Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder that makes it difficult to stay awake during the daytime. Even though narcolepsy has no cure, many sufferers manage to go to college and complete their degrees. To help them, there is a variety of narcolepsy scholarships and grants available. Getting financial help for narcolepsy can be as easy as applying for scholarships online. Many of the available financial aid options are listed on the Tuck scholarships webpage.

What Is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a debilitating illness that can affect everything from day-to-day functioning to work and relationships. People with narcolepsy sometimes fall asleep while performing other tasks, like eating or watching a movie. Though every person with narcolepsy experiences the disease differently, other symptoms include dreamlike hallucinations, sleep paralysis and cataplexy, which is the experience of sudden muscle weakness that can make a person fall to the ground.

Narcolepsy is more common than you may think. As many as 200,000 people in the United States have the disorder. However, it cannot be diagnosed without specific tests and a sleep clinic. As of now, there is no cure for narcolepsy, but with medications, suffers can mitigate their symptoms and lead productive lives. Many people with narcolepsy even achieve great things, like raising families, owning their own businesses and earning college degrees. Most live without financial help for narcolepsy, but college students qualify for narcolepsy scholarships and grants.

Are There Narcolepsy Scholarships?

Narcolepsy scholarships are programs to help students who are diagnosed with narcolepsy pay for college. Though there are not very many scholarships just for narcolepsy sufferers, students with narcolepsy may qualify for other scholarships for students with illnesses or disabilities.

The Jack & Julie Narcolepsy Scholarship, sponsored by Project Sleep, was created specifically for students with narcolepsy to be able to fund their college education. This scholarship is for $1,000. To qualify, applicants must be high school seniors who were diagnosed with narcolepsy. Their application must include an essay that answers the writing prompt and a letter from their doctor asserting their narcolepsy diagnosis.

Search on the Tuck Scholarships Page

The Tuck scholarships on Tuck.com provide an extensive list of scholarships for financial help for narcolepsy and a variety of other sleep disorders. For some of these financial aid options, students will have to submit an essay that answers the writing prompt, and for all of them, students must have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder to qualify.

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