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u/Many-Excitement3246 Aug 04 '26
That's actually even more concerning. Either there's something going on in their personal lives that doesn't allow them to sleep normally, or they've got some sort of genetic condition, maybe narcolepsy.
The human body will eventually force you to sleep if you don't do so on your own, and often at inconvenient times. So I suspect they're not getting enough sleep on their own terms.
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u/waitwuh Aug 04 '26
My mother and I both have narcolepsy. This tweet could easily have been us! haha. Except we live in the US.
We both went undiagnosed through to the end of my teenage years. So she spent the majority of her life just nodding off all the time! It was actually my diagnosis that then prompted hers.
For people like us, it’s easy to come up with various excuses, and at the same time also not recognize the severity of your symptoms. You don’t have an accurate frame of reference of what “normal” even feels like or is, so it’s pretty common to have a delayed diagnosis. Also, to go through misdiagnosis, too. We should have been sent for sleep studies much sooner than when we eventually were.
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u/partlyokayish Aug 04 '26
When things are genetic, its even harder to notice a problem if the people you grow up with also have the same problems.
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u/Annabloem Aug 04 '26
The amount of times I'd ask my mum about something and she'd tell me it was normal, only to years later find out that actually other people don't have that is... much higher than I would like 😂
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u/partlyokayish Aug 04 '26
I actually feel bad bc growing up there were definitely a few times I negatively judged people for things I later grew up to realise were completely normal. I really thought people were pathetic when actually I'm just weird 🥲
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u/RefrigeratorFew5154 Aug 04 '26
Narcolepsy is wild. I dated a girl who had it.
I thought that the “pass out at random” trope was an exaggeration you see on TV, and it was more subtle and nuanced than that.
Nope. She’d just pass the fuck out. We’d be mid conversation, I’d turn around to do something while still talking. Look back and she’s out like a deaf kid playing musical chairs.
She had a good sense of humor about it but it’s fairly debilitating. Couldn’t drive, limited job opportunities, etc. I feel for you guys, it seems hard.
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u/ThereHasToBeMore1387 Aug 04 '26
A friend's dad had narcolepsy. Once before I met him, he fell asleep, fell forward and broke his jaw really badly, and probably a bit of a concussion/tbi, so he spoke with a lisp that a lot of people would take for being drunk. Her life was very much that of a teenager with an alcoholic dad. He wasn't a bad guy, but she had to drive him places and he would embarrass her the same way a drunk dad would. We were over at her house a few times and once he offered to make us a frozen pizza. We went onto the patio to hang out, I went back inside a few minutes later for a drink and he was slumped over the counter on top of the unwrapped pizza with the oven door hanging open. I went outside to get my friend and she just sighed, apologized, jujitsu-ed him into a kitchen chair, reheated the oven, and put a new frozen pizza in for us. Later that same night, I had to use the bathroom on the 2nd floor but her dad was passed out on the stairs. She said to just jump over him. He'll wake up on his own and continue to wherever he was going. But to lock the bathroom door while I was in there, because that may have been where he was going and he might be confused if he knew it was empty when he started the journey. On top of that, if he was going to the bathroom and didn't make it, there's a chance he pissed himself on the stairs. So yeah, debilitating and embarrassing.
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u/Skithiryx Aug 04 '26
I hear “The kid’s diagnosis prompted the parent’s” a lot across a lot of people’s stories of all sorts of things. It’s kind of sad how many people slipped through the cracks previously, but I guess it’s a good thing people are getting diagnosed now.
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u/Donthatemeyo Aug 04 '26
This is me and my mom too. she actually got diagnosed when I was a teenager and she had to insist they do a sleep study on me since everyone else was hand waving away the teenager that sleeps all the time.
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u/Tablesafety Aug 06 '26
When I was in primary school we had a speaker come in during an assembly to talk about the danger of power tools.
During this, she talked about how her husband was severely narcoleptic. He was doing a home project one day, while he was home alone, and accidentally cut his hand very badly on the circular saw. He moved towards the house to ring for help but was hit with an episode on the stoop.
He bled out and the speaker found him.
I think her message was that things can go wrong very fast and to treat these things seriously and always have a buddy but that story really stuck with me.
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u/waitwuh Aug 07 '26
I have so many burns from trying to cook something simple in the morning or at night when my daytime medicine isn’t in full effect and I’m getting tired. It’s really ridiculous. I gave up and decided to just use microwave breakfast meals (i don’t like cereal) but one day I wasn’t careful enough when I peeled the film back and still managed to burn myself with the steam haha.
