Freshman Andres Miller curls up in a cabinet in the Ceramic’s room. He also sleeps in math class, English. This is the story of many tired South students, except that Miller has his teacher’s permission.
Miller is a typical high school student, with one exception: he has narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a hereditary chronic day sleep disorder, and is caused by a lack of certain proteins in the brain. “I fall asleep at one point during the day, no matter what,” Miller said.
Miller was diagnosed with the disease last year, and the diagnosis was welcomed as an answer to all of his questions regarding his abnormal sleep habits.
“Generally I have trouble sleeping at night and then I fall asleep during the day,” he said.
Different environments, like being in a dark room, hearing loud noises or being motionless for a long period of time may cause Miller to fall asleep. It is also common for him to fall asleep after meals.
Despite the serious consequences, Miller and his friends make light of his disorder by noting the advantages. “I can fall asleep in history class and not get in trouble for it,” he said.
“It’s really rare and it’s not a big deal … unless you have a severe case of it, it doesn’t really affect you that much,” Miller said.
But it has affected Miller’s sense of time. Miller has fallen asleep at 5 a.m. ??? and waken up at 7 p.m., thinking it’s time to get ready for school. “He once went all the way to the bus stop before realizing it,” Junior Linnea Miller, Miller’s sister, said.
She has found him asleep “under the kitchen table, in the car, in the chair in our computer room and mostly just passed out face down on the couch.”
Miller’s disease doesn’t just entertain his sister.
Miller uses his skill to avoid boring events, Linnea said. “He is very good at purposely falling asleep for short periods of time,” she said.
His classmates also use his condition to make class more interesting.
“Usually he falls asleep during film clips, which distracts many of the kids in the class,”
freshman Francesca Sands said.
But freshman Alex Skrynnk doesn’t find it distracting when Miller falls asleep. Occasionally, when people notice him sleeping, they simply wake him up.
History teacher Robert Parlin also “definitely doesn’t participate in the giggles,” Sands said.
Parlin was surprised when he discovered Miller’s condition. “I had never had a student who had narcolepsy before, and at first, I must admit, I thought he was joking. Occasionally students do drift off, and for someone to say, ‘Oh, I have narcolepsy’, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s very clever,’” Parlin said.
Miller always presents the condition to his teachers and friends in a lighthearted fashion, and Parlin’s class was just another case of this. “He shrugged and laughed it off,” Parlin said.
While the condition can be funny, Parlin recognizes that it is a medical condition that deserves serious attention and tries to “make sure [Miller’s] not being targeted or mocked.”
Parlin does not think that Miller’s narcolepsy affects his academics or class discussions. “It’s only when we’re watching anything visual that he fades off occasionally,” he said. Even with the occasional nodding off, Parlin does not find that Miller falls behind more than other students in his class.
Nevertheless, Miller finds the disadvantages of narcolepsy more prevalent at school than anywhere else.
“I’m in honors math which moves pretty fast, so if I fall asleep during that class I usually have to check up at the end of the day,” Miller said.
But other than the occasional returning to math during J Block, Miller has found a way to embrace his narcolepsy.
“To be completely honest, it has affected my life in a good way.”
