What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a frequent and sometimes uncontrollable desire for sleep. This can result into sudden lapses into sleep at any time, any place. The result is that normal patterns and rhythms of sleeping become abnormal. For example, someone suffering from narcolepsy may end up sleeping several times during the day and then having trouble sleeping at night. Continue reading to learn more about the 5 most common signs of narcolepsy.

5 Primary Narcolepsy Symptoms

1. Sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis causes the temporary inability to move or speak right after waking up, or right before sleep. Naturally, these events can be very scary if you don't know why you suddenly can't move - and these attacks can last minutes. However, these attacks aren't dangerous.

2. Sleep attacks

A sleep attack is a sudden onset of extreme sleepiness. Often these call for someone with narcolepsy to go find a quiet place to rest for a few minutes, but they can be so extreme that one has sudden onset of sleep (though this is rare).

3. Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is also common for people who have Narcolepsy because of irregular sleep patterns that lead to a loss of sleep quality and quantity at night.

4. Cataplexy

Cataplexy is an episode in which you suddenly lose muscle tone, causing your body to go slack. This can be isolated, like just in your jaw, or it can happen to your entire body, causing you to collapse. Cataplexy is caused in response to strong emotion.

Cataplexy is one reason why stigmas about narcolepsy are that people suddenly fall asleep in the middle of everyday activities, when in fact this is uncommon. Cataplexy might look more like falling down or loss of balance, among other things.

5. Hallucinations

About half of people with Narcolepsy will also experience hallucinations before falling asleep or right after waking up, which will take the form of dream-like visions or delusions. They may involve several sensations at the same time as opposed to just visual experiences. This happens because REM sleep shows up when it isn’t supposed to.

How to Identify Narcolepsy Symptoms

If you have narcolepsy, you might look for some hallmark symptoms listed above. They generally might look something like this:

• Do you suffer from sudden, unexplained sleepiness that’s not related to other factors (i.e., sugar crash)?
• Do you sometimes wake up in inappropriate places, like work, and not remember falling asleep?
• Do you have bouts of being unable to move before sleep or after waking up?

Effects of Narcolepsy on your Life

There is no doubt that narcolepsy will impact your life, though with a few accommodations these impacts can be minimal. Some things that might require aid or be off limits for people with narcolepsy include:

• Driving
• Job consistency
• Using heavy/risky machinery
• Doing high risk work (surgery, oil and gas, fishing)
• Parenting and pregnancy with narcolepsy have a whole host of smaller concerns
• Sleep deprivation also comes with a host of serious concerns as well

How to Combat Narcolepsy

Currently there is no cure for Narcolepsy, and management can involve a lot of medications, and unfortunately medications don’t always affect people in the same way. Managing Narcolepsy will require careful attention to many things people without Narcolepsy don’t have to be concerned about. For example:

• Certain activities will be off limits
• Certain jobs will be off limits
• Managing daily life will require “work around”, such as being able to take a nap at work if needed
• Coffee is a double edged sword, helping through sleep attacks but further inhibiting normalizing sleeping patterns
• Sleep partners should be aware of hallucinations and sleep paralysis, which can be scary for them if they don’t know how to identify and react to it
• For Cataplexy, Narcoleptics may need to practice exercises to avoid strong emotional reactions, such as meditation, yoga, breathing techniques, etc.

A diagnosis requires a sleep study. If this you related to some of the signs and symptoms in this article, please contact us immediately by taking this online sleep test.