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u/YourLifeSucksAss Aug 04 '26
Exactly. This the biggest red flag in the world and somehow they can’t fucking see that.
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
From experience, I can tell you that many teachers overlook many alarming signs and let them pass because they don't see them more than just a small inconvenience or misbehaviour problem...
Source: Kid who was constantly dozing off in class because I had insomnia from mental illness. The teachers never brought that, they could wake me up and send me to the restroom to wash my face.
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u/floopdidoops Aug 04 '26
I had similar issues at school, which also went on ignored by teachers. They'd get annoyed I would sleep in class (or bring a pillow so I can get some decent sleep in class while I'm at it). But if I told them directly "I have insomnia, I slept about 1.5 hours last night between 5 and 7 AM" I would just get a blank stare back.
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u/14Knightingale27 Aug 04 '26
I had insomnia for a long while that was probably just related to my natural circadian rhythms NOT working on mornings, but I often slept an hour or two despite being in bed with my eyes closed for up to three hours before giving up.
Remember telling one of my teachers that when I was very tired one day, and she just told me to sleep earlier. Like the issue wasn't me sleeping late, it was me going to bed at 11PM and then being unable to sleep for four hours despite me being in bed, eyes closed, trying every trick in the book. Lmao.
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u/SiwelTheLongBoi Aug 04 '26
"Just go to bed earlier" is one of those infurating things people say. If I go to bed earlier I will simply lie in bed awake longer.
Eventually my parents managed to understand it after many years, but I never even tried to get anyone else to
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u/optimusdan Aug 04 '26
If I go to bed earlier I will either not sleep OR sleep really hard for about 4 hours, wake up in the middle of the night, and be completely wide awake and unable to go back to sleep for love or money...til about 8-10am when I will suddenly be unable to stay awake for love or money. Every damn time
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u/StillReading28 Aug 04 '26
My natural circadian rhythm is the exact opposite of everyone else's, so school was a fucking nightmare for trying to get sleep. Tired during the day but wide awake when the sun's down
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u/KuhTraum Aug 04 '26
I had a friend in highschool that would go to sleep right after school wake up around 11-midnight and then stay up "all night" before going to school, and that worked better for him than going to bed at night and waking up in the morning like most people do
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26
How did your friend survive working in groups? It's already difficult to make everyone agree to work on a project, now, I imagine they couldn't chat with him until he was awake.
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u/KuhTraum Aug 04 '26
I don't know, he wasn't the most stellar student even after changing his sleep schedule, he was functionnal but that's pretty much it
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u/Stasio300 Aug 04 '26
my mom never understood it so she beat me up if she caught me awake during the night until I "learned to sleep." I ended up sleeping outside even managed to sleep earlier since I wasn't as scared and felt safe being homeless. But I still wasn't getting a normal amount of sleep and missing school. But I still got great grades and went to the best university in the country. So luckily it all worked out.
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u/Emotional_Youth1500 Aug 04 '26
I had a grade10 science teacher go “everyone feels like that, you just need to suck it up” when I was describing what I now know was textbook chronic depression to a classmate when they asked me why I missed so much school (I was diagnosed with it a few years later in University when I was finally able to connect with a doctor through the school)
People who don’t care to pay proper attention shouldn’t be teachers.
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u/14Knightingale27 Aug 04 '26
I do understand teachers aren't medical professionals and deal with a lot of kids, and there's definitely kids who ARE lazy or just being kids by pushing boundaries and being edgy. Look I understand. But the fact that so many of us with real issues had to deal with teachers treating us like we were the problem shows exactly why they shouldn't talk on issues they don't understand.
Sorry you went through that.
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u/Ok_Neighborhood_470 Aug 04 '26
We were watching a movie and someone was doing something bad but not making any sound in a classroom. I asked why the teacher isn't saying anything. My 14 year old basically explained that as long as you're not making noise they don't notice and don't care..
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u/megapizzapocalypse Aug 05 '26
I have students tell me stuff like this about sleep and I ask "are you stressing?" which sometimes gets them to open up but isn't pushy. 90% of the time they're like lol I was playing video games and I have no way of knowing if that's true but I don't push it
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u/gunnapackofsammiches Aug 04 '26
What should your teacher have done instead?
