Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes excessive sleepiness and frequent daytime sleep attacks. Overcome by sleep episodes all day, Mohammed has an average of 60 sleep attacks per day.
Although he might try to fight it, it is impossible.  It took 18 years for him to be diagnosed, and before he was diagnosed he would constantly feel guilty when he fell asleep, even though it wasn’t his fault. Watching a narcoleptic having a sleep attack might seem a bit funny to most people, but in reality the struggles he\she goes through are very difficult and pitiful and not funny at all.

Doctors and scientists still don’t fully understand narcolepsy, limiting the research of how to prevent or cure the disease, making it dangerous. People with Narcolepsy, such as the man in the video, need to be very careful with their surroundings. Whenever Narcoleptics have sleep attacks, they usually fall to the floor and if they are near something sharp they can hurt themselves easily. Precautions must be taken such as putting carpets on the floor, which can be both economically and physically exhausting.

It must also be a difficult disease to have because most people in the world are very judgmental and will think a narcoleptic is drunk or drugged during one of his\her attacks. Having a job is pretty much impossible due to the fact that falling asleep at a meeting or during any important time could be considered disrespectful and might affect the quality of the person's work. It is hard for people, including me to understand the implications of having narcolepsy and the fact that it is impossible to control. It is easy to be suspicious and think the person is faking the attack because of the dishonesty present in this world and society. Hopefully someone will be able to find a cure for this disease and help all the unfortunate people who battle narcolepsy.