when sleep won’t fix the exhaustion
one family’s fight to raise awareness about narcolepsy
published mar 13, 2026
5 minute read
5 minute read
dana overwater (right) and her daughter, rosa, are working to start a canadian advocacy group for those affected by narcolepsy. mike drew
this story is sponsored by
takeda
this story was created by content works, postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of a client.
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on most mornings, dana overwater can tell how her daughter is feeling before rosa says a word.
if rosa’s speech begins to slur slightly, or her face softens mid-laugh, overwater knows what others might miss: her 19-year-old is running on fumes, even if she slept all night.
narcolepsy has woven itself into the fabric of their relationship — a mother who now reads the subtle cues of a disorder few people truly understand, and a daughter learning to live in a body that toggles unpredictably between wake and sleep.
on world sleep day (march 13), this alberta family hopes sharing their story will challenge the stereotypes surrounding a rare disease that affects an estimated one in every 2,000 canadians, yet often goes unrecognized for years.
“you can’t be this tired”
looking back, the signs were there.
rosa is one of three girls born within four years in a busy household of six children. while her sisters played outside, she often stayed in, telling her mother she was too tired to get off the couch.
at first, overwater chalked it up to typical teenage attitude and rebellion. “i’ve had four teenagers before you,” she remembers telling rosa. “you can’t be this tired.”
by grade 10, rosa’s condition worsened. her school marks plummeted and she often fell asleep in class. a newly licensed driver, rosa crashed her car more than once, unable to explain what had happened.
“i would just be driving, and then i’d be in the ditch,” rosa recalls. “it would be like a split second.”
teachers called her lazy. a psychoeducational assessment led to diagnoses of adhd, depression, anxiety and an eating disorder — conditions she and her mother later learned are common among people with untreated narcolepsy.
“it was isolating,” rosa says. “i was trying, but i couldn’t get myself to stay awake in class or get schoolwork done.”
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rosa endured several years of symptoms before a psychiatrist suggested narcolepsy — a disorder neither mother nor daughter knew much about. but a sleep specialist initially dismissed the idea, recommending that all rosa needed was a better sleep routine.
eventually, and at the overwater’s own expense, rosa underwent an overnight sleep study followed by a multiple sleep latency test (mslt). the mslt is a daytime series of monitored naps designed to measure how quickly someone falls asleep and enters rem sleep, a stage of sleep that is crucial for cognitive function and memory. those without a sleep disorder usually take 60 to 90 minutes to enter their first rem cycle.
rosa was certain she hadn’t slept during the mslt naps. however, the results said otherwise. “the test indicated she had fallen asleep and gone into rem in under a minute, every time,” overwater says. six weeks later, the diagnosis came: narcolepsy type 1.
“i was heartbroken,” says dana. “it’s a lifechanging diagnosis. she was only 17 at the time and it’s such a hard reality of what her life was going to look like.
“there were lots of tears,” rosa says. “it was terrifying.”
“this is a really difficult condition that’s often misunderstood,” says dr. mark boulos, a neurologist at sunnybrook health sciences centre in toronto who specializes in sleep disorders.
“narcolepsy is defined by excessive daytime sleepiness,” explains dr. boulos. “but there are four cardinal features that define it: daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis and vivid hallucinations when falling asleep or waking.”
narcolepsy type 1 includes cataplexy — sudden, brief muscle weakness triggered by emotions such as laughter. rosa’s version is subtle: her head drops and sometimes her knees buckle. in type 2, cataplexy is absent.
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at a biological level, narcolepsy type 1 is linked to a deficiency in orexin, a brain chemical that stabilizes wakefulness. “it’s thought to be a dysfunction of orexin,” says dr. boulos, “where someone with narcolepsy can’t maintain appropriate transitions between wakefulness and rem sleep.”
unlike narcolepsy type 1, the biological basis for narcolepsy type 2 is less understood.
narcolepsy has no cure — only management through medication and optimizing napping and sleep hygiene.
the condition typically begins in adolescence or early adulthood. yet diagnosis can take years. patients are frequently misdiagnosed with depression, anxiety or adhd.
“my heart breaks for these patients,” dr. boulos says. “in many cases, these young people have been called lazy or unmotivated for years.”
today, rosa works as a substitute educational assistant and relies on medication to stay awake. without it, overwater says, she could sleep up to 20 hours a day. a great dane service dog helps provide stability if she experiences cataplexy.
yet rosa still struggles on occasion to distinguish between dreams and memories. she also experiences slurred speech when fatigued — something once mistaken for a speech issue.
while she still wrestles with denial some days, rosa has also learned resilience. “i’ve gotten good at masking while in public,” she says. “but as soon as i’m home, i’m in bed.”
filling a national gap
when rosa was diagnosed, overwater searched for support groups in canada. she found one u.s.-based organization, but no dedicated canadian advocacy group.
so, she is working on starting one.
what began as a small “night walk for narcolepsy” in red deer, alta., has grown, drawing participants from across the province. now overwater is working to establish a national society called awake and sleeping, with hopes of creating a canada-wide network for families.
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her goals are practical: raise funds to help cover costly sleep studies, advocate for insurance coverage of medications, and connect patients to reliable information.
dr. boulos agrees such efforts are needed. “we should have centres of excellence,” he says. “we need more resources and patient support.”
for overwater, the message is simple: believe people. “just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t real.”
world sleep day presents an opportunity for everyone to raise awareness of sleep disorders like narcolepsy and advocate for more comprehensive support for canadians living with these conditions.
this patient story is shared to highlight the personal experiences of individuals living with narcolepsy. the management and treatment of narcolepsy vary from person to person and may include a combination of drug and non-drug therapies. please consult with your healthcare provider for advice tailored to your specific condition.
this story was created by healthing content works, healthing.ca’s commercial content division, on behalf of takeda.
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