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Narcolepsy is a long-term sleep disease marked by excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep episodes. Regardless of the conditions, people with narcolepsy find it difficult to remain awake for lengthy periods of time. Narcolepsy may create a lot of problems in your everyday life.
Narcolepsy is often accompanied by a lack of muscular tone (cataplexy), which may be caused by powerful emotions. Type 1 narcolepsy is narcolepsy that arises as a result of cataplexy. Type 2 narcolepsy is narcolepsy that does not cause cataplexy.
Narcolepsy is a long-term sleep disorder for which there is no treatment. Medications and lifestyle modifications, on the other hand, may help you control the symptoms. Family, friends, employers, and instructors can all assist you to manage narcolepsy.
Symptoms
For the first few years, the signs and symptoms of narcolepsy may increase, but they will persist for the rest of your life. Excessive daytime drowsiness is one of them. Narcolepsy causes people to fall asleep unexpectedly, anywhere, and at any time. For example, you may be working or conversing with friends when you drop off and sleep for a few minutes to a half-hour. You feel rejuvenated when you first wake up, but you soon fall asleep again.
Throughout the day, you may notice a decline in attentiveness and attention. Excessive daytime drowsiness is frequently the first symptom to occur and is often the most bothersome, making it difficult to focus and perform normally.
Muscle tone is suddenly lost. Cataplexy (KAT-uh-plek-see) is a syndrome that may induce a variety of bodily abnormalities, ranging from slurred speech to full muscular weakness, and can persist for a few minutes.
Cataplexy is an uncontrolled reaction to strong emotions, generally happy ones like laughing or exhilaration, although it may also be provoked by fear, surprise, or rage. When you laugh, for example, your head may droop uncontrollably or your knees may collapse unexpectedly.
Some persons with narcolepsy may have one or two bouts of cataplexy each year, whereas others have many episodes every day. Cataplexy does not affect everyone with narcolepsy.
Paralysis during sleep. When people with narcolepsy fall asleep or wake up, they often find themselves unable to move or talk. These episodes are generally short, lasting just a few seconds or minutes, but they may be terrifying. Even though you had no influence over what was occurring to you, you may be aware of the situation and have no trouble remembering it afterward.
This sort of sleep paralysis is similar to the type of transient paralysis that happens during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. REM sleep immobility may hinder your body from acting out dream activities.
However, not everyone with sleep paralysis has narcolepsy. Many individuals who do not have narcolepsy have bouts of sleep paralysis.
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep changes. The majority of dreaming occurs during REM sleep. In persons with narcolepsy, REM sleep may happen at any time of day. Narcolepsy patients often shift to REM sleep fast, generally within 15 minutes after falling asleep.
Hallucinations. If the hallucinations happen while you fall asleep, they're called hypnagogic hallucinations, and if they happen as you wake up, they're called hypnopompic hallucinations. Feeling as though there is a stranger in your bedroom is one example. Because you may not be entirely asleep when you begin dreaming and view your dreams as reality, these hallucinations may be very vivid and scary.
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