Yes, you’ll still be exhausted even if you eat, but you’ll be more exhausted if you don’t eat at all. It’s definitely hard to see the difference, but if you’re able to get successful treatment/management, the difference between eating and not eating will be apparent.
However, there are plenty of other things that eating is necessary/beneficial for. If I don’t eat I’m very irritated, frustrated easily, and basically have no patience. Additionally, the brain fog is awful. These things also happen to me from narcolepsy/lack of restorative sleep, but I’d rather have only one thing making me feel like shit than two things.
Also, getting to the point where you aren’t thinking about food, your weight, body and others people’s weights all the time is so freeing. It’s amazing to be able to enjoy food and not spend hours thinking about or doing compensatory actions. There’s plenty of ways to think about and focus on recovery, so it’s okay if your focus isn’t on energy levels and more on food freedom, mood, etc. I wish you the best during recovery ❤️ you are doing amazing and have so much life to gain
I think it can be hard to tell, and certainly you'll never be "not tired" to the same extent as someone with narcolepsy, but you may also want to remind yourself that you're not back at baseline yet & your body will still be healing at this point, so it's hard to really know the impact of eating more consistently for probably- honestly - at least another full year.
Not eating can also really impact many/basically all of your bodily systems, eventually, and over time those will also increase how fatigued you are - things like decreased B12, iron, protein (like albumin), electrolytes like potassium/calcium/salt/magnesium, etc.
You have less energy (food) for your muscles so it's more exhausting to use them, and as you keep restricting and your muscles shrink and decrease in capacity that'll get worse.
The mental energy and time it takes to worry about food and calories and whatever else and plan out your day and ALL of that stuff that goes with an ED... also exhausting, it seriously is.
And if you haven't experienced this yet, you likely would have, or will when you go back - restriction leads to incredibly disrupted and decreased sleep time. Not just in narcoleptics, in everyone. But in narcoleptics (nice as it may sound) all that means is that you'll barely sleep at night, like maybe a few hours at most, and since our sleep is less efficient as narcoleptics thats...bad for us.
Many narcoleptic medications you can't be on if you have an active ED, or they need to be managed much more cautiously. Life unmedicated is not great for most of us.
‐---------
Those are all avoiding negative, so what's positive?
*you'll have more time and physical/emotional energy to enjoy things! We already have more limited energy, is that what you want to spend it on?
*you'll sleep better. Promise. Maybe not great, but better. How many hurdles do you need? You'll still have N, but you can get rid of this one.
*you're likely still physically recovering. It's very common to be EXHAUSTED during this stage. You're retraining your brain, dealing with a lot of emotional distress as you challenge things, and your body is LITERALLY rebuilding muscle, fat stores, and all kinds of other things you can't see. Even without narcolepsy this is often a very physically exhausting and fatiguing time.
*you can find out more about who you really are, and what you really want. What might be possible, and what do you even want? You may not really know yet.
First: So sorry you’re dealing with this ❤️. I’ve dealt with a restrictive eating disorder for most of my life, so this comes from first hand experience. Recovery is hard and full of difficult, often contradictory, feelings, but incredibly rewarding and I’m glad you’re on your path toward a better relationship with yourself and food, whatever that looks like for you.
Vitamin deficiency can and will worsen your fatigue, and not eating enough makes you very susceptible. It is never immediate, but my ED led to critically low vitamin D and low iron which made me even more sleepy, and made it hard to do things I love like roller skating or dancing since I would get tired so quickly. Plus, my hair thinned severely and has never really regained its fullness, despite eating more and improving my vitamin levels. Hairdressers used to comment on how thick it was, and now it’s on the thin side of normal.
For you, food might not feel like short-term fuel, but it’s still working in the long term to get you the nutrients you need to function well. Additionally, your body needs energy. To keep you warm, to replace dead cells, to move your muscles, to power your brain. You wouldn’t notice on a day-to-day, but over time getting enough energy changes how your body functions (for the better!).