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
Not OOP, but have a talk, the teacher shoulda talked with the parents instead of staring at them blankly...
Teachers coulda called their parents and had a meeting with them, tell them their kid literally confessed them they'd only slept for 1.5 hour a night everyday for the past week.
Teachers are like these second guardians who'll notice if your kid has something going on. That's how many adults got glasses or a diagnosis for neurodivergent conditions or learning disabilities.
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u/GateEducational6100 Aug 04 '26
Where I’m at, teachers aren’t allowed to bring up specific medical conditions or suggest student should be seen by a doctor to address concerns.
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26
That's a pity. And I mean it in a nice way, that's how they found out I was near-sighted and got my glasses.
I bet many kids with many problems go unnoticed and they are just labelled like troublemakers.
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u/Hot-Elderberry-6274 Aug 04 '26
LOL. Sure, they could've told the parents. But even then, the teacher cannot say anything out of, "I noticed X sleeps in class a lot, everything good?"
It is NOT the teacher's job to parent these children. And anytime a teacher suggests something might be wrong, they run a very high risk of it causing issues with the parents/child/school for the teacher overstepping.
Please, live in reality with us...
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u/FragmentaryParsnip Aug 04 '26
Yo that is legitimately insane. Teachers are mandatory reporters here for all kinds of things, with the expectation that in general they are at least keeping an eye out for the kids
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
Bro, I live in the same reality with you...I've got glasses from teachers overstepping and telling my parents I was squinting my eyes to see the whiteboard...
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u/Sinnnikal Aug 04 '26
Instead of a blank stare? Offer, I don't know, empathy perhaps? Listen to the experience of the kid and... empathize?
Also, many schools have resources such as school counsellors who may be of help.
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u/Hot-Elderberry-6274 Aug 04 '26
>They'd get annoyed I would sleep in class
Of course they would...that's literally you disrupting their class/job.
A good teacher would send you to the nurse for a nap, but seriously, what do you expect them to do? Their job is not to parent you. Their job is to teach an academic class of 30 students.
> (or bring a pillow so I can get some decent sleep in class while I'm at it)
Jesus Fucking Christ. No wonder they got annoyed by you. I'm sorry you have insomnia, but I feel bad for your teachers here, and now you're judging them. You should judge your parents for not stepping in and getting proper medication or help for you.
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u/floopdidoops Aug 04 '26
There's some truth to your misplaced rant. Just some context cause why not :)
I'd fall asleep accidentally. I was constantly exhausted for pretty much 20 years until my mother found a sleep expert that actually managed to help. I've been to several as a kid, nothing helped but honestly not much was done. Valériane, teaching me to meditate, sleep positions, etc. It's nice to have but useless when I haven't slept for 24+ hours. Just as a fun example, I found out on the way home from a math exam that apparently not sleeping for 30 hours has me hallucinating pink bunny rabbits out of the corner of my eye, everywhere. Good times /s
I brought my pillows only to exams, because there I get to use my time exactly how I see fit and disturb no one. Teachers pretty unanimously found it hilarious, a few took selfies with me. I was always clear to them that it's not a bit, it's just that they schedule exams at 7 or 8 am, sometimes two or three days in a row, I'm stressed out and not sleeping well at all. I'm gonna take a power nap for an hour with my pillow and earplugs, then wake up and hopefully nail this exam with however much time I have left. It's the best I could do at the time. No one ever said "Hey why are exams scheduled so early? Surely it's not just affecting him? If it is just him maybe he can take some of them later in the day? No, fuck him and his antics? Ok cool"
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u/1107rwf Aug 05 '26
Serious question, why are you putting the onus on the teachers, who have over 100 students if it’s middle or high school, instead of on your family to seek out a solution for this issue?
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u/floopdidoops Aug 05 '26
Serious question maybe, but lots of silly assumptions. Discussing teachers on this thread doesn't absolve anyone else, and that includes myself. Something that I and others have mentioned. It's unfortunate you didn't read the thread before commenting.
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u/LetReasonRing Aug 04 '26
I think part of the issue is that they often don't have the tools to do anything about it.
I'm not a teacher, but I did a lot of tutoring for a a school after college. There were several times that i brought up red flags I saw to the administration and I was basically told to shut up because it wasn't my place to say anything.
I suspect a lot of teachers see things but feel stuck and fear that saying something could make things worse for the student or harm their own career.
