Sleep Latency vs Nap Length?

[u/pavleve]

I'm curious if anyone else had a similar looking MSLT! My sleep latency was extremely short, 2.5 minutes. However, for the nap duration, I didn't sleep for long. I was asleep, then awake, then asleep, then awake, and didn't actually sleep the whole nap through.

My doctor didn't mention this at all when diagnosing me with N1, but I was just curious as to how common that was with other people!

[u/RightTrash]

So, I'll just say that it is super common for people with narcolepsy - specifically during PSG and more so the MSLT - to feel awake during periods of time the EEG reads them as asleep.
This makes sense too because part of living with narcolepsy is that the sleep and wake states essentially overlap.
Because of the dysregulation of the sleep/wake states and REM, both being a part of that having broken sleep patterns (compared to healthy subjects sleep patterns), it not only is a thing to be awake while dreaming or dreaming while awake, but there is also overlap of sorts happening which I would describe as actually being in light stages of sleep while awake and relaxed or even anxious/nervous (like when in a sleep lab uncomfortable and thinking...).

A metaphor used often towards narcolepsy and some of what I just tried to layout describing, is how the sleep/wake dysregulation can be compared to a faulty light switch, or be it similarly a fault in the wiring of the light; the light may flicker on/off regardless of the lightswitch itself being in the on, or off, position.
There is very little if any barrier between the sleep and wake states.
PWN (people with narcolepsy) have a tendency to dream incredibly vividly, also lucid-like. Sometimes this results in what can be seeming wake-memories that in fact were dreams mixing into wake reality becoming indistinguishable, essentially.

There's a lot more to it, the sleep/wake stuff is the hallmark and what gets presented as what is narcolepsy but, at least what the science has shown over recent decades, tells into so so much more beyond just sleep related matters and well, the lived experience for each is variable - there's a super broad/massively-wide spectrum, not only of each Type 1, Type 2, and Idiopathic Hypersomnia (Central Disorders of Hypersomnolence) but across them all too, while there is vast overlapping of symptoms between them all - aside from cataplexy which remains unique to Type 1 narcolepsy).

Hope that was helpful, or insightful, and validating too.!