For more than two decades, sleep health educator Lindsay Scola attributed her never-ending exhaustion to long hours and demanding jobs. When she was diagnosed with narcolepsy, she finally got the wake-up call that transformed her life. In this rousing talk, she discusses the epidemic of undiagnosed sleep disorders and encourages you to ask yourself: Is your tiredness different? (Recorded at TEDxSonomaCounty on March 7, 2026)
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@LegendaryFootball.32
October 18, 2026 at 11:04 am
What an amazing speech
@CVi-hj6dj
October 18, 2026 at 11:08 am
Eu gostaria muito de um técnico assim no Brasil informando sobre isso, infelizmente somos muito desinformados.
@WillisLamaar
October 18, 2026 at 11:11 am
Good joke lol “It affects middle age men with squared jaws” lol 😂 that’s me
@jackwt7340
October 18, 2026 at 11:30 am
Try taking 120mg tetrahydropalmatine every night to increase your sleep threshold
@TardigradeTough
October 18, 2026 at 11:53 am
I wonder how much she paid the doctor for her excuse for her laziness? 🤔
@StoriesWithEvelynHart
October 18, 2026 at 11:59 am
Lindsay’s story really stayed with me — especially when she asked ‘is your tiredness different?’ After twenty years of blaming long hours, learning her exhaustion was actually narcolepsy gave me chills. And that line about middle-aged men with squared jaws had me laughing out loud. Thank you for saying what so many exhausted people need to hear.
@alvatrous
October 18, 2026 at 12:16 pm
I have delayed sleep phase disorder which is really hard to manage as well but totally different then what she has but what we do have in common is how dismissive doctors are.
@Ahmadsalah2004
October 18, 2026 at 12:25 pm
I love the idea of the video because it happens with a lot of people around the world and most of people have sleep issues especially in modern life, and those who live with high stress and some particular jobs nowadays 😁 thank you for the video, best regards.
@FawzZadran
October 18, 2026 at 12:33 pm
I totally agree with her on this point because it’s happening all over the world. None of us get enough sleep therefore, we feel exhausted and dizzy.
@Tech-ai-33
October 18, 2026 at 1:03 pm
Totally True
@ChuckBaggett
October 18, 2026 at 1:43 pm
I’ve seen a sleep specialist. Didn’t help a bit.
@SniperReady
October 18, 2026 at 1:58 pm
A huge amount of our culture is built around this idea that we are all genetically equal. It doesn’t consider that the reason someone isn’t performing at the same level may because of compounding factors like sleep disorder or generational poverty.
@harshbutt
October 18, 2026 at 2:20 pm
No, you were lazy, then someone came up with an excuse for you.
@ericamiracle1988
October 18, 2026 at 4:12 pm
My husband started passing out 10-15 times a day. Doctors had no clue what it could be, only that it was really serious. Until we talked to a neurologist and I mentioned he had breathing stops at night for at least 3 years. Turns out, his oxygenlevels dropped to 58% at night. The pulmonologist told him most people die from that, and he had managed to function for almost 30 years. He suspected my husband had had sleep apnea from a very young age. Now he has a c-pap and usually doesn’t randomly fall asleep anymore. He also got diagnosed with asthma, and mold- and dustmite allergies.
So I fully agree: Take your sleep seriously!
@andreadufresneornelas9203
October 20, 2026 at 10:48 am
@ericamiracle1988 so is he doing good with the sleep apnea now? I’m asking because my dad also stops breathing at night and it’s been a while now but he doesn’t do anything about it and I’m worried about his health:)
@LindsayScola
October 20, 2026 at 3:12 pm
So happy he got answers and is doing well with CPAP!
@ericamiracle1988
October 20, 2026 at 4:18 pm
@andreadufresneornelas9203 With his c-pap machine he is! He’s using it every night, and his doctors are very pleased about his consistent use and wearing his mask all night. His energy isn’t fully back, he’s still recovering from what happens but it’s getting better daily. He went from 91 breathing stops an hour (the pulmonologist had never seen that much breathing stops) to about 5-10 an hour. That’s the level they expect from someone using the machine for 2 years, and he’s only had it for almost 4 months.
@valehua2988
October 18, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Really interesting topic, thank you
@BlackLemurCo
October 19, 2026 at 12:26 am
It’s been a while since I watched one of these. Nice to see claude is taking ove here too.
@AjayDavey3550
October 19, 2026 at 2:36 am
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies contribute so much to poor sleep health . Vitamin D and iron particularly.
@mysteriousme504
October 19, 2026 at 3:29 am
I am having almost same symptoms, I am a biology student and like it a lot, yet whenever I am studying, I feel like i am awake for days and had to sleep. First it was with studies, which I myself conclude with laziness, but then now its getting worst, i am awake most of the night, i fall asleep even if someone is talking to me or we are having fun, i would fall asleep ecen while scrolling which who dont love. Even after 8+ hours of sleep just last night, i feel i might collapse soon in few hours even if this task (watching youtube and scrolling) is fun to me. I also had sleep paralysis few times too, alone with weird loops type dreams.
@LindsayScola
October 20, 2026 at 3:18 pm
I am so sorry you are dealing with that. I hope you can see a sleep specialist and get evaluated.
