A Shade of Sleep

Hello everyone! Today I’d thought I’d share what a normal school day was like for me with narcolepsy.

I go to a dual enrollment school where we actually leave the high school on a bus to go take classes at a local college. However, classes don’t start until 9:30 am, so we stay at the high school for first period.

I have a 504 plan allows me to take a 30 minute nap during the school day. This has proved extremely useful.

Anyway, once I get to school I usually go to the nurse’s office to take my nap. I’m the most exhausted in the morning, and I like to get my nap in before I go to the college. Sometimes this nap lasts a little past when first period starts, but I always get a pass from the nurse to go to class after my nap is finished.

After first period, me and my cohort take a bus to go to the college. I still feel a little sleepy on the bus ride, but usually there’s enough sunlight to keep me awake.

My classmates and I get there a little earlier than classes start, so I take this opportunity to take another nap before we go to class. In our office we have cushions on the floor, so lie on one of the cushions and take a nap there. It’s not the most comfortable since it’s on the floor, but I make do and end up falling asleep most of the time anyway.

In the first semester, I had English 1 or Algebra in the morning which I was afraid to miss. I was worried about not being caught up on my work if I didn’t go to class because of how tired I was. However, in the second semester, I had English 2 or Government in the morning, each which allowed me some grace if I was too tired to go to class. (I do not condone not going to class, but there were some cases where I was completely incapable of doing so, and I’ll explain that in another post.) My government class had weekly assignments and my professor would drop the lowest two grades. My English class did not require attendance and after emailing my professor anytime I wouldn’t be there, I was allowed to complete the assignments online for the time being. There were some mornings where I would rest/nap longer into my first class, and I would either complete the assignments at a later time, or I would leave the assignment to be dropped because I got perfect scores on the rest of them anyway. So, I had some leeway.

In the afternoon I either had U.S History or Biology. These were much easier to attend, mainly because they were at a time when I was more awake, and also because they required attendance as a part of your grade. I’m usually more awake and alert in the afternoon, which makes paying attention in class much easier. In my morning classes I would always be a little out of it, but still able to grasp major concepts, but I still feel I performed better in my afternoon classes. I was usually able to participate in these classes just fine, especially for the labs in biology.

After my classes are over, I would go back to the office where the rest of my cohort was waiting for the bus. However, I do not ride the bus back to the high school. Rather, I stay late from around 2-5:30 pm doing school work I had scheduled. I found this to be extremely effective because I could get all my work done while I was still alert instead of waiting until I got home. For context, my bus ride home is 2 hours long. That would mean I would get home at 5 pm and just start doing school work. If we kept the same time frame , including breaks like dinner and taking a shower, my bed time would be around 9:30-10 pm! That’s insane for me. So instead, I get all my work done by staying late after school and finishing around 5:30 pm. One of my parents picks me up from the college afterwards, and we go have dinner.

After I get home, I’m too burnt out and tired to do much else. However, I do try to engage in my hobbies like playing games or drawing. It’s about 7-8 pm at this time, which I take to take a shower and wind down before I go to sleep.

My bed time during the school year is around 8 pm. I plug in my devices for the next day and get my school supplies set up just in case I need something else for tomorrow’s class. Then I take my other medicines for my mental health, and then my Lumryz, and I’m off to bed.

I know you’re supposed to try to sleep as soon as you get into bed, but as every teenager does before sleeping, I doom scroll. However, after about 30 minutes I feel my Lumryz kicking in, so I set my alarms and go to sleep.

That’s a normal school day for me as someone who has type two narcolepsy. My schedule changed a little bit as I was dealing with other stuff, but that’s for a later post.

Thank you for reading!

June 5th, 2026