"Narcolepsy and Me"

Currently Playing: Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State
By Sufjan Stevens
My husband is narcoleptic. This in and of itself is not a bad thing now that he is on medication that helps him with his sleepiness. However, when he is asleep, he sleeps, and hard. He never hears the alarm clock go off, well at least not enough to do more than hit the snooze button. He is supposed to take his meds as soon as the alarm goes off the first time, and then within 45 minutes he will be awake enough to respond to the alarm appropriately. The problem is this; he sets it for the middle of the freakin' night when he wants to get up early. So the alarm starts buzzing at 4am, (plus the clock is set 30 minutes fast), and we usually roll out of bed by 6am. You may ask, "why don't you just get up when the alarm goes off?" Good question. After almost 20 years of marriage to this man, I am so desensitized to the sound of the alarm; it disturbs my slumber, and somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I hear noise and know it means something, but what, I can't remember. I then have dreams of things that I maybe should be doing for the next two hours before I actually rouse enough to get up. My point is this: I am exhausted when I get up, because I've already been doing the things that I should be doing- in my sleep. Because I'm exhausted. the things that I should do, rarely get done. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm exhausted. I've already baked pies, and stuffed a turkey and peeled potatoes, served and washed all the dishes. Now I have to start all over again.