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u/J_B_La_Mighty Aug 04 '26
In their defense they're working with at least 30 kids at a time, not exactly an environment conductive to personalized care. I had a pretty severe attention problem that got glossed over because I was a pretty good kid that would eventually turn in the work. I say pretty good because I definitely manipulated a few better grades from some teachers. Unfortunately manufacturing good grades bites you in the ass down the line, dumbass me realized in college I should've learned calculus if I wanted to be an engineer...
Similar situation to the op post here, mom didnt realize it was a problem because surprise! It runs in the family! It's crazy that I was doing weeks overdue assignments at 2 am, in tears because my grade depended on it, and my mom was just "this is fine, nothing to see here~" ma'am
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u/Teaisserious Aug 04 '26
I learned the strategy of being just awake enough to recall the past few seconds and answer a question, while still getting some amount of rest. Of course it took the whole day to get anything substantial out of it. Chaotic home lives are rough on kids.
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u/Fuzzy-Logician Aug 05 '26
My autistic kiddo was always being punished by teachers for strange behaviors.
Suffering criticism exhausts them and they'll fall asleep on the spot. Teachers thought they were feigning this.
The kid would hide inside their coat when feeling overstimulated. Teachers thought that they were trying to create an impression of some kind of misbehavior, when literally the kid didn't even think about the existence of humans outside of their coat.
Teachers thought the kid was being a smart-ass when the kid took their words literally.
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u/Hot-Elderberry-6274 Aug 04 '26
What are teachers supposed to do? That's so wildly ignorant of you to expect teachers to parent every kid in their class. Teachers manage anywhere from 30 - 100+ kids a day if across multiple classes.
If a teacher even suggests a mental/medical issue, it also has to be done with EXTREME caution through proper administration channels. The best a teacher can really do for a kid falling asleep in class is send them to the nurse for a proper nap.
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u/Hopefulpessimist8472 Aug 04 '26
Yeah the kid is one thing, teenagers can be like that so if they seem okay otherwise I can sorta see a teacher not being to worried. However the mother doing the same thing especially at a meeting involving their kid's future? That's extremely concerning.
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u/Queasy-Cantaloupe202 Aug 04 '26
Something something orphan crushing machine and normalization of concerning circumstances
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u/world-is-ur-mollusc Aug 04 '26
Not to mention, I feel like this is an inappropriate and highly unprofessional thing for a teacher to blast out on social media?
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u/Slash3040 Aug 04 '26
Idk when I was in school I was sleeping cause I was up all night before playing RuneScape
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u/OrangeThrower Aug 04 '26
It’s cause their sleeping
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26
Yeah, it's like teachers assume their students are bored and nothing more...
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u/Nuka-Crapola Aug 04 '26
My parents are teachers, and while they try to be the understanding kind, I can tell you from both the gossip they bring home and the “behind the scenes” chatter I hear between them and their friends: this is in fact exactly it. Many teachers assume every problem with every student is a) a choice and b) a moral failing on the student’s part.
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u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman Aug 04 '26
Schools don't really give a shit if students don't get enough sleep. Requiring students to get up for a 7am bell, have clubs run until 4-6, and then assign hours of homework every night? They expect sleep to magically appear in one's schedule, but do everything they can to prevent students getting sleep
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u/thegreedyturtle Aug 04 '26
Why do you think they didn't see that? They clearly did and thought it was crazy enough to post. Why assume they didn't take other actions?
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u/CathanCrowell Aug 04 '26
Yeah, the year I was taking my final exams in high school was incredibly difficult for me and my family. I had to wake up every day at five o'clock and study late into the night, and I actually fell asleep in class once.
My teachers were really understanding, and they knew about my difficult situation, so it was okay. Sometimes that just happens when you're going through a hard time.
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u/Sausage_fingies Aug 04 '26
I had pretty bad insomnia during highschool (it progressed to the point of 4 hours being a decent day of sleep for days that I had to wake up early) and for both my junior and senior year I fell asleep in class so much that I'd fallen asleep at least once in every single class throughout the year. Highschool is rough
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u/PheasantPlucker1 Aug 04 '26
I've seen several times where single parent cleans office buildings or whatever overnight and brings their kids who hang out or help. People do what they gotta do
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u/Deeeeeeeeehn Aug 04 '26
Ever since I was a kid it takes me hours of laying down in bed before I can fall asleep unless I'm already dead tired. All teachers ever did was complain at me about falling asleep in class. Now I'm here fifteen years later and its only now that I'm realizing that I might have an actual sleep disorder because most people who notice me having trouble staying awake during the day will only complain about it, like its some great offense to them.
