overview
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime sleepiness and sudden sleep attacks. People with narcolepsy can often find it difficult to stay awake for long periods of time, regardless of the circumstances. Narcolepsy can seriously disrupt your daily routine.
- Sometimes narcolepsy can be accompanied by a sudden loss of muscle tone (cataplexy), which can be triggered by a strong emotion. Narcolepsy that occurs with cataplexy is known as type 1 narcolepsy. Narcolepsy that occurs without cataplexy is known as type 2 narcolepsy.
- Narcolepsy is a chronic disease for which there is no cure. However, medications and lifestyle changes can help you relieve symptoms. Supporting others – family, friends, employers, teachers – can help you manage narcolepsy.Daytime sleepiness treatment hyderabad
symptom
The signs and symptoms of narcolepsy can be worn for the first few years and then last for a lifetime. They include:
- Excessive daytime sleepiness. People with narcolepsy fall asleep anywhere, anytime, without warning. For example, you work or talk to friends and suddenly fall over and sleep for a few minutes to half an hour. When you wake up you feel refreshed, but eventually you go back to sleep.
- You may also feel a decrease in alertness and focus as the day progresses. Excessive daytime sleepiness is usually the first symptom to appear and is often the most bothersome thing preventing you from focusing and functioning properly.
- Sudden loss of muscle tone. This condition, called cataplexy (KAT-uh-plek-see), can cause a number of physical changes, ranging from speech impairment to complete weakness in most muscles and lasting up to a few minutes.
- Cataplexy is uncontrollable and is triggered by intense, usually positive emotions such as laughter or excitement, but sometimes fear, surprise, or anger. For example, when you laugh, your head may hang uncontrollably or your knees may suddenly buckle.
- Some people with narcolepsy have only one or two cataplexy episodes per year, while others have many episodes per day. Not all people with narcolepsy suffer from cataplexy.
- Sleep paralysis. People with narcolepsy often have a temporary inability to move or speak when they fall asleep or wake up. These episodes are usually short – lasting a few seconds or minutes – but can be scary. You may be aware of the disease and have no trouble remembering it afterwards, even if you had no control over what happened to you.
- This sleep paralysis mimics the type of temporary paralysis that usually occurs during a period of sleep called paradoxical sleep (REM). This temporary immobility during REM sleep can prevent your body from responding to dream activity.
- However, not all people with sleep paralysis have narcolepsy. Many people without narcolepsy experience episodes of sleep paralysis.
- Changes in REM sleep. REM sleep is usually the time when most dreams occur. REM sleep can occur at any time of the day in people with narcolepsy. People with narcolepsy often switch to REM sleep quickly, usually within 15 minutes of falling asleep.
Hallucinations. These hallucinations are called hypnagogic hallucinations if they occur while falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations if they occur while waking up. An example is the feeling that a stranger is in your room. These hallucinations can be especially vivid and scary as you may not be able to fully sleep when you first start dreaming and living your dreams as reality.Daytime sleepiness treatment hyderabad
The reasons
The exact cause of narcolepsy is unknown. People with type 1 narcolepsy have low levels of chemical hypocretin (Hi-Poe-KREE tin). Hypocretin is an important neurochemical in your brain that helps regulate wakefulness and REM sleep.
- Hypocretin levels are particularly low in people with cataplexy. It’s unclear exactly what causes the loss of hypocretin-producing cells in the brain, but experts suggest that this is due to an autoimmune reaction.
- It is also likely that.Daytime sleepiness treatment hyderabad
