LMNOP

So I turn 25 this weekend, which means my car insurance rates will go down and, oh yeah, I'm that much closer to being an old, old lady who hoards cats and spies on the neighbors with binoculars.  In other words, things are only going to get more AWESOME from here on out.

I'm thinking 25 is going to feel pretty different from 24, if only because I also start a new job in two weeks.  It's actually pretty similar to the old one, communications-y stuff, but a little more money and a lot less of a commute.  I will also be abandoning my current title of "Consultant" in favor of the snazzy title of "Senior Analyst."  Seeing as how I am hitting the big 2-5, I think the Senior ranking is certainly in order.

If you read yesterday's post you know that this job change is only one big thing that happened to me this week; so, what was the other? Well, apparently I might be narcoleptic.  I did a sleep study last month at the recommendation of my mother, and on Wednesday when I discussed the results with a doctor he was very, very excited about the results.  My case, he enthusiastically told me, is very interesting and unique because thanks to some recent breakthroughs in the study of different sleep disorders, the criteria for narcolepsy have been revised and I seem to fit the profile.

I was quite confused at this prospect, because narcolepsy does not seem to be the kind of condition you have without knowing.  Wouldn't I have noticed if I had suddenly fallen asleep while doing something? Apparently though, that only happens to extreme narcoleptics; the average narcolepsy sufferer only has symptoms of excessive daytime fatigue, cataplexy, occasional sleep paralysis and something called "hypnogogic hallucinations."

Now, I don't know why I was so surprised that my understanding of narcolepsy--which had been primarily derived from the movie Deuce Bigelow--was faulty, but you could have knocked me over with a feather when this all happened. 

(Resolved: From now on I am not coming to any medical or scientific conclusions based on Rob Schneider movies.)

I'm going to do another sleep study on Monday because the doc's not entirely sure if the narcolepsy is what's causing me problems or not--my sleep study also indicated that I averaged about 25 "respiratory-related arousals" per hour, which meant that I don't technically have sleep apnea, but I may be experiencing the same effects as a person with that condition.  The results showed that out of the eight hours I was being monitored, I only entered REM twice--once around 4 a.m. for 20 minutes, and once at 6 a.m. for 30 minutes.  During the next study I will try sleeping with a CPAP machine to see if it lets me get more REM sleep.  If that helps, I might sleep with a CPAP from now on instead of taking the narcolepsy meds.

All of that might sound a little disturbing, but honestly I'm very excited that I may have narcolepsy and/or an apnea-type condition because I always just assumed I was really, really, unbelievably lazy. It turns out I might just be a little lazy, and the rest of it is not my fault!