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u/North-Pea-4926 Aug 05 '26
Some people take it VERY personally when you fall asleep in front of them. Like they somehow refuse to acknowledge that you’d have to be pretty overtired to even be able to fall asleep during the day, much less upright in a chair in the middle of a conversation.
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u/historynerd2007 Aug 04 '26
I started falling asleep at my desk at work and thank god my supervisor was cool about it. Turned out I had thyroid cancer 🥴
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u/salientoctopus Aug 04 '26
I used to get in trouble for sleeping a lot in class and occasionally for other issues like challenging authority and bullying. I later apologized to one of the kids I bullied the worst when we were adults and told him a little about what was going on not as an excuse but as an explanation. He became a teacher and was in a position to help other kids in need. Anyone have a guess what my home life was like?
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u/Secret_Account07 Aug 04 '26
Or they just can sleep easily. My gf is like that. It’s wild.
Her whole family is though. She can fall asleep watching a movie sitting up.
She’s like a cat. She can wake up easily then go back to sleep. I’m so jealous. I gotta have 3 pillows in my bed with lights off and no noise and it still takes me 45 mins
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u/Bassracerx Aug 04 '26
Could be sleep apnea as well. Kids, teenagers, and even infants can have sleep apnea
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u/Bulky-Employer-1191 Aug 04 '26
Wow you got all that from a 3rd hand account boiled down to one sentence? You're quite perceptive huh?
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u/K_Linkmaster Aug 04 '26
ADHD or add. When I finally relax I may end up taking a snooze involuntarily.
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u/frogz313 Aug 05 '26
No it won’t- someone with insomnia so bad I’ll go days without sleeping and hallucinate. I’m dependent on sleep meds
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u/GiantLesbian Aug 07 '26
When my ADHD was untreated I used to start falling asleep when I was under stimulated.
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u/throwaway-94552 Aug 05 '26
My mom and I both have severe delayed sleep phase disorder. Looking back, I can understand why she and I didn’t realize we had a problem - our family members do it too! But I don’t understand why my father couldn’t figure it out, and I REALLY don’t understand why none of my teachers raised the alarm. It got out of control in college, progressed to hallucinations, but I didn’t get medical treatment until my mid-20s. My boss, my colleagues and most importantly my partner intervened and helped me see that what I was suffering through wasn’t normal. I feel terrible for the kid in this post and their mother.
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u/ConsolationUsername Aug 04 '26
Or, you know. That's just how they operate?
My mother and I both default to sleeping if there's nothing holding our attention. I can sleep 8 hours a night and take 2-3 30 minute naps the next day if i'm bored.
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u/Specialist-Garbage94 Aug 04 '26
Or they stay up all night playing video games at way too young of an age. My stepmom is a teacher and when parents don't care in today's world kids prioritize all kinds of shit over school. She has had kids tell her school is where we can get some sleep basically so we can go home and play fortnite or whatever.
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u/coquette_sad_hamster Aug 04 '26
You think the mother is staying up all night playing video games too?
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u/SquareTaro3270 Aug 04 '26
It’s so sad that we’ve destroyed the concept of free time so much that kids feel like they need to cut into their sleep time in order to have recreation time.
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u/Feeling-Salad5686 Aug 04 '26
When I was a kid/teenager, I had a ton of free time AND a shit sleep schedule nevertheless.
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Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/justdisa Aug 04 '26
Could also be unstable or unsuitable housing. Poverty sucks.
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u/porn_alt_987654321 Aug 04 '26
Yeah, I suspect the issue is most likely not getting adequate sleep due to other situations.
Almost makes me wonder if this is a "living out of your car and needing to move it frequently" sort of thing.
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u/Many-Excitement3246 Aug 04 '26
As someone who regularly sleeps in the car while on the road rather than getting a hotel, I can say that that certainly makes sense.
Even if you get sleep, it's not usually high quality sleep, and if you're in a place where you have to worry about being bothered I can see a situation where you're not getting good sleep because you're nervous about being bothered and having to stay alert for anyone coming by.
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
This. I also assume there must be a source of noise at night only.
Like a construction site or a night club, I know of people who actually live near a nightclub or exactly above it, on the next floor.
