By Sandee LaMotte, CNN<\/p>\n
(CNN) \u2014 Candi Wilmot and her 9-year-old daughter Adeline were at the theater watching \u201cSnow White,\u201d the 2025 live-action remake of the beloved 1937 Disney animated classic, when the film suddenly became personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should have been a fun mother-daughter experience, but it wasn\u2019t at all,\u201d said Wilmot, who has type 1 narcolepsy, defined by excessive daytime sleepiness, vivid hallucinations, sleep paralysis and sudden bouts of muscle weakness or paralysis known as cataplexy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dwarf Sleepy was introduced as \u2018narcoleptic cataplexic,\u2019 which I\u2019d never heard of,\u2019 she said. \u201cHe would start snoring in the middle of a conversation or even nod off during fight scenes. Or he\u2019d suddenly freeze and topple over in some supposedly funny pratfall.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of that happens in narcolepsy. It wasn\u2019t amusing, and it certainly wasn\u2019t realistic,\u201d she said. \u201cI was offended by the character, realizing my child could be seeing this behavior and questioning my medical condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new analysis provided exclusively to CNN found films and television shows frequently use narcolepsy \u2014 an incurable neurological sleep disorder \u2014 as a source of humor,<\/a> turning a serious condition that affects 1 in 2,000 Americans, and millions worldwide, into slapstick comedy.<\/p>\n For Wilmot, the worst moment occurred when Sleepy stumbled to the edge of a huge chasm in the mine, turned and began to fall backward to his death. Another dwarf caught him just in time.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the movie, my daughter asked me, \u2018Mom, if you stop taking your meds, would you be like that?\u2019\u201d Wilmot said. \u201cShe worried other kids in the theater would see this and think people with narcolepsy put themselves or others in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018No one wants to be the butt of a joke\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSnow White\u201d is among 56 Hollywood productions released between 1983 and 2025 that feature narcolepsy, often only for a laugh, according to an analysis released Tuesday<\/a> titled \u201cA Representation Wake-up Call: Narcolepsy in Fictional Narrative Entertainment.\u201d The release coincides with World Narcolepsy Day.<\/a><\/p>\n The analysis was conducted by the Norman Lear Center<\/a> at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism \u2014 which studies how the entertainment industry affects social, political and cultural life \u2014 and Project Sleep<\/a>, a patient advocacy nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of sleep disorders.<\/p>\n Although fewer than half of the productions analyzed were comedies, 80% used narcolepsy as a running gag. Among the 41 characters portrayed as having narcolepsy, 68% were depicted as incapable or unreliable.<\/p>\n An episode in season two of the original \u201cScrubs\u201d series is one example cited in the report. The main character, JD, walks up to Turk, Carla and Elliott and says, \u201cYou guys wanna go laugh at the narcoleptic guy?\u201d<\/p>\n As they walk to the patient\u2019s room, JD explains the man\u2019s sleep attacks are triggered by sexual titillation. What follows is a series of unethical attempts by the women<\/a> to arouse the man and watch him comically collapse into sleep.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one wants to be the butt of a joke,\u201d said board certified sleep medicine psychologist Dr. Shelby Harris, a clinical associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, who treats people with narcolepsy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really quite incredible to see just how insensitive the entertainment industry can be,\u201d said Harris, who provided guidance on the project. \u201cIf I were a patient with narcolepsy and watched these shows, I\u2019d feel shamed and belittled.\u201d<\/p>\n Stereotypes keep people from treatment<\/p>\n Hollywood\u2019s impact is so pervasive, experts say, that inaccurate depictions of narcolepsy can even affect whether patients seek treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think of narcolepsy, I think of \u201cDeuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,\u201d the girl is at the table just falling asleep \u2014 and I\u2019m like, \u2018alright I don\u2019t have that,\u2019\u201d said former NFL player Josh Andrews, who was quoted in the report. Andrews was diagnosed with narcolepsy at age 26 while playing for the Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n In the 1999 film, Bigalow\u2019s date, Carol, orders soup for the first time. \u201cThis is such a treat, I\u2019ve always wanted to try soup but there\u2019s the fear of drowning,\u201d she says before abruptly beginning to snore. Her head snaps forward into the bowl \u2014 only to be stopped by her ponytail tied to a railing behind her. Bigalow keeps on eating.<\/p>\n On a date at a bowling alley, Carol tells Bigalow that narcolepsy \u201cisn\u2019t the worst thing you could ever have. I\u2019m just not allowed to fly a plane or drive a car or work in a gun range.\u201d She then passes out on a middle lane while scoring a strike.<\/p>\n Some 82% of characters with narcolepsy in the analysis had exaggerated sleep attacks, said report coauthor Julie Flygare, author of \u201cWide Awake and Dreaming,\u201d a memoir of her experience with type 1 narcolepsy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a trick of the eye where you watch someone fall out of camera view backwards, and there\u2019s a big thud and then you hear them snoring,\u201d said Flygare, President and CEO of Project Sleep.<\/p>\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen. We don\u2019t fall like a plank to the floor, or suddenly stop talking and snore, or topple over into our food,\u201d Flygare said. \u201cThe exhaustion of narcolepsy is less obvious to outsiders, generally occurring over several minutes with time to sit or lie down. With cataplexy, our knees might buckle and we might crumble to the ground, but we are fully conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n A blow to self-worth<\/p>\n Some people with narcolepsy struggle professionally \u2014 at times because of exhaustion, but also because of stigma in the workplace.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople with narcolepsy can be labeled by bosses, coworkers, teachers and even their loved ones as careless, incompetent, antisocial or inferior to others,\u201d said Erica Rosenthal, director of research at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center and coauthor of the report.<\/p>\n In the first episode of the Netflix series \u201cThe Recruit\u201d from 2022, Janus Ferber, an overworked, incredibly stressed-out lawyer for the CIA, falls asleep during a staff meeting. His boss throws a pen at his head and says, \u201cHey, knock it off. Nobody\u2019s buying the narcolepsy crap, I don\u2019t care what your doctor\u2019s note says.\u201d The show was canceled after the release of the second season.<\/p>\n Making fun of people\u2019s differences or medical conditions may have been the norm in the early days of the entertainment industry, but today Hollywood prefers to reward more inclusive, socially conscious and medically accurate storytelling.<\/p>\n