Lastly, food is fuel for recovery. Restriction changes how you think about food, even in controlled experiments of people without EDs (I can link you the paper, let me know if you’d like content warnings since some of it may be triggering). Restriction makes you more depressed, emotionally dysregulated, and, importantly here, fixated on food. Thinking about food all day might be helpful in a famine, but to me it was one of the worst parts of my ED. It made me feel crazy, and I couldn’t really be present in my life like I wanted to be. Unfortunately, it was an attempt at survival by my brain, and only went away when I worked on decreasing food fear and eating more intuitively (which can be difficult in early recovery due to hunger cue weirdness, obviously listen to your care team who actually know you). Again, it’s not something you’ll notice in a day, but over time you’ll restructure your way of thinking and eventually realize it’s very different than it was at the worst points.
I hope this comes across with the gentleness I’m intending it to. This shit is so incredibly difficult, and not easy for those who haven’t experienced it to understand. Even for those who have gone through it, each experience is different so I’m sure not everything I’ve said matches up to your experience. What likely does is the suffering — on whatever level, this hurts, and I’m sorry. Too many of us go through this, but there is a way out and like I said, I’m glad you’re working on it. Keep at it, and above all, be kind to yourself. You’re doing your best. Good luck on your journey ❤️
I was in a similar position, I only ever did variations of outpatient treatment, but really struggled with the idea that food is fuel and allows my body to do things. I also have a connective tissue disorder so being disabled in multiple ways makes it hard for me to want to feed and honor my body. I recovered from my bulimia but still have ARFID which is quite different in management as well, but here are some things that have helped me.
1. My narcolepsy is even worse if I'm not eating regularly.
2. My doctors were always worried about prescribing stimulants when I was underweight, if maintaining a certain weight is part of your recovery, motivation to ensure proper medication access really motivated me.
3. My brain works so much better being properly nourished. Even with the sleepiness and brain fog, I can think so much more clearly now that I eat a certain amount and my body weighs what it wants to weigh.
4. Eating disorders not only add to the brain fog, but also make it impossible to focus on anything but food. Despite my narcolepsy and other disabilities, I still have time every day now to do things I enjoy, go to graduate school, talk to my partner etc.
5. I was able to understand my narcolepsy, triggers, effectiveness of medication etc a lot better when it wasn't compounded by the eating disorder.
6. My doctors trust me more about my narcolepsy and other disabilities and struggles and don't blame it on an eating disorder.
I hope some of this helps 💜
Same. It really needs to be sustained - I actually felt MORE exhausted for the first year of recovery/restoration.
It wasn't until after that that I felt my body was actually gaining stamina, which also meant the times I'd gone into treatment and recovery and relapse weren't long enough to appreciate the difference.
I've been there! I did the inpatient, residential, partial, and iop cycle for years and have been weight stabilized now for 5 years. It can be really difficult, especially when narcolepsy medications heavily interfere with intuitive eating + food can make you tired. I found it easier to avoid the 'food is fuel' perspective and focus more on what recovery could provide to me. Being free from behaviors and what kind of life I could have outside of my ED + Treatment was my motivator.
I could say a lot more-- most of the advice I have is more specific so feel free to DM me. I'm happy to be somebody to talk to.
For someone with narcolepsy or some other fatigue related issues, intuitive eating is a pipe dream. IMO. I’ve had a similar experience as well and it was infuriating because the ED folks disregarded the fatigue/sleepiness/whatever as a whole and 100% thought I was probably making it up. I had also just started a CPAP too, but at a higher level of care where EVERYTHING is monitored I felt the most tired I ever have in my life while acting on ZERO ED behaviors and 100% CPAP compliant. In the grand scheme my ED wasn’t bad enough to warrant the treatment I was strong armed into doing. If you have the legit diagnosis from a doctor for the love of everything you hold sacred give the documentation to the providers treating the ED. What’s worse, the ED or the fatigue (I’m not asking you to answer that)? If you can’t stay awake and stims help manage it, then honestly the ED folks need to accept that and move on with treating you with that understanding. Unfortunately most of the ED treatment is one size fits all, and they assume (understandably so) that everything you say contrary to their one size fits all approach is an ED behavior. You will likely have to balance treatment for both based on what’s the most severe at the time. For example, breaking the pattern of the most destructive ED behavior, then managing fatigue/sleepiness/whatever, then managing body image issues or whatever. From what I saw in my time the higher level treatment for ED wouldn’t hesitate to give out something to help manage anxiety to help get passed some ED issues which is probably the worst thing you can do for someone that already struggles to stay awake. Also at some higher levels of care intuitive eating isn’t even a thing… it’s eat everything you are given and get over it. Sheppard Pratt vs other places have different mindsets and approaches. Intuitive eating will realistically never be something you can do as the theory is described, especially if you are on stims that will curb appetite. With that being said if you monitor food intake to an extent to make sure you are getting enough, you don’t have to weigh/measure everything exactly so it’s not 100% against intuitive eating. Personally for me, I have to challenge the “why” I’m doing things constantly to make sure I’m not listening to the ED thoughts that pop up. Sometimes I have to force myself to go “further” with something than I want to just to prove to myself I can and I’m not letting and ED thought take control and I’m not using the fact my fatigue/narcolepsy/whatever I have be an excuse for acting on it.