@shontucker4504
October 19, 2026 at 8:35 am
amazing, I had a similar issue, I’m fairly fit and I eat well etc etc. but i felt like i was not making any progress with my physical training, overly tired even on slower work weeks so I saw GP, turns out i was severely Vitamin D deficient =S, i was ticking so many boxes but it only takes one to slow your progress/ So the message here is if you dont feel right dont just take other peoples opinions at face value, research and look into it more until YOU actually feel better, your the only one who feels the way you do so if you don’t feel proper you most likely arnt.
@LindsayScola
October 20, 2026 at 3:19 pm
Yes! You know your body best!!
@bobknip
October 19, 2026 at 10:01 am
Feedback for @TED: I liked the talk, but the sound quality is pretty poor. A lot of sounds have noise/hiss to them. And it sounds unnatural how much the background noise is cut every time she stops speaking.
@LeoDizonMendoza
October 19, 2026 at 10:26 am
This is interesting topic. Thanks for this! 👏🏻
@Ur3_on
October 19, 2026 at 10:42 am
😂, excuses and oh it’s not me it’s just me!
@Ur3_on
October 19, 2026 at 10:43 am
Amphetamines will sort your problems out,followed by some magic mushrooms!
@Sammasambuddha
October 19, 2026 at 1:14 pm
At the right dose it’s a permanent solution.
@woozychoo
October 19, 2026 at 1:33 pm
I’ve realized I might have narcolepsy when in the middle school we had to describe “The Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli.
Before that I was struggling for 4 years going from one specialist to another and no one suggested EVEN ONCE it might be narcolepsy…
@i_never_comment
October 19, 2026 at 1:49 pm
My exhaustion is telling me that my stress level is through the roof due to a fascist dictator running my country.
@AltonV
October 19, 2026 at 7:01 pm
For me, it turned out I had coeliac disease.
My parents have said it was like getting a new son after I started a gluten-free diet.
@LindsayScola
October 20, 2026 at 10:58 pm
So glad you got answers! I have celiac disease as well.
@AltonV
October 21, 2026 at 3:11 am
@LindsayScola how mine was discovered was probably not very common.
It started with foot fungus and continued with my acne. 😂
The doctor was way more interested in the acne rather than the fungi.
I got some strong medication for it that necessitated regular blood work which indicated that I could have coeliac disease. And then the gastroscopy confirmed it.
@zihangfeng
October 19, 2026 at 11:34 pm
For your next speech, remember to take breaths through your nose.
@jamesmonschke747
October 20, 2026 at 7:42 pm
Sounds like doctors get about the same amount of training on sleep as they get on nutrition.
@LindsayScola
October 20, 2026 at 10:57 pm
Exactly
@nao_kaka
October 21, 2026 at 8:18 am
I lost it when she said she saged her bedroom because she thought her neurological hallucinations were ghosts! 😂👻 Humor aside, this talk is going to save lives.
For anyone wondering why willpower and lavender spray can’t fix this, here is the wild neuroscience behind what Lindsay was actually fighting for 19 years:
Harvard neuroscientists discovered that our brain’s sleep-wake cycle works like a literal “Flip-Flop Switch” (like a light switch). In a healthy brain, a chemical called Orexin (or Hypocretin) acts like a heavy finger holding that switch firmly in the “ON” position all day, and firmly in the “OFF” position all night.
In Type 1 Narcolepsy, the immune system mistakenly destroys the cells that make Orexin. Without that stabilizing finger, the brain’s light switch is broken and loose—it flickers uncontrollably.
When “Sleep” flickers into your daytime, you get crushing brain fog.
When “REM dream paralysis” flickers into your waking moments, your muscles suddenly drop the remote when you laugh (Cataplexy), or you see terrifying “ghosts” while wide awake in bed.
Telling someone with a broken Orexin switch to “try harder” or “practice better sleep hygiene” is like telling someone with Type 1 Diabetes to just use “positive vibes” to produce insulin.
Our hustle culture loves to moralize biology—turning a physical hardware failure into a personal character flaw called “laziness.” If you feel like you’re fighting a dimmer switch in your brain every day, please stop blaming your willpower and go get your hardware checked! 🧠💡✨
@LindsayScola
October 21, 2026 at 6:32 pm
Thank you for your kind words. And always happy to make you laugh!
@ZainabHussain-j1d
October 21, 2026 at 9:54 am
Does feeling sleepy everytime you open books ( coursework or for fun ) , or an online course counts in it because it has been happening to me for some time.
Also from past 3 to 4 years my health , on overall started deteriorating and that’s really eye opening to connect these problems to sleep problems which obviously exist
@LindsayScola
October 21, 2026 at 6:31 pm
This would be a great thing to bring up with a sleep specialist. Sleep is so vital to our health and feeling really tired even when doing things you love is absolutely something you want to get evaluated.
@bnbowes
October 21, 2026 at 5:35 pm
Thank you for this. I’m a physician who’s been suffering with Narcolepsy for 40 years. I have taught hundreds if not thousands of Medical Students and Residents about Narcolepsy and the importance of sleep disorder diagnosis.
It’s a start but it’s not enough. I appreciate you bringing this to the attention of the TED crowd.
We must continue to further knowledge and understanding about this misunderstood disease.
@LindsayScola
October 21, 2026 at 6:28 pm
Thank you for your kind words and all the work you have done to further the understanding of narcolepsy.