Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy , also known as hypnolepsy, is a chronic neurological disorder involving the loss of the brain’s ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally. People with narcolepsy experience frequent excessive daytime sleepiness, comparable to how non-narcoleptics … Read more

Narcolepsy , also known as hypnolepsy, is a chronic neurological disorder involving the loss of the brain’s ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally. People with narcolepsy experience frequent excessive daytime sleepiness, comparable to how non-narcoleptics feel after 24 to 48 hours of sleep deprivation, as well as disturbed nocturnal sleep which often is confused with insomnia. Narcoleptics generally experience the REM stage of sleep within 5 minutes of falling asleep, while non-narcoleptics do not experience REM in the first hour or so of a sleep cycle until after a period of slow-wave sleep unless they are significantly sleep deprived. Another common symptom of narcolepsy is cataplexy, a sudden and transient episode of muscle weakness accompanied by full conscious awareness, typically (though not necessarily) triggered by emotions such as laughing, crying, terror, etc. affecting roughly 70% of people who have narcolepsy. The term narcolepsy derives from the French word narcolepsie created by the French physician Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau by combining the Greek νάρκη (narkē, “numbness” or “stupor”), and λῆψις (lepsis), “attack” or “seizure”.