Hey! I think I am the same as you. Like 90% of the time I know when I am going to nod off, and I just have to let it happen. However, sometimes if I am really tired I will just find myself sleeping somewhere and not remember nodding off or anything. But that is rare.
Haha I dont think that mascara can make your eyes more tired. I wear it all the time, but maybe you are allergic?!
And the clothes thing, I totally agree. I can't wear sweatpants, or comfy clothes at all.... I fall asleep in them in seconds. Haha if I want to stay awake, I have to dress nicely.

Hi, no i dont have the mascara problem or the clothes problem.
I am exactly the same when it comes to the sleepiness, i also know when i am going to go to sleep my eyes just wont stay open, i try desperatly to open my eyes but am bosseyed whilst trying, until i just cant keep them open any longer and will drop to sleep i do fall asleep alot whilst on the laptop i wake up after 2 hours sat up head hanging over the laptop that is still resting on my legs.

For many years I would feel my eyes start to burn before I'd pass out, like they'd feel so dry and tired and burning that they were screaming for my lids to shut. But for the past few years it went away. Perhaps because I started to cave and shut my eyelids sooner! But I've always known when it was going to happen because my eyelids would feel like they had 10 lb bags of sand on them. I'm sure I look hysterical when I'm fighting it with my eyes all droopy. I also find I blink a lot. Maybe to try to stay awake as I'm fighting.

Another thing I've noticed is that I always feel cold and start to look around for a sweatshirt or jacket, and I've realized when that happens all of a sudden (i.e., I've been sitting in the same room for an hour, and all of a sudden I'm really cold?!?), that I'm going to pass out soon. Sure enough, I'm falling asleep and then wake up 20-40 minutes later groggy, hot, sweaty and my eyelids and fingers are all swollen and puffy. I don't know anyone else that has the odd swelling, but I imagine it could just be because when you come out of sleep your pump out more blood to your vasculature, which raises your body temp (and perhaps can cause a little swelling?). I asked my doctor, and he said that feeling hot and sweaty seems common among his narcoleptic patients, but the swelling, not so much.

Anyway, now that I'm finally on meds, the first sign I get now isn't heavy eyelids, but that all of a sudden I find it really hard to keep my eyes focused on what I'm reading. And my concentration goes out the window. And I find myself staring at things for too long because it's too much work to focus my eyes or to listen closely to what someone's saying. If I don't take another pill soon, my eyelids get heavy in record time and I pass out even faster than before I started meds. For those of you not on meds yet, welcome to the post-med crash.

And finally, when I wake up from a sleep attack I feel terrible. I ignore the fact that most literature says that narcoleptics feel refreshed. Obviously no one who has narcolepsy has ever written any of that literature....

Ok, sorry for the digression! But yes, the bottom line is that I've always had signs it was going to happen, which is the only reason I haven't been in some spectacular highway accident by now with 15 years of untreated narcolepsy. I would pull off at the first exit. Or immediately call someone (while singing to the radio and pinching myself or moving around in the seat didn't help, for some reason talking to someone on the phone does. Go figure). Rats. Digressed again.

One more thing (hah). I didn't call my "sleep episodes" sleep attacks until just recently, because I imagined them more like a cataplexy attack, where it happens all of a sudden without warning. But I think I'm a little more comfortable with calling it a sleep attack now. Nothing else really works, unless I keep describing it as involuntarily falling asleep. Sleep attack has more of a ring to it. :-)

I guess I'm the odd ball here! There are times that i do not know when i am going to fall asleep. I've fallen a sleep driving, talking on the phone and believe it or not I can fall asleep standing of course someone has to hold me up. I don't even realize that i'm tired!

Yeah, i'm the same way as you hanna. I pretty much know when i'm going to fall asleep, my eyelids get heavy, my brain slows down and I fall into a daze or stupor where I don't know what the hell is going on around and me next thing you know i'm sleep. There are times when I snap out of it by either gettting up and walking around or finding something to get my mind working.
One of my secrets of staying awake, especially when i'm taking a long drive is eating sunflower seeds! Now I know that sounds weird but some how or another it keeps my mind busy.

Wow, fibonae. That's rough! I've fallen asleep many times on the phone, and when standing up too, but at least I twitch or catch myself before I fall over! And lucky for me, I know when it's likely to happen. It's just that I usually don't have any control to stop it. I don't want to go into the details of when it's happened, but when you have to stand watching for long periods of time, and you feel you're falling asleep, but there's nowhere to go..... I can't imagine how hard it would be if I had no warning or had cataplexy and didn't know when it was coming. I don't know how you guys cope with that.

I can usually tell ... My eyes get really heavy just like you were describing. On the roughest of days when I oversleep really badly, my eyes are swollen for a while and I look like a kid with droopy sleepy eyes. It's so weird to have no choice, sometimes I tell my fiance that I'm going to have to nap on the couch before I can go to bed LOL! I can't physically make myself walk to the bed so I will have to crash first. He lets me crash, wakes me up a lil while later and tells me to go to bed. I usually don't remember having that conversation. Sometimes I tell him "no" and I wake up uncomfortable the next morning. I get mad at him for letting me stay on the couch and of course he tells me that I told him I wanted to stay there. That happens more frequently than me making it to bed. And the cold definitely makes me tired, I can't sleep in heat but make it cold and I'm out like a light! I keep a jacket at my desk at work so if I start getting cold I put it on. I usually don't fall asleep without feeling the extreme desire first. That does happen on the occasional crappy weekend day where we watch tv most of the day.

