According to WedMed, "Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness. People with narcolepsy experience excessive daytime sleepiness and intermittent, uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during the daytime. These sudden sleep attacks may occur during any type of activity at any time of the day."
The book stated because the body lacks orexin, the chemical that helps us stay awake. But, in order to understand the basics of narcolepsy it is important to understand the difference between "normal sleep" and living with narcolepsy. Sleep happens in cycles. When we fall asleep, we initially enter a light stage of sleep and then progress into increasingly deeper stages. Both light and deep sleep stages are called non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. After about 90 minutes, we enter the first stage of REM sleep, which is the dreaming portion of sleep, and throughout the night we alternate between stages of REM and non-REM sleep. For people with narcolepsy, sleep begins almost immediately with REM sleep and fragments of REM occur involuntarily throughout the waking hours. When you consider that during REM sleep our muscles are paralyzed and dreaming occurs, it is not surprising that narcolepsy is associated with paralysis, hallucinations, and other dream-like and dramatically debilitating symptoms (National Sleep Foundation).
Symptoms also include:
1. Gradual or sudden attacks of sleepiness during the day.
2. Occasional cataplexy—an attack of muscle weakness
while the person remains awake. Cataplexy is often
triggered by strong emotions, such as anger or great
excitement. (One man suddenly collapsed during his own
wedding ceremony.)
3. Sleep paralysis—an inability to move while falling asleep
or waking up. Other people may experience sleep
paralysis occasionally, but people with narcolepsy
experience it more frequently.
4. Hypnagogic hallucinations—dreamlike experiences that
the person has trouble distinguishing from reality, often
occurring at the onset of sleep. (Text also found in Book)
Treatment: Thank God! There is a way to control it. Medications that doctors are typically prescribe stimulants are to improve alertness and diminish excessive daytime sleepiness. Antidepressants are also often used to treat cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis.
This is a very radical disorder and we must learn not to fall into conclusions about the people it affects. This disorder is considered a taboo in other countries and people are often seen as "lazy bums". Lets make this lovely "sleeping beauties" feel understood and aware that they are not alone.
(video consist of three parts feel free to check part one and three if time allows it)
Recently, one of my friends and I were talking about the definition of narcolepsy. I don't recall exactly why I mentioned the word, but he responded in asking me what narcolepsy meant. I went ahead and explained him since I am pretty familiar with the definition of narcolepsy due to some classes I have taken before about sleep disorders. About two days later we were texting and he tells me that he will use the word around his co-workers to see if they know what he was talking about. According to him, the word sounded really smart and probably the other workers would not know the definition of narcolepsy. Surprisingly, he calls me the next day and tells me that most of his co-workers did not know what he was talking about when he mentioned the word. My only question was "how did you use the word narcolepsy in a sentence?" I wondered if he had used it right in the first place! Anyways, I just thought it was interesting that many people are kept in the darkness about this particular word. Narcolepsy strikes about 1 person every 1000. With this said, actually more people than we can imagine may suffer from this sleep disorder. Are they considered people with disabilities? I mean, after all they can't work because they can have certain episodes of sleepiness during the day. In the particular video you posted this man has sort of bruises in his face, I am guessing these are all results of his common attacks of sleepiness and muscle weaknesses. I cannot imagine someone falling asleep during their own wedding! People have to be really precautious with narcolepsy because they may fall into a really hard floor or hit themselves with great force and that can become a bigger problem. By the way, I like the fact that we can see them as "sleeping beauties." :)
ReplyDeleteYea this sleeping disorder is something else. I havent met someone personally who suffered from this but have heard of people who after a certain time of the day they just knock out. Or for those who have been driving after a couple of hours just instantly fall asleep. Its a dangerous thing! All i know is that if i ever suffered from this disorder there is no way i can continue with my path to be become a physician. Imagine during residency and all those long hours i have to put in, there is NO way i would be able to do this. I wonder if those who suffer from this have someone always keeping an eye out for them. Because think about it, those who suffer from narcolepsy have to be treated like little children. They can literally knock out whenever and hurt themselves in the process. I wonder how effective are those drugs and how long they can last in the system before its effect begin to wear off. I felt really bad for the guy in the that video. Not only is he already suffering from narcolepsy but from catalepsy as well. Yeah in this case you definitely need someone watching out for you 24 hrs. Atleast he was well prepared and used a helmet-like protection. Another thing was that It was interesting to learn more about this sleeping order.
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