paralysis and vivid, sometimes terrifying dreams made me just weird from late teens on. Gathering them up along with excessive daytime sleepiness *EDS* took me out of the weird zone. One major problem I have is trying to sleep without guilt ... which of course keeps me awake. I wish it were a problem that I slept too much because it's all I desire. If I'm in bet for 10 hours, I may get 5 hours of deep sleep, but try to tell anyone that ... they saw that I was in bed for 10 hours. It's difficult ... coming off of about 19 hours without sleep as I write this.I have an Identical Twin who could also have penned these words ... he has exactly the same problems word for word. Insomnia is not laying there awake only ... it is laying there looking like you're asleep and your brain wave patterns are everywhere instead of the ordered, regenerative patterns of the sleepful.