Before I was diagnosed I would sneak off at work for naps. I'm a smoker so I don't use my breaks to nap, I use them to go outside, smoke and socialize. I would go to the restroom (how embarrassing ...) and sit on the toilet and prop my elbows on my knees and hold my head with my hands and sleep for a little while. I never knew how long I had been out but I was always awakened by someone talking or another toilet flushing so it was a pretty good system. I put my head down one time at work and passed out ... I faked having a headache that day as an excuse for laying my head on my desk. I nearly lost my job because the boss came by and called my name out and it didn't wake me up. I would sleep through alot of my classes in high school. All the signs were there ...

So sad that PWN are undiagnosed for so long. It took me until I was 26 to be diagnosed ... shameful. Had I known then what I know now I could have done some things differently. I'm just glad I don't have to make excuses anymore ...

I usually know when I am going to fall asleep. Only can remember a very few times when it has happened, and I didn't know it, and most of those times have been riding in a car. As for my eyes mascara does make mine more itchy, tired, and blurry. I have been thinking it is an allergy but it has only started in the last few months, and I have worn the same brand for years. I even tried 2 different hypo allergic kinds and the same thing happened.

For the last several years I only did the falling asleep thing in movie theatres. I think that may be why I have more problems with automatic behavior. Also I do that stare off and start dreaming thing with my eyes open. So I seem to have sleep attacks without appearing to fall asleep. Like the brain goes to sleep but not the body. I wonder if it is because of all the caffeine I drink. Or maybe I just fought falling asleep for so many years that the narcolepsy compromised

I never wear mascara. My lashes are too long and thick as it is. It rubs off on my glasses.

I usually don't know that I'm going to nod off, but when I'm tired my eyes burn and I also get heartburn if I'm reeeally tired.

I can, however, tell when my attacks are going to happen. So can people that know me real well. My boss says there's something about my face but that's all she describes it as. My hubby says so too. I usually feel like my mind is fading away. My concentration goes, then my vision messes up (although not the same way as a migraine, it blurs out instead of speckles or flashes), then I slur and my arms and head feel heavy... and it's downhill from there.

I think these "attacks" are a mix of cataplexy and falling asleep. I remember a few people on here could relate to the experience, including Renate? Well anyway, got a little off topic.

Man o man, the places I have closed my eyes for a power kip! Sitting on a speaker stack in a Drum & Bass gig. My IT induction at a previous job, first day there and an hour induction with the head of IT for a very large and successful media agency, lasted all of 2 mins I was told. But I did wake up 30 sec before it finished!!! Driving. Mid conversation. Paid $25 dollars for a large coke and movie at the cinema, didnt make it past the previews and awoke to a warm coke and the credits rolling (value for money or what??) Riding my bicycle down a highway.. Haha, gotta laugh dont ya....
Usually know when I am heading that way, but many times I have no idea, bang and thats it.... For this reason I have handed in me license, wont drive again. Just not worth the risk.
No idea about the Mascara. But am looking forward to the next fancy dress party and I will do some research!!!

wow! i am new to this site and newly diagnosed with "narc".... i am glad to be able to read about others experiencing the same things i do! there are times that my eyes get so heavy i just HAVE to take a nap. and then there are times that i go into a stare ... my mind goes to sleep but the rest of me continues to function somewhat. i call it "zoning out". my kids would get so mad at me because they would be telling me something and that would happen and then i would snap back but couldnt remember what they had told me. they thought i just wasnt paying attention. as far as the mascara... i have noticed it bothering my eyes too. weird!! : )

I usually can feel it coming on. I fight it constantly. The longer I fight it results in either a migraine or me going to sleep. I have only found out recently about my problem so I thought I was losing it or something. I have been in 2 accidents where my car collided with another car. I was in an almost accident on the freeway where I just missed a 18-wheeler. I have also had 3 sleep attacks apart from those where I fell to the ground and ended up in the hospital for 2 of them due to being badly injured. As I am 41 and have had this since I was about 15 I guess I am a typical case.

I really have to thank all of you for putting in these very useful comments. Little things like feeling hot / sweaty after waking up. The topic is awesome also. I have learned more here than from my neurologist as some of the things that are symptomsa of N I usually considered normal, at least for me.

I can't really answer for the mascara thing, LOL. Maybe I will try on a haloween girl outfit thing some year, that would be funny.

Jag

i forgot to mention if i am sleepy and i fight through it, alot of the time i feel ill and have a headahe, and energy goes, i also feel quite cold when get tired....like nothing warms me up,
it was the fighting it and feeling ill that made me decide i had to give my job up as i was like this everyday on a 5 hour shift and just felt poorly.