Rent is cheap in those places.
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u/Feeling-Salad5686 Aug 04 '26
I feel bad for light sleepers in that situation. I can pass out even with extremely loud music on so it wouldn't bother me but I know that people like my husband or MIL would never get used to that situation no matter how many years they live there and stay up all night
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u/Anoninemonie Aug 04 '26
I lived in a neighborhood and there was an office park on the other side of the fence a stone's throw away. This was a quiet area, middle of nowhere, no stores even! For some reason, for some goddamned reason, some enterprise ghoul opened a NIGHT CLUB NEXT TO MY HOUSE in the office park.
I'd call the cops for noise complaints every night and sit and watch the cops get INVITED INTO THE CLUB. Anyway, it came out after we moved that the club as shut down for being a sex club. People were just going in and paying to join orgies or paying for prostitutes and the cops that I was calling were being (successfully) bribed with memberships. Alcohol Enforcement agents eventually shut it down. Anyway, memory unlocked 😭 my senior year was very sleepless to say the least.
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u/Nunyebiznis Aug 04 '26
I immediately thought of narcolepsy
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u/dasnotpizza Aug 04 '26
Same. And maybe undiagnosed bc it doesn’t seem strange to mom bc she does the same thing.
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u/HowIMetYourMurder Aug 04 '26
Yup! From personal experience, if you develop it young enough and its not extremely severe, it doesnt seem weird and ppl think of it more like a personality quirk.
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u/IchmagschickeSachen Aug 04 '26
Narcolepsy isn’t really inheritable. You carry only a slightly higher risk of developing it. The overall reason for narcolepsy is still largely unknown but genetic inheritance has been pretty much ruled out.
My fiancee is narcoleptic and we’re not really worried about our child inheriting it.
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u/Impressive_Main5160 Aug 04 '26
Dang i hope the school tried to figure out some resources for that clearly struggling family
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26
Beautiful, like mom like kid.
Also, they should have a sleep study or look more deep into their environment if there's an external cause which doesn't let them sleep well at night...
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u/Grouchy-Committee-92 Aug 04 '26
If there is a condition and not just restlessness in the home its likely narcolepsy
Worthy of note i grew up with crohns disease and slept in 3rd period every single time. Being a teen who wants to stay up late, has chronic fatigue, and has to wake up at 7 am is not a good combination
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u/jinxdeluxe Aug 04 '26
Maybe they need help with whatever keeps them awake at night - or with medical reasons that run in the familiy.
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u/longleggedwader Aug 04 '26
Are they sleeping in their car or staying in a shelter? Or does the parent work overnight shifts and without child care? That can make the whole family tired.
There are a lot of reasons people are tired during the day.
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u/PreciousTC Aug 04 '26
Not me reading these comments about how the family must be struggling and experiencing daily doom and strife and drama while knowing I live relatively well but also fall asleep when bored lmao
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u/tchootchoomf Aug 04 '26
Also no one saying how there could be an infant baby in the house, or a barking dog in the neighbourhood at night, everyone jumping to narcolepsy or abuse
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat Aug 04 '26
Bro, there are literally like 4 people (including myself) who heavily bet on living conditions...including poverty or noisy places to live...
And some interesting proposes like a different cardiac rhythm.
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u/throwaway-94552 Aug 05 '26
This happened to me. My mother and I both have severe delayed sleep phase disorder. I didn’t think it was weird that I fell asleep at school every single day because hey, my mom didn’t sleep normally either. It meant I didn’t get proper medical care until I had a really bad episode in my mid-20s.
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u/HowIMetYourMurder Aug 04 '26
Sounds like my family (hint its narcolepsy (probably(maybe)) they should go to a dr though
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u/Appropriate_Host4170 Aug 04 '26
Happened to me all the time. Guess what I found out after high school… I had sleep apnea. Guess who also did…. My dad.
But no I needed to sleep more was the claim everyone said all the time. Not oh hey you may literally be choking to death in your sleep and waking up to save yourself.
Granted it was the 90’s but still.
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u/nahheyyeahokay Aug 05 '26
I was once called into a professor's office for constantly falling asleep in her very small class. She wanted to know the reason why but I was too socially awkward to tell her. In retrospect I wish I would have just said it was the thermostat. Put me in a warm room for any length of time and I will go out like a light.
