My dad has (had?) narcolepsy. He has a tendency to just nod off suddenly without showing any signs of previous fatigue or drowsiness. The guy could also fall asleep at the drop of a hat. He’d say, “I’m going to take a nap now, Incubus, so hold my calls” then he would lie down and BAM he’d be in such a deep sleep it would take me literally ten minutes of poking, shaking, and shouting at him to get him to wake up if I needed him concious for something important.
I once asked my dad why he didn’t go to the doctor about this, and he mumbled some comment about the possibility of them taking away his driver’s license (makes sense I guess- you don’t want a person behind the wheel that is just going to suddenly fall asleep without warning!) This of course made me extremely scared/worried whenever he would go on long drives alone.
Last year, I noticed a change. My dad doesn’t sleep…AT ALL. This shocked me; lots of my memories of my dad either involve him being alseep (he worked graveyard shift when I was a kid and slept thru the day) or slowly rousing from sleep. Then I remembered reading about Crystal Meth users, “tweakers” who would often not sleep for long periods of time. It got me thinking abotu the possibility of my dad using Crystal Meth to cure his narcolepsy, and perhaps it worked too well. I wouldn’t put the drug use past him, since he was fired from 2 nursing positions for stealing morphine to support his addiction. Any dopers out there who can give me the bottom line?
Meth isn’t the answer to anything man, albeit fun :). That’s not the answer for your dad, I knew someone with narcolepsy also and he tried many treatments, none worked. I can asure you though that doing meth will just worsen the situation, possibly making it worse when he finally does “crash”, just some experience talkin’ here.
Crystal Meth wouldn’t be the way to go here. To short lived and when he comes down, he’s going to come down real hard and fast. I’m not sure about now, but ritalin used to be prescribed for narcalepsy. If your Dad wanted to take something for it, that’s probably what he should look into. Some sort of pill, not Crystal Meth. The things that come to mind are Dexadrine or Adderall for the time release characteristics.
I just find it strange that he would go from nodding off randomly to NEVER sleeping…I asked him why he can’t/doesn’t sleep any more and he says he doesn’t know. Late at night he just sits in the kitchen in the dark and puffs on a cigarette- thought he’s not a heavy smoker anymore.
At least now he doesn’t fall asleep while smoking. A lot of blankets and shirts had burn holes in them from him fallin asleep with a cigarette in his hand. I’m glad he hasn’t burned the house down/himself up by doing this. One time he fell asleep with his arm frozen holding a cigareete. It had burned up right next to the fingers that were holding it, and that still wasn’t enough to wake him up :eek: my dad has a lot of wierd problems and he is not very open about things (which makes me worry they may be serious).
There are newer, better medications for narcolepsy. Taking hardcore stimulants isn’t really a good idea. He could look into provigil, which is essentially a non-stimulating drug that is used strictly for treating narcolepsy. Basically, it’ll keep him awake without all the drawbacks of a stimulant.
With the little info you give, my first most likely diagnosis would certainly be drug abuse, not narcolepsy. Said abuse being responsible for his earlier somnolence (opiates like morphine) and his current hyperalertness (stimulants of some sort).