Narcolepsy symptoms and treatment
Narcolepsy is a condition of overwhelming and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) with a disruption to the normal pattern of non rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) and the REM sleep.
Narcolepsy treatment
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The condition of narcolepsy was first discovered by Gelineau in the last decades of the 19th century. Typical characteristic of narcolepsy is attacks of EDS - excessive daytime sleepiness - which occurs even if nighttime sleep has been normal and undisturbed.
With narcolepsy, it is likely that the patient will feel sudden needs for small naps, sudden drowsiness etc - often in very unexpected places and situations. Naps can be refreshing but the effect will not last long, typically a few hours maximum.
Typical symptoms of narcolepsy
Sleep paralysis
When waking up, patient may suffer from a short inability to more or even talk. This paralysis can last anything from a few seconds up to minutes and occurs during full awake consciousness.Cataplexy - a symptom of narcolepsy
Sudden loss of muscle tone (function) which may range from only a small weakness such as face muscles slacking, knees become wobbly or speech can become difficult. The seizure of cataplexy is usually triggered by strong emotions such as laughter, fear, anger etc. Cataplexy takes place when the patient is fully conscious.Hallucinations (hypnagogic)
These are experiences reminiscing of dreams, very lively and sometimes frightening. They generally occur in periods of drowsiness or just when falling asleep or waking up.The symptoms of paralysis and EDS and also the hallucinations may occur also in patients who do not have narcolepsy. It is then often a case of patients with a severely disturbed night sleep, or another extreme lack of sleep. Cataplexy however is usually connected to narcolepsy only.
Narcolepsy often develops with symptoms of daytime sleepiness (EDS) first and the other symptoms of narcolepsy showing much later, it can be months or even years after the first symptoms of excessive daily naps. The development of narcolepsy varies within a wide range from patient to patient and the symptoms may develop in a different order and with different intensity. Only about a quarter of all narcoleptics will show all the symptoms above, some of these will not be present all the time and they may even go away completely. The daytime sleepiness does not however, that is the principal sign of narcolepsy and it will be present throughout the whole life of the patient.