Sleep Before State : the meritocracy trap for an exceptional brain

When academic brilliance meets invisible disability, which system breaks first? Across six countries and a decade of undiagnosed narcolepsy, researcher Wang Heqiao documents how the world's most advanced healthcare systems can systematically fail the exceptional minds they claim to nurture. From Singapore's criminalized medications to Sweden's humanitarian paradoxes, Sleep Before State exposes the brutal mathematics of modern meritocracy: institutions prepared to discard excellence rather than accommodate neurological difference. This groundbreaking autoethnographic study transforms personal medical trauma into precise institutional analysis—revealing how diagnosis, citizenship, and accommodation intersect to determine who gets to exist fully in their own body. Part medical memoir, part scholarly exposé, this work challenges everything we believe about merit, belonging, and care. Through poetry, document analysis, and unflinching honesty, Heqiao proves that the most powerful research emerges from the margins institutions create. Not another inspiration narrative about "overcoming disability"—this is documentation of systematic talent destruction, written by someone who survived it to tell the truth. Essential reading for medical professionals, policy makers, disability advocates, and anyone who believes exceptional minds deserve exceptional support, regardless of how their brains are wired. Endorsed by leading neurologists and patient organizations. The author will present her findings at the 2025 World Sleep Congress in Singapore—the same country whose medical failures began her journey.