How to examine the Narcolepsy Sleeping Disorder

Narcolepsy is a rare long term disorder when occurs person suddenly falls asleep and the sleep may continue for several minutes to several hours.

 

Narcolepsy occurs when brain fails to balance sleeping and waking patterns normally .

Symptoms of Narcolepsy :

Excessive daytime sleep :

Feeling drowsy throughout the day , not able to concentrate in normal work . It is the first sign that occurs when a person is subjected to have Narcolepsy. Feeling drowsy all the day significantly impact the daily routine life . They fall asleep the whole day which in turn makes them inability to work in office or concentrate at school . Most often, people with narcolepsy are misjudged to be lazy or inactive or rude.

Sleep attacks

Falling asleep is normally found in narcolepsy affected person . It may occur at any time . They fall asleep during the day time . This sleep time may vary from person to person . Some people only have microsleeps lasting a few seconds. Some may have sleep for several minutes . If narcolepsy is not controlled then it sleep may occur several times for several minutes in a day .

Cataplexy

Most people who have narcolepsy may experience cataplexy . Cataplexy is the weakness of muscle or loss of muscle control.

Some of the typical symptoms are :

•     Jaw dropping.

•     legs collapsing uncontrollably.

•     Slurred speech.   
•     double vision or feeling difficult to focus.   
•     The head slumping down.

Cataplexy attacks are stimulated by emotions such as laughter , anger , excitement . This can lasts in a person for several minutes. Some people with narcolepsy will be triggered by emotions like laugh , anger , excitement for twice in a year and some may experience several times a day. People often isolates or withdraws from socialising with others .

Sleep paralysis

Some people with narcolepsy experience episodes of sleep paralysis . While waking or falling asleep people with sleep paralysis finds difficult to move or sleep . The episode can lasts for few seconds to several minutes. Since it is not considered that much harm but people finding difficult to move or speak can literally be frightening.

Other Symptoms :

Hallucinations : Seeing or hearing the things that aren't real .

Memory problems

Headaches

Restless Sleep

What causes Narcolepsy :

Causes of Narcolepsy is found to occur due to the lack of hypocretin (brain chemical ) . If a person has 90-95 percentage of lacking of hypocretin then the person is said to have narcolepsy than the person with normal level of hypocretin .

The lack of hypocretin is said to occur because the immune system mistakenly attacks the cells that produce it or the receptors that allow it to work.

Some of the other causes of narcolepsy :

Major depression or schizophrenia or hypomania.

Due to infections such as swine flu or improper medications to vaccinate such infections.

Hormonal changes during puberty.

Who is Affected ?

It is said to occur in the Childhood stage but often diagnosed during 20 – 40 age

Both men and women are commonly affected by Narcolepsy , but it is more common in men .

However, it's estimated the condition affects at least 25,000 people in the UK.

Probably it is considered a rare condition because many cases goes unreported often .

Treating Narcolepsy :

Although narcolepsy cannot be completely curable but with a proper consultation and following remedial procedure you could reduce in a step by step manner and following complete instructions suggested by doctor persistently can cure narcolepsy to the maximum and the person can continue back to normal life activities .