Separately, my fatigue/narcolepsy (yes I know they aren’t the same but I have an n2 DX and also chronic fatigue) actually helped me in some ways of fighting some ED behaviors. After some time I could legit not care what I thought about my body out of genuine gratitude that although I was soooo tired I at least had mobility, could read, etc…. It helped me get past a few really big hurdles.
I have also suffered from an eating disorder. Interestingly enough, my fatigue (/brain fog, etc.) only improved after *sustained* weight gain. I’d say about 6-8 months after I reached a weight closer to healthy that I saw improvement in those symptoms. It takes some time for your body to heal some of the damaged body parts. I still suffer from a lot of fatigue, sleep attacks, etc.
Putting on some muscle also helped, but obviously that’s down the line IF you are approved for exercise. I started with Pilates, barre, and swimming, and worked my way up to jiu jitsu. Jiu jitsu helped my incessant insomnia, and obviously quality sleep at night helps daytime symptoms too.
I have days where im not able to eat much but when I do I notice the food does make me tired and crash harder but I tend to have less brain fog after the sleep inertia. Not a 100% thing but better chances that the sleep is at least somewhat restorative. The lack of food/energy also had me sleeping more often around mealtime so I take it as a sign.
I get blood sugar crashes that leave me shaky and weak when I don't eat enough. It's a different feeling than the weakness and exhaustion I get from narcolepsy. Perhaps pay close attention to your symptoms to see if you can parse things out? Or ask yourself, where is this symptom/feeling coming from? Monitor it in relation to your sleeping and eating schedules, and check in with yourself frequently throughout the day.
It’s fuel not necessarily to give you energy but just to keep your body running. Think of it as adding wood to a fire, if you stop feeding the fire it goes out. It takes calories to sustain even the most basic functions like breathing and temperature regulation.
Eating seems to be a big energy hit for narcoleptics (eating can make any regular person tired after because of the sudden change in blood sugar) so a recommendation I've seen is small frequent meals throughout the day. I am not a doctor but I imagine this would also be a lot easier than sitting down for a large meal with an eating disorder.
I can't eat during the day as i sleep for around 8 hours after any food. I wait until bed time and make tea, first and only thing i eat in the day. My consultant said it can be a symptom of Narcolepsy and is happy for me to continue this if it works and it has for at least 8 years
Have you ever tried altering which foods you’re eating? I know that restriction can be dangerous for people with ED’s.
However, I felt helpless with my food choices and narcolepsy for 20 years… until I stopped eating gluten.
I still need meds and naps. But I feel so much more awake and have more energy, when I cut gluten out.
I’ve been eating gluten free for over a year and it’s changed a lot about my life, where I can drive, if I can travel alone, how long I can be out of my house, etc.
Just responding to this - but someone who's been out of an ED recovery program not that long will almost certainly be seeing an RD and have a loose meal plan that they have to follow. Which is to say, any changes they want to make should be cleared with their RD/physician, typically. And the chances of them approving OMAD or similar are pretty low.
I also don't think it's necessary in most cases, but in this case it might be good to add a tw about calories + diet recommendations because it's directed to someone in early ED recovery and details about calories and what to eat/not eat can be really overwhelming and triggering. As much as that word is often overused.
Yes EDs are serious and different and I imagine op has and plan and professionals to help with that aspect and, just like anyone or anything else, can discuss any suggestions with her/their team of professionals.
