ParalysisTag Archives

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.

0 comments

The Treatment For Narcolepsy

Article by Gary M. Miller

The good news for those of you who have been falling asleep at the drop of a hat is that there is a treatment! Although this is some positive encouragement, it’s not time to completely celebrate just yet. The modern treatment for Narcolepsy involves mainly the symptoms and it is important to recognize that much about this disorder is still unknown. Both the diagnosis and the treatments still remain somewhat open-ended. There has been continuing research about Narcolepsy, however, and scientists are studying methods for how to support a more accurate diagnosis. Although there are medications to cure the related symptoms such as cataplexy, EDS, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis, scientists still can not come up with a full treatment that will eliminated the disorder as a whole. Instead, we treat the symptoms one at a time and hope for a more complete cure in the near future.

According to many scientific clinical trials since 1999, the drug Modafinil had been used for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS. Antidepressant drugs such as tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, on the other hand, are effective drugs for cataplexy syndrome. Again, there is no known cure for narcolepsy as a whole because of its unpredictable nature. This doesn’t mean you should give up. There are a lot of great symptomatic treatments that can help you to live a somewhat normal life.

As many people know, Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder where symptoms can be experienced at a very young age and can only be diagnosed after years. Patients have been known to fall asleep almost instantly in the middle of a sentence and this can be quite dangerous considering the many places you need to be during the day. Studies show that in most cases, patients who suffer from narcolepsy had developed infection, immune-system dysfunction, trauma, hormonal changes, traumatic injuries, tumor growth due to exposure to toxins and stress prior to their narcolepsy symptoms attack. This has been a hopeful discovery for the sufferers who are eager to receive a treatment. Aside from this finding, a number of variant forms of genes called Allenes have been pinpointed in a group of human genes. People who are diagnosed to have narcolepsy are those who have only specific variants in the genes but these alone are not sufficient to cause the disorder. There are still clinical studies that show the condition to be more unpredictable by nature. Although the FDA approved the drug xylem or sodium oxybate, also known as GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) to treat narcolepsy, its was later restricted due to safety concerns associated with it.

None of the currently available medications are able to help narcolepsy patients have a consistent state of alertness. Many sufferers confess poor work or school performances due to the poor mental alertness. Some would even experience a loss of muscle tone which leads to motor accidents. The symptom cataplexy occurs spontaneously at times and is triggered by sudden or strong emotions such as anger, stress, fear, humor, and excitement.

Narcolepsy cannot yet be cured because of the lack of understanding of its causes but EDS and cataplexy are both the most disabling symptoms of the disorder and can only be controlled by drug treatment. Again, the treatment regimen is only considered to be a symptomatic change and not a symptom elimination.

The National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) sponsors research on neurological disorders including sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy. As part of this responsibility, the NINDS also supports various medical institutions across the country in their respective research. Some of the most helpful scientific studies conducted over the years include “A Safety and Effectiveness Study of a Single Dose of JNJ-17216498 in Patients With Narcolepsy” and “Body Weