Living and Working With Narcolepsy

July 12, 2005
by Laura J. Evert from an interview with L. Fernando Caro

The vivid dreams of narcolepsy began visiting Fernando as a teenager. They fueled his imagination and pushed him to express their content through art. He took his dreams and ideas and experimented with sculpture, installation art, and then theatre set design.

He was forever searching for a way to have his material interact more and more with his audience. Then while studying art at Anitoch College in Yellow Springs , Ohio , Fernando met Jim Rose, an art professor and puppeteer. This meeting introduced Fernando to an artistic method that has continued to be a perfect way to express what some might view as burdens of having narcolepsy - the seemingly endless vivid dreams and the hypnagogic/hypnogogic hallucinations¹ . Fernando, however, does not see these as burdens. He instead strongly believes in taking all attributes of the self, whether seen as positive or negative by society, and making them into something positive. And this is exactly what he has done.

Today, at age 32, he has an ever expanding cast of puppet characters that are all born in his home work studio called Alien Ape Productions. He has taught puppetry to high school performing arts students and is involved with the Columbus Puppetry Guild sponsored by Puppeteers of America. His most enjoyable work is the process of creating the puppet characters and then taking them out on the town the meet their audience. Most of his performances are for adult crowds where he and his puppets serve as MCs (masters of ceremony) to introduce bands, performers, and theatre acts.

Fernando was not diagnosed with narcolepsy (no cataplexy) until the age of 29 when he sought help from a sleep specialist for sleep apnea. Others were often bothered by his snoring and noticed that he stopped breathing in the middle of the night. The growing concern lead him to seek help and explanation. His sleep apnea has been reduced by weight loss to the point where a CPAP is no longer needed. For his narcolepsy, he takes a stimulant medication during the day and Xyrem at night for improved sleep. His main reaction to the initial diagnosis was that familiar to many of us, "Oh good, I'm not crazy."

Fernando has found his most beneficial coping method for excessive daytime sleepiness is behavioral, mainly meditation² where he has learned to be more aware of his mind and body together. He also finds that his work with puppets does not feel like typical work that tends to take energy from you. Instead his creative process with the puppets gives him energy. He is more able to allow his narcolepsy to be as it is which in turn benefits his art and overall well being. You may have seen me quote this before, but the more people with narcolepsy I meet, the more it holds true...

"Dreams prove us creative artists, natural poets capable of imagery unbound by the cognitive restrictions of waking life."

- by Jill Mellick in The Natural Artistry of Dreams, 1996.

You can find out more about Fernando and his puppets through Alien Ape Productions, P.O. Box 10517, Columbus, OH 43201, e-mail: noname@alienape.com, website: www.alienape.com.

¹ Hypnagogic/hypnogogic hallucinations: Vivid dreamlike experiences upon falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnogogic) that are difficult to distinguish from reality. You can learn more about this and other symptoms of narcolepsy at www.talkaboutsleep.com/narcolepsy.

² Meditation: Transcendental meditation is the most widely practiced form of meditation in the West. It was brought from India to the United States in 1959 by its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. You can learn more at www.tm.org.

In this series of articles, Talk About Sleep features stories and interviews of those who live with narcolepsy in one way or another everyday. Please alert us to any and all who have an interesting story to tell about their life or work with this sleep disorder. Tell us about them via an e-mail to tnasca@talkaboutsleep.com and we'll take it from there. Your ideas, thoughts, and suggestions are also welcome, so send those along too.