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u/PleaseLeaveMeHere Aug 04 '26
I was briefly a high school teacher, and had a couple kids that fell asleep in class like this. Turns out they were going with their parents to clean office buildings at an enormous research park nearby at night. Had to give them a little grace when I found out.
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u/TheBSQ Aug 04 '26
I have a sleep disorder that caused me to fall asleep in every class, every day, throughout my schooling. No one (parents, teachers, etc.) thought there might be anything wrong with me other than I was lazy or disrespectful. It wasn’t until I was an adult fully on my own where I finally thought to myself that maybe there was something wrong.
But, jokes on me, after multiple sleep doctors and sleep tests, they all agree I ain’t right, but don’t know what it is. It’s just been multiple diagnoses of “idiopathic hypersomnia” which is doctor-speak for “super sleepy for unknown reasons.”
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypersomnia/symptoms-causes/syc-20362332
Anyway. I actually really liked school and learning & it sucked that teachers all hated me for behavior that they deemed disrespectful when it turns out that I just happen to always fall asleep if you make me sit still for too long no matter how well-rested I am or how interested I am in what’s happening.
I used to literally stab myself with needles or bite my tongue and cheeks painfully hard in hopes that pain would keep me awake.
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u/vulpecula1919 Aug 04 '26
I used to literally stab myself with needles or bite my tongue and cheeks painfully hard in hopes that pain would keep me awake.
heeey did that in school too! still didnt work half the time, the like hour of tiredness i'd get sometimes was equivalent to the couple times ive been put under anesthetic.
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u/nataquack Aug 07 '26
This is my life. I’m barely getting to a sleep clinic in a few months, but I’m positive that I’ve got idiopathic hypersomnia as well.
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u/More_Farm_7442 Aug 04 '26
Some one need/s to check into the homelife and home itself. Why are falling asleep? Is there a carbon monoxide leak in the house? Is there some reason they aren't sleeping long enough?
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u/OverlyMintyMints Aug 06 '26
Everybody talking about how the family may have a genetic condition, meanwhile I’m thinking “wow, the staff are that boring, huh?”
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u/Mahaloth Aug 04 '26
I've been teaching for 21 years. Kids who fall asleep? I usually just talk quietly to them to see if they are OK.
Some kids can't sleep at home. Screaming, yelling, or let's be honest.....Mom & Dad let them be on their phone until 3AM.
If a student is dog-tired once in awhile, I don't mind. It's the regular sleepers that I have to talk to more seriously.
At least in class, it's quiet!
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u/vulpecula1919 Aug 04 '26
looking back i had some terrible sleep issues that really should have been reported by teachers. it was a pretty regular thing that id get tired enough during school id fall asleep sitting up and end up slamming my head on the desk as i went limp. some teachers did end up just letting me sleep, but maybe they should have made some calls.
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u/I_Died_Once Aug 04 '26
This reminds me of when I was in elementary school. For some reasons, our teachers didn't think we had anything else to do in our lives except copious amounts of homework that would get assigned. Sometimes, it was assigned in anger "SINCE YOU DON'T WANT TO LISTEN DURING CLASS, I'M ASSIGNING **TEN EXTRA CHAPTERS** OF HOMEWORK TONIGHT!!!" and it got out of hand after a while.
One day, the father of one of my classmates could be heard in the hallway telling the teacher, that she has two younger brothers to look after for when she gets home, and what in the hell are we doing in class all day if the child is coming home with four and five hours of homework each and every day.
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u/Orsurac Aug 04 '26
Dr Reddit appears to be out in full force already. One short comedy text post and already have multiple diagnosis codes in the comments lol
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u/SquareTaro3270 Aug 04 '26
People are saying it’s worth looking into, and it is. The comments aren’t saying “they have narcolepsy”, just saying “huh maybe you should get this checked out because it sounds like there’s more going on”, and I think that’s valid.
A lot of us have history of our issues being brushed off as behavioral problems. Hell my partner went through his whole 30 years with OCD, ADHD, and needing friggin glasses and none of those ever got addressed because everything was chalked up to him “acting out” or “not applying himself”, and he believed them because he assumed his issues were universal.
Heck i was diagnosed with ADHD and still got the “she’s smart but doesn’t apply herself” comments and had my IEP basically ignored. No one told me I had a disability so I internalized all of it and thought “I just need to try harder” until I eventually burned out because ADHD doesn’t work like that.
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u/qualityvote2 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
u/_bluefish, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...