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Narcolepsy Symptoms and How to cope

Narcolepsy is a type of chronic neurological disease that is caused by inability and failure of the brain to stimulate sleep wake cycles. At certain times in a day, the patient with narcolepsy suffers extreme sleepiness especially during the day. For times which the sleepiness becomes uncontrollable, narcoleptics will suddenly fall asleep in minutes. There are also cases where patients fall asleep suddenly for an hour or even longer. However these cases are very rare.

People with narcolepsy’s sleep episode frequently appear at any time. They may fall asleep even while doing something or at any places like school, work place, while driving, while playing games, and even while having a conversation. This can be really dangerous to them as it can bring harm to them especially when they are using hazardous machinery and driving.
Furthermore, in the daytime excessive sleepiness, there are three main symptoms that normally summarize narcolepsy that are hallucination upon waking up, cataplexy, or a sudden muscle control loss, and paralysis at the end or start of their sleep.

Commonly believed, most people that have narcolepsy did not spend much proportion of their time to sleep in the 24 hours day as normal sleepers. Beside, there was addition of drowsiness that leads to sleepiness during the day for narcoleptics. Most of them also experiences awakenings during night time. Because of these, this narcolepsy disease are considered as a disorder of their usual boundaries between waking up and sleeping period.

For adults, usual night sleep is when they get to sleep for almost eight hours. But it is different for people with narcolepsy. A sleep cycle were showed by segments of non rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep then only the period of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Non rapid eye movement period can be divided into groups according to the frequent and size of brain waves. For rapid eye movement sleep, it is followed by rapid eye movement along with heightened activity in brain and temporary muscles paralysis. This affects the body movement and body posture.

When patient are awakened, they tend to “have a dreams” often if they had been in rapid eye movement sleep than when they had been in non rapid eye movement sleep. The period from non rapid eye movement sleep to rapid eye movement sleep were caused by interactions in neurons that are the nerve cells which stay in certain part in brain.

Scientist and specialist doctors believe that narcolepsy is caused by the process that affect the brain mechanisms and regulate rapid eye movement sleep. For normal people, their usual sleep cycle is from 100 up to 110 minutes, beginning with the non rapid eye movement sleep to rapid eye movement sleep after 80 until 100 minutes. For narcoleptics, they normally enter rapid eye movement sleep within only a few minutes from the beginning of falling asleep.

Until today, there is no proven cure for treating narcolepsy. So, the sudden sleep onset, cataplexy and over sleepiness on the daytime were treated by involving the combination of the practice in getting sufficient sleep, drugs and medicines, and special treatment. While there is no one proven method for treating narcolepsy, you can help yourself tremendously by understanding this condition.

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Narcolepsy Symptoms & Their Devastating Impacts

Article by Nina Davis

Narcolepsy symptoms are often unpredictable and have serious impact on numerous facets of one’s life. Below are a few of the distressing outcomes of narcolepsy symptoms;

Prone to Mishaps as well as Injury

Narcolepsy may cause a person to suddenly drift off to sleep. They can also lose muscle control and collapse all of a sudden. This occurs without warning, regardless of what an individual is doing. If an individual is driving a vehicle or perhaps operating hazardous machineries while in an episode, he can be at risk of injuring himself as well as others. In fact, study shows that 75% of narcoleptics figure into car accidents. Also, daily routine activities like cooking or going for a walk could still cause accidental injuries if a person suddenly drops and lose muscle control. That is why narcoleptics are advised to refrain from driving a vehicle and other potentially unsafe activities.

Poor Attention as well as Memory Lapses

Daytime sleepiness and also disrupted night time sleep could bring its toll on a narcoleptic. They experience difficulties doing mental activities. It is because they often suffer mental cloudiness, memory impairment along with lack of concentration. They cannot completely focus with their tasks. It exposes them once more at great risk of injuries or accidents. It also affects their performance in class or in the office.

Headache and Obesity

Narcolepsy can make it really hard for a person to acquire a decent, quality sleep. The brain may well also be strained due to stress, fatigue and hallucinations. As a result, narcoleptics can easily suffer from very bad headaches. It may possibly grow into migraine headaches.

They’re also very likely to develop obesity. The reason is that in narcolepsy, the brain is short of hypocretin. It’s a substance responsible for controlling sleep and eating. Which means that, a low production of hypocretin will mean a higher appetite and excessive eating.

Mental Health issues

The uncontrolled sleep episodes and cataplexy can easily bring about emotional and social suffering for narcoleptics. Decrease of self-esteem, emotional stress and depression may later result. According to studies, development of depression in those who have narcolepsy range between 30-57%.

Impairment of Interpersonal and Professional Relationships

Narcolepsy may affect an individual’s capability to perform normally in class, work or public functions. It can interfere with their activities. Because cataplexy is prompted by sudden emotions, they distance themselves emotionally from others. On account of common ignorance of other people about narcolepsy, narcoleptics are generally judged unfairly. They are incorrectly recognized as very lazy, unintelligent or unmotivated. Hence, they have a tendency to shy from social affairs for fear of ridicule. They also frequently struggle to keep a job or finish schooling. The inability to work or drive can result in loss of independence and financial hardships. Personal relationships are affected too. Sexual problems, like reduced sexual drive and erection problems, might happen. This can be attributable to complications of medicinal drugs, drowsiness and depression.

The impacts of narcolepsy to an individual’s life are invariably profound. Regrettably, narcolepsy symptoms are generally life-long. They might lessen eventually but they won’t ever totally disappear. At present, no solution has been discovered for narcolepsy yet. But there are a number of tips for a person to manage its symptoms. A combination of counseling, medication, and behavioral modifications could help an individual attain his normal life back.

About the Author

Nina is a professional lady with a medical background. Her passion is to help others that suffer from sleep disorders. She maintains a website dedicated to helping others understand narcolepsy. Just go to Narcolepsy Revealed to know more about this condition. Nina has been involved in various health information fields. She is also involved in banking and finance and has an interest in traveling.

Knowing What to Do If You Have Narcolepsy Symptoms

Article by Bob Shaughnessy

Narcolepsy symptoms and their side effects can be very dangerous. Narcoleptics are people who fall asleep uncontrollably. It is a neurological disorder that is quite dangerous as you can just fall asleep in the middle of anything, whether you are working, driving, cooking or out in the streets walking. Unfortunately, unlike sleep apnea cures, the treatment for narcolepsy is more complicated and less definitive. A device such as sleep apnea machine does not yet exist to control and manage narcolepsy symptoms. In the United States, about one in two thousand people suffer this disorder, and the initial symptoms are usually experienced by the age of ten to twenty five. Sadly, this is a lifelong condition and needs to be properly taken cared of. Knowing narcolepsy symptoms from the beginning and seeking proper treatment can help the patient have a normal life.

What Are Narcolepsy Symptoms?A person suffering from narcolepsy does not necessarily experience the same symptoms, but here is a list that you would want to take note of:

Loss of muscle control or cataplexy