I completely understand the way you are feeling. I have had the excessive daytime sleepiness stuff since I was a teenager. I always liked to sleep and still do. I do not nap during the day, when I'm at work, I probably should, because I'm so drained, and it makes me feel lazy, even though I know that I am not. I was jusr recently diagnosed. The first thing you should do is go to a sleep doctor, they will want to set you up with a sleep night time study thing. That is fun!!! and then the sleep latency tests. Then they will know for sure. i think it's called the mlst test. The day time sleep tests that they do, after the over night test, which is basically to see if you have sleep apnea etc. The day time tests are really simple, you'll still be hooked up to most of the wires that monitor your brain activity, which monitors how fast you go into rem sleep. With narcolepsy, you almost immediately go into rem, which means, narcoleptics totally miss the non rem sleep, and go straight into rem, and have nightmarish dreams, vivid, sometimes scary, maybe hypnotic hallucinations where you don't know if it's a dream or if it's real. It's really bizarre. Before I did the research on falling asleep while sitting up, I had never heard of narcolepsy before, I had no idea what it was or even meant. The sleep study, explained alot, for alot of years of not knowing why. So now I know why, and I'm trying to get use to the idea that it really is something that I have no control over. But there is help for this, and medications out there that do work, to help us all stay awake and alert. There is nothing wrong with taking the naps. I'm still trying to tell my husband. I have to have the naps, if I fall asleep, I fall asleep, I'll just wake up later. It's Okay.

Sounds very familiar. I always had all the symptoms, but did not know it. Then at 35 I just simply could not stay awake at work. Went home every day to nap and still felt tired all day.
Had sleep test and was diagnosed w/narc.

Hi there, it souns like you do have it! well, I'm not a doctor- but I know that if you tell your G.P. he can refer you for a sleep tst and that will find out for definite. I had to wait a while, but it was worth it as I now have medication that is making life a little more bearable. It has also made things easier generally as now my family and friends now I have narco and cataplexy, they are becoming more understanding. Hope you get it sorted.

thank you everyone for your replies. I have an appointment Monday with my GP and hopefully I'll get a referal. I'll keep you posted with the results.

goodness! that post described my experiences over the years exactly - and the hallucinations. I often am woken by 'spooks'....I suppose these are hallucinations! or pehraps they are spooks!...lol hope to learn more on this site before going to be diagnosed, have lived with it all so long, maybe I have learned to adapt but would be good to not feel so exhausted during the day...