Taking Advantage of A Person With Narcolepsy

I take advantage of my husband's illness sometimes.

I never really thought about it before, but tonight, I noticed it and felt a little shocked... and embarrassed.

The other day, my husband came into the room I was in to ask if we could talk about something. It was no big deal, but I was busy. Okay, I wasn't technically busy. I was watching American Greed (I love that show) and I just didn't feel like talking about what was on my husband's mind. See, earlier I had told him about some interesting research that I'd done - re: narcolepsy, of course. We agreed to discuss it later and well... it was later. But I didn't want to talk about narcolepsy. We always talk about narcolepsy. However, rather than tell that to my husband, I said, "Sure, just give me 5 minutes."

What's so bad about that?

The truth is, I had no intention of talking to him five minutes later. He went to wait for me in another room, and within a minute, he'd fallen asleep. Just like I knew he would.

Ironically, the exact same scenario used to infuriate me. When we were first married, my husband would often fall asleep while waiting for me. I would say defensively, "I know I didn't take that long!" Now here I was, counting on his sudden sleepiness to finish watching a television show that I could've watched any time.

When I checked on him later, he was still asleep and I felt a little twinge of... guilt. "How mean am I?" I thought to myself. I'd be furious if I knew someone else was taking advantage of my husband's sleep disorder, even in a small way the way I just had. So I decided not to do it again. The next time I don't want to stop what I'm doing, I'll be honest and tell my husband so. Better yet, I'll just give him the time.