Sleep should be a blessed and enjoyable release from the tensions of the day, so that we awake feeling refreshed. But for Aoife Curtin (21), sleep was a nightmare - literally.
Aged 14, Aoife became a hostage of sleep. In school, she fell asleep for 20 minutes at a time, during a few of her classes at first, then through most of them. She would struggle against sleep long enough to get home, then head straight for bed. Her teachers and her GP told Aoife and her mother that she was "lazy". This created tension between Aoife and her mother, especially when she was asked to vacuum the floors, and then found asleep next to the Hoover.
Aoife herself feared she was "going mad", not least because of the terrifying nightmares she experienced. When she fell asleep - which could be anywhere - she would go instantly into a dream-state so vivid she thought she was hallucinating. The dreams seemed utterly real, so Aoife sometimes found it difficult to differentiate between dreaming and reality.
She also suffered cataplexy - a sudden onset of total muscle weakness. Once, when she was laughing with her friends, she collapsed to the ground and was paralysed, yet mentally she was completely alert and could hear and see everything going on around her.
Another strange symptom was automatic behaviour, in which Aoife would fall asleep but appear to be awake. In mid-conversation with her friends, she might mentally doze off, then 20 minutes later resume the conversation at the place she had left off. Her friends found this amusing, but Aoife felt afraid.
And despite sleeping as often as possible, Aoife always felt exhausted - as if she hadn't slept in 48 hours. Concentration was so difficult that when she was the slightest bit bored, she fell asleep.
Then, Aoife's mother saw a TV programme about narcolepsy and suddenly everything clicked into place. A new GP sent Aoife for a test of her brainwave patterns, which showed that when she fell asleep (which took under a minute), she fell directly into REM (rapid eye movement) sleep - the deepest sleep we experience and the one in which we dream. Normally, it takes an hour or two to reach REM sleep.
Referred to a neurologist in Dublin who specialises in sleep disorders, Dr Catherine Crowe of the Mater Hospital, Aoife was diagnosed with narcolepsy and with the support of her teachers was able to complete her Leaving Cert. (The examiner was instructed to prod her when she dozed off.)
"Once you know what it is, you can deal with it," says Aoife, who now works in her family's business, which allows her to take short naps during the day.