Numerous movies, YouTube videos, books, and public service announcements have begun to address people with narcolepsy, and this discourse has led to greater visibility and understanding about an often-misunderstood condition. In Narratives of Narcolepsy in Everyday Life: Exploring Intricacies of Identity, Sleepiness, and Place, Nicole Eugene draws on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and field notes to examine life with narcolepsy, witha particular focus on how certain socially-defined places play significant roles in determining the meaning of sleepiness, medication side effects, and other narcolepsy symptoms. Eugene also includes one autoethnographic essay that explores her own experiences with narcolepsy as a Black woman, refracted through the lens of the various places where sleepiness may arise. Throughout the book, an emphasis on making sense of narcolepsy by communicating with others with the condition demonstrates a peer-based approach to researching health communication and disabilities. Drawing on feminist disability studies, health communication, narrative inquiry, and autoethnography, this book is an example of interpretive qualitative communication research that renders the lives of vulnerable people with compassion and understanding.

In this book, Yuxia Qian and Rukhsana Ahmed explore health acculturation, which they argue is a complex, multidimensional communication process involving concerted efforts from migrants, health professionals, researchers, community members, policymakers, and the media, rather than a unidimensional process synonymous with assimilation. Qian and Ahmed examine individual migrant health acculturation experiences, community-based culturally-centered health interventions, and cross-cultural health promotion and campaigns. Ultimately, this book unpacks the complexity surrounding the health acculturation process through different theoretical frameworks and cross-cultural applications in a range of communication contexts, including the interpersonal, family, community, organizational, and media.

Disclosure is a frequently used but rarely interrogated concept in health and social welfare. Abuse, disability, sexuality and health status can be ‘disclosed’ to peers and professionals, and on some occasions, disclosure is a requirement and not a choice. This innovative collection examines the new social and political implications of disclosure practices in health and illness. We make our identities and our connections with others by sharing life stories, experiences and innermost desires and are often asked to disclose facts about our lives, bodies and minds, at times with unintended consequences. Yet how and what, why and when people ‘disclose’ – and perceive, question and expose – and in what ways, has rarely received critical analytic attention. The contributors take up these problems by foregrounding the many shades of disclosure: from the secret, through the telling of diagnosis, to the more prosaic sharing of narratives from everyday life. The processes and implications of disclosing are addressed in areas such as: illness trajectories and end-of-life decisions; ethical research practices; medical procedures; and interpersonal relationships. Exploring the idea of disclosure as a moral imperative and a social act, this book offers a diverse range of empirical case studies, social theories and methodological insights to show how dominant and normative understandings of social relationships and their obligations shape our understanding of acts of disclosure, enquiry and exposure. It will be of interest to students and academics with an interest in narrative studies, medical anthropology, bioethics, health psychology, health studies and the sociology of health and illness.

Julie Flygare was on an ambitious path to success, entering law school at age 22, when narcolepsy destroyed the neurological boundaries between dreaming and reality in her brain. She faced terrifying hallucinations, paralysis and excruciating sleepiness - aspects of dream sleep taking place while wide awake. Yet, narcolepsy was a wake-up call for Julie. Her illness propelled her onto a journey she never imagined - from lying paralyzed on her apartment floor to dancing euphorically at a nightclub; from the classrooms of Harvard Medical School to the start line of the Boston Marathon. Wide Awake and Dreaming is a revealing first-hand account of dreams gone wrong with narcolepsy. It's the brave story of one woman trampling over barriers and finding light in the darkest of circumstances.

The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences provides college and university students with a highly accessible, curriculum-driven reference work, both in print and on-line, defining the major terms needed to achieve fluency in the social and behavioral sciences. Comprehensive and inclusive, its interdisciplinary scope covers such varied fields as anthropology, communication and media studies, criminal justice, economics, education, geography, human services, management, political science, psychology, and sociology. In addition, while not a discipline, methodology is at the core of these fields and thus receives due and equal consideration. At the same time we strive to be comprehensive and broad in scope, we recognize a need to be compact, accessible, and affordable. Thus the work is organized in A-to-Z fashion and kept to a single volume of approximately 600 to 700 pages.

A narcoleptic's tireless journey through the neuroscience of disordered sleep Whether it's a bout of bad jet lag or a stress-induced all-nighter, we've all suffered from nights that left us feeling less than well-rested. But for some people, getting a bad night's sleep isn't just an inconvenience: it's a nightmare. In Sleepyhead, science writer Henry Nicholls uses his own experience with chronic narcolepsy as a gateway to better understanding the cryptic, curious, and relatively uncharted world of sleep disorders. We meet insomniacs who can't get any sleep, narcoleptics who can't control when they sleep, and sleep apnea victims who nearly suffocate in their sleep. We learn the underlying difference between morning larks and night owls; why our sleeping habits shift as we grow older; and the evolutionary significance of REM sleep and dreaming. Charming, eye-opening, and deeply humanizing, Sleepyhead will help us all uncover the secrets of a good night's sleep.

Social Support and Health in the Digital Age discusses how theinformation age has revolutionized nearly every facet of human communication—from the ways in which people purchase products to how they meet and fall in love. These exciting new communication technologies can both unite and divide us. People who are separated by great distances can now communicate with each other in real time, whereas parents often find themselves competing with smartphones and tablets for their children’s attention. This book explores the many ways that digital communication media, such as online forums, social networking sites, and mobile applications, enhance and constrain social support in health-related contexts. We already know a great deal about how the Internet has altered how people search for health information, but less about how people seek and receive social support in this new age of information, which is critical for maintaining our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.