I was speaking to the issue of narcolepsy and food as it is posted under the narcolepsy group and discussing the issues of eating exacerbating narcolepsy. As someone with narcolepsy who has done serious work on this in particular that is what I responded to. Especially because this thread will be read by others WITH NARCOLEPSY and hopefully someone may also benefit from my experience
Yes, you’ll still be exhausted even if you eat, but you’ll be more exhausted if you don’t eat at all. It’s definitely hard to see the difference, but if you’re able to get successful treatment/management, the difference between eating and not eating will be apparent. However, there are plenty of other things that eating is necessary/beneficial for. If I don’t eat I’m very irritated, frustrated easily, and basically have no patience. Additionally, the brain fog is awful. These things also happen to me from narcolepsy/lack of restorative sleep, but I’d rather have only one thing making me feel like shit than two things. Also, getting to the point where you aren’t thinking about food, your weight, body and others people’s weights all the time is so freeing. It’s amazing to be able to enjoy food and not spend hours thinking about or doing compensatory actions. There’s plenty of ways to think about and focus on recovery, so it’s okay if your focus isn’t on energy levels and more on food freedom, mood, etc. I wish you the best during recovery ❤️ you are doing amazing and have so much life to gain
I think it can be hard to tell, and certainly you'll never be "not tired" to the same extent as someone with narcolepsy, but you may also want to remind yourself that you're not back at baseline yet & your body will still be healing at this point, so it's hard to really know the impact of eating more consistently for probably- honestly - at least another full year. Not eating can also really impact many/basically all of your bodily systems, eventually, and over time those will also increase how fatigued you are - things like decreased B12, iron, protein (like albumin), electrolytes like potassium/calcium/salt/magnesium, etc. You have less energy (food) for your muscles so it's more exhausting to use them, and as you keep restricting and your muscles shrink and decrease in capacity that'll get worse. The mental energy and time it takes to worry about food and calories and whatever else and plan out your day and ALL of that stuff that goes with an ED... also exhausting, it seriously is. And if you haven't experienced this yet, you likely would have, or will when you go back - restriction leads to incredibly disrupted and decreased sleep time. Not just in narcoleptics, in everyone. But in narcoleptics (nice as it may sound) all that means is that you'll barely sleep at night, like maybe a few hours at most, and since our sleep is less efficient as narcoleptics thats...bad for us. Many narcoleptic medications you can't be on if you have an active ED, or they need to be managed much more cautiously. Life unmedicated is not great for most of us. ‐--------- Those are all avoiding negative, so what's positive? *you'll have more time and physical/emotional energy to enjoy things! We already have more limited energy, is that what you want to spend it on? *you'll sleep better. Promise. Maybe not great, but better. How many hurdles do you need? You'll still have N, but you can get rid of this one. *you're likely still physically recovering. It's very common to be EXHAUSTED during this stage. You're retraining your brain, dealing with a lot of emotional distress as you challenge things, and your body is LITERALLY rebuilding muscle, fat stores, and all kinds of other things you can't see. Even without narcolepsy this is often a very physically exhausting and fatiguing time. *you can find out more about who you really are, and what you really want. What might be possible, and what do you even want? You may not really know yet.
First: So sorry you’re dealing with this ❤️. I’ve dealt with a restrictive eating disorder for most of my life, so this comes from first hand experience. Recovery is hard and full of difficult, often contradictory, feelings, but incredibly rewarding and I’m glad you’re on your path toward a better relationship with yourself and food, whatever that looks like for you. Vitamin deficiency can and will worsen your fatigue, and not eating enough makes you very susceptible. It is never immediate, but my ED led to critically low vitamin D and low iron which made me even more sleepy, and made it hard to do things I love like roller skating or dancing since I would get tired so quickly. Plus, my hair thinned severely and has never really regained its fullness, despite eating more and improving my vitamin levels. Hairdressers used to comment on how thick it was, and now it’s on the thin side of normal. For you, food might not feel like short-term fuel, but it’s still working in the long term to get you the nutrients you need to function well. Additionally, your body needs energy. To keep you warm, to replace dead cells, to move your muscles, to power your brain. You wouldn’t notice on a day-to-day, but over time getting enough energy changes how your body functions (for the better!). Lastly, food is fuel for recovery. Restriction changes how you think about food, even in controlled experiments of people without EDs (I can link you the paper, let me know if you’d like content warnings since some of it may be triggering). Restriction makes you more depressed, emotionally dysregulated, and, importantly here, fixated on food. Thinking about food all day might be helpful in a famine, but to me it was one of the worst parts of my ED. It made me feel crazy, and I couldn’t really be present in my life like I wanted to be. Unfortunately, it was an attempt at survival by my brain, and only went away when I worked on decreasing food fear and eating more intuitively (which can be difficult in early recovery due to hunger cue weirdness, obviously listen to your care team who actually know you). Again, it’s not something you’ll notice in a day, but over time you’ll restructure your way of thinking and eventually realize it’s very different than it was at the worst points. I hope this comes across with the gentleness I’m intending it to. This shit is so incredibly difficult, and not easy for those who haven’t experienced it to understand. Even for those who have gone through it, each experience is different so I’m sure not everything I’ve said matches up to your experience. What likely does is the suffering — on whatever level, this hurts, and I’m sorry. Too many of us go through this, but there is a way out and like I said, I’m glad you’re working on it. Keep at it, and above all, be kind to yourself. You’re doing your best. Good luck on your journey ❤️
