Narcolepsy Back to Basics with Dr. Michael Thorpy

Whether you've been recently diagnosed with narcolepsy or you've been dealing with the diagnosis for years but want to learn more about the fundamentals of this chronic sleep disorder, Dr. Michael Thorpy covers all the basics in this video from our 2022 Annual Conference.

[@zanequillarts9050]

The guy asking about cataplexy and brainlessness at 42:00 needs a hug. I can relate to what he said bigtime, yet it sounds like he feels alone and quite frightened.... It does get super bad, and super scary. When he says "my brain does not function AT ALL", there is NO HYPERBOLE to his statement. Others usually do not perceive how bad my operating system is malfunctioning.... and the relativity of our language leads a statement like "I cannot think at all, everything is... gone" to receive a reply like "yeah, I forget things sometimes too". This is different than simple memory recall errors and "forgetting", instead- my mental landscape is often a black hole. Working memory won't hold 2 or more thoughts without short circuiting due to not having enough energy to perform those brain functions. From my viewpoint- the circuit breaker analogy seems dead on. Information bit one goes in, Information bit two goes in- and SNAP- all black. Can't remember info bit 1, info bit 2, or the goal I was trying to achieve. anyhow- Thanks for your content! You turn my frown upside down. :)

[@brandonmcalpin9228]

“Yeah, I had this crazy dream one time too” 😂 Not realizing it’s not even in the same ball park. Having a crazy dream every once in a blue moon isn’t the same as having vivid scary dreams every time you close your eyes lol I also get the, “I feel groggy in the morning too, but that’s no excuse to be late” not knowing I have 6 alarms to get me up because I’ll sleep through them or if I can get up early, I’ll doze off again before it’s time to go to work. The brainlessness is hard to explain to people. They think we’re stupid, lazy and unmotivated.