I should warn you,
I go to sleep.
I know you don't know what I mean.

Yet.
I get upset or happy I go to sleep.
Nothing hurts when I go to sleep.
But I'm not tired, I'm not tired.

I know it seems that I don't care,
But something in me does, I swear.
I don't remember all last year.
I left you awake to cry the tears,
While I was dreaming in streams
Flowing between the shores
Of joy and sadness

Oh!
I'm drowning, save me, wake me up!
I should warn you, I go to sleep.
You won't know when I go to sleep.

Because I'm not tired,
I'm not tired,
I just sleep.


Lyrics submitted by kevin

Narcolepsy Lyrics as written by Ben Folds

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Sentric Music

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Narcolepsy song meanings
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  • -1
    General Comment

    ~ This song is about NARCOLEPSY, that's why the title of the song is NARCOLEPSY. Ben can't explain any simpler than titling it 'Narcolepsy'.

    Most that left comments sadly didn't/don't have a clue or bothered in the slightest to learn what Narcolepsy is!!! It is nothing to laugh at unless you are cruel : (

    Research and knowledge are good things and so easily obtained now days with the internet at our fingertips.

    NARCOLEPSY is a neurological chronic sleep disorder that causes:
    Loss of muscle function, automatic behavior... meaning that a person continues to function such as talking, putting things away, ect... during sleep episodes, but awakens with no memory of performing such activities. 
    They suffer from insomnia for extended periods of time. 
    One symptom of narcolepsy is especially the excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy, often become severe enough to cause serious problems in a person's social, personal, and professional life. 
    Normally, when an individual is awake, brain waves show a regular rhythm. 
    When a person first falls asleep, the brain waves become slower and less regular. 
    This sleep state is called non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. 
    After about an hour and a half of NREM sleep, the brain waves begin to show a more active pattern again. 
    This sleep state, called REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep), is when most remembered dreaming occurs. Associated with the EEG-observed waves during REM sleep, muscle atonia is present (called REM atonia).
    
    In narcolepsy, the order and length of NREM and REM sleep periods are disturbed, with REM sleep occurring at sleep onset instead of after a period of NREM sleep. 
    Thus, narcolepsy is a disorder in which REM sleep appears at an abnormal time. 
    Also, some of the aspects of REM sleep that normally occur only during sleep–lack of muscular control, sleep paralysis, and vivid dreams–occur at other times in people with narcolepsy. 
    For example, the lack of muscular control can occur during wakefulness in a cataplexy episode; it is said that there is intrusion of REM atonia during wakefulness. 
    Sleep paralysis and vivid dreams can occur while falling asleep or waking up. 
    Simply put, the brain does not pass through the normal stages of dozing and deep sleep but goes directly into (and out of) rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
    
    This has several consequences... night time sleep does not include as much deep sleep, so the brain tries to "catch up" during the day, hence EDS. 
    People with narcolepsy may visibly fall asleep at unpredicted moments (such motions as head bobbing are common). 
    People with narcolepsy fall quickly into what appears to be very deep sleep, and they wake up suddenly and can be disoriented and dizzy when they do. 
    

    When I seen 32 comments on this song I actually thought they would be from people who lived with narcolepsy or knew someone with it... but nope (but I haven't read p.2 yet).

    Only a few understood, figured out that a song titled 'Narcolepsy' is a song about about NARCOLEPSY... A terrible neurological chronic sleep disorder that causes those who have it a lot of suffering : (

    My, once upon on a time, sweetheart from 27 years ago lives with narcolepsy. Ben's song (thank you Ben) describes a bit about how daily life is living with it : (

    27 years ago we had a bad wreak, he fell asleep at the wheel, he said he didn't feel tired or he would have pulled over, we had even just past a rest area a few miles back, and we were only going 36 miles.

    I ALWAYS believed him. I NEVER once blamed him but he wouldn't/couldn't stop blaming himself. I didn't know how to help him to stop blaming, doubting himself. It broke us up : ) but we have ALWAYS remained Friends (forever).

    Research on narcolepsy explains that it starts appearing in late teen and early adulthood but sadly it takes an average of 15 years before the correct diagnose is made : (

    My sweetheart was 21 when the wreak happened. It/narcolepsy changed our lives forever.

    He LIVES/SUFFERS with all that is narcolepsy every single day of his life.

    Now, at least he should KNOW that the jeep wreak was NOT his fault, yet sadly I feel like he still might be blaming himself, I don't know, he still won't talk about the wreak 27 years later.

    Sly ~

    SLYcraftson April 22, 2011   Link

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