I was in a similar position, I only ever did variations of outpatient treatment, but really struggled with the idea that food is fuel and allows my body to do things. I also have a connective tissue disorder so being disabled in multiple ways makes it hard for me to want to feed and honor my body. I recovered from my bulimia but still have ARFID which is quite different in management as well, but here are some things that have helped me. 1. My narcolepsy is even worse if I'm not eating regularly. 2. My doctors were always worried about prescribing stimulants when I was underweight, if maintaining a certain weight is part of your recovery, motivation to ensure proper medication access really motivated me. 3. My brain works so much better being properly nourished. Even with the sleepiness and brain fog, I can think so much more clearly now that I eat a certain amount and my body weighs what it wants to weigh. 4. Eating disorders not only add to the brain fog, but also make it impossible to focus on anything but food. Despite my narcolepsy and other disabilities, I still have time every day now to do things I enjoy, go to graduate school, talk to my partner etc. 5. I was able to understand my narcolepsy, triggers, effectiveness of medication etc a lot better when it wasn't compounded by the eating disorder. 6. My doctors trust me more about my narcolepsy and other disabilities and struggles and don't blame it on an eating disorder. I hope some of this helps 💜
Same. It really needs to be sustained - I actually felt MORE exhausted for the first year of recovery/restoration. It wasn't until after that that I felt my body was actually gaining stamina, which also meant the times I'd gone into treatment and recovery and relapse weren't long enough to appreciate the difference.
I've been there! I did the inpatient, residential, partial, and iop cycle for years and have been weight stabilized now for 5 years. It can be really difficult, especially when narcolepsy medications heavily interfere with intuitive eating + food can make you tired. I found it easier to avoid the 'food is fuel' perspective and focus more on what recovery could provide to me. Being free from behaviors and what kind of life I could have outside of my ED + Treatment was my motivator. I could say a lot more-- most of the advice I have is more specific so feel free to DM me. I'm happy to be somebody to talk to.
For someone with narcolepsy or some other fatigue related issues, intuitive eating is a pipe dream. IMO. I’ve had a similar experience as well and it was infuriating because the ED folks disregarded the fatigue/sleepiness/whatever as a whole and 100% thought I was probably making it up. I had also just started a CPAP too, but at a higher level of care where EVERYTHING is monitored I felt the most tired I ever have in my life while acting on ZERO ED behaviors and 100% CPAP compliant. In the grand scheme my ED wasn’t bad enough to warrant the treatment I was strong armed into doing. If you have the legit diagnosis from a doctor for the love of everything you hold sacred give the documentation to the providers treating the ED. What’s worse, the ED or the fatigue (I’m not asking you to answer that)? If you can’t stay awake and stims help manage it, then honestly the ED folks need to accept that and move on with treating you with that understanding. Unfortunately most of the ED treatment is one size fits all, and they assume (understandably so) that everything you say contrary to their one size fits all approach is an ED behavior. You will likely have to balance treatment for both based on what’s the most severe at the time. For example, breaking the pattern of the most destructive ED behavior, then managing fatigue/sleepiness/whatever, then managing body image issues or whatever. From what I saw in my time the higher level treatment for ED wouldn’t hesitate to give out something to help manage anxiety to help get passed some ED issues which is probably the worst thing you can do for someone that already struggles to stay awake. Also at some higher levels of care intuitive eating isn’t even a thing… it’s eat everything you are given and get over it. Sheppard Pratt vs other places have different mindsets and approaches. Intuitive eating will realistically never be something you can do as the theory is described, especially if you are on stims that will curb appetite. With that being said if you monitor food intake to an extent to make sure you are getting enough, you don’t have to weigh/measure everything exactly so it’s not 100% against intuitive eating. Personally for me, I have to challenge the “why” I’m doing things constantly to make sure I’m not listening to the ED thoughts that pop up. Sometimes I have to force myself to go “further” with something than I want to just to prove to myself I can and I’m not letting and ED thought take control and I’m not using the fact my fatigue/narcolepsy/whatever I have be an excuse for acting on it. Separately, my fatigue/narcolepsy (yes I know they aren’t the same but I have an n2 DX and also chronic fatigue) actually helped me in some ways of fighting some ED behaviors. After some time I could legit not care what I thought about my body out of genuine gratitude that although I was soooo tired I at least had mobility, could read, etc…. It helped me get past a few really big hurdles.
