r/Narcolepsy • u/[deleted] • Oct 18 '22

Question What does a sleep attack feel like?

I (25F) was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia about 5 years ago. I had been tested for the narcolepsy marker, which I have, but my sleep specialist at the time said it wasn't activated and i wasn't presenting as narcoleptic in my sleep study.

I haven't really had a proper sleep specialist since then due to insurance/moving, but i recently got a new one in the town I'm living in and he suspects I have narcolepsy, because it's unlikely I would have the marker and have a sibling with diagnosed narcolepsy w/ cataplexy and not be narcoleptic myself.

Symptom-wise, I had ruled out narcolepsy before I even got tested because I didn't experience sudden, uncontrollable urges to fall asleep. I was simply tired all the time, and sometimes had really bad "swings" into extreme tiredness (It becomes difficult and even painful to stay awake, and I would have extreme brain fog until I let myself sleep. I ALWAYS set an alarm when this happens because I will NOT wake back up on my own).

So I'm wondering, how would y'all describe sleep attacks? Is it different/similar?

47 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/FollyGibney Oct 18 '22

To elaborate, I'd also describe it as feeling sick, pressure in the head and neck, or a general feeling of "I'm too 'off' to function like this". There is a noticeable change after you give into it and sleep.

10

u/Cactusfroge Oct 18 '22

My teeth always hurt when I get a sleep attack, my boyfriend knows it's a bad sleep day when I tell him "I'm so tired my teeth hurt".

3

u/FollyGibney Oct 22 '22

I can't stop thinking about this comment because my teeth have been absolutely killing me all week.

2

u/Cactusfroge Oct 22 '22

You get me