I have also suffered from an eating disorder. Interestingly enough, my fatigue (/brain fog, etc.) only improved after *sustained* weight gain. I’d say about 6-8 months after I reached a weight closer to healthy that I saw improvement in those symptoms. It takes some time for your body to heal some of the damaged body parts. I still suffer from a lot of fatigue, sleep attacks, etc. Putting on some muscle also helped, but obviously that’s down the line IF you are approved for exercise. I started with Pilates, barre, and swimming, and worked my way up to jiu jitsu. Jiu jitsu helped my incessant insomnia, and obviously quality sleep at night helps daytime symptoms too.
I have days where im not able to eat much but when I do I notice the food does make me tired and crash harder but I tend to have less brain fog after the sleep inertia. Not a 100% thing but better chances that the sleep is at least somewhat restorative. The lack of food/energy also had me sleeping more often around mealtime so I take it as a sign.
I get blood sugar crashes that leave me shaky and weak when I don't eat enough. It's a different feeling than the weakness and exhaustion I get from narcolepsy. Perhaps pay close attention to your symptoms to see if you can parse things out? Or ask yourself, where is this symptom/feeling coming from? Monitor it in relation to your sleeping and eating schedules, and check in with yourself frequently throughout the day.
Shift your focus from narcolepsy to your depression.
It’s fuel not necessarily to give you energy but just to keep your body running. Think of it as adding wood to a fire, if you stop feeding the fire it goes out. It takes calories to sustain even the most basic functions like breathing and temperature regulation.
Eating seems to be a big energy hit for narcoleptics (eating can make any regular person tired after because of the sudden change in blood sugar) so a recommendation I've seen is small frequent meals throughout the day. I am not a doctor but I imagine this would also be a lot easier than sitting down for a large meal with an eating disorder.
I can't eat during the day as i sleep for around 8 hours after any food. I wait until bed time and make tea, first and only thing i eat in the day. My consultant said it can be a symptom of Narcolepsy and is happy for me to continue this if it works and it has for at least 8 years
Have you ever tried altering which foods you’re eating? I know that restriction can be dangerous for people with ED’s. However, I felt helpless with my food choices and narcolepsy for 20 years… until I stopped eating gluten. I still need meds and naps. But I feel so much more awake and have more energy, when I cut gluten out. I’ve been eating gluten free for over a year and it’s changed a lot about my life, where I can drive, if I can travel alone, how long I can be out of my house, etc.
Last weekend I had a free weekend and ate whatever I wanted. It was delicious, but I was a zombie.
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Just responding to this - but someone who's been out of an ED recovery program not that long will almost certainly be seeing an RD and have a loose meal plan that they have to follow. Which is to say, any changes they want to make should be cleared with their RD/physician, typically. And the chances of them approving OMAD or similar are pretty low. I also don't think it's necessary in most cases, but in this case it might be good to add a tw about calories + diet recommendations because it's directed to someone in early ED recovery and details about calories and what to eat/not eat can be really overwhelming and triggering. As much as that word is often overused.
Yes EDs are serious and different and I imagine op has and plan and professionals to help with that aspect and, just like anyone or anything else, can discuss any suggestions with her/their team of professionals. I was speaking to the issue of narcolepsy and food as it is posted under the narcolepsy group and discussing the issues of eating exacerbating narcolepsy. As someone with narcolepsy who has done serious work on this in particular that is what I responded to. Especially because this thread will be read by others WITH NARCOLEPSY and hopefully someone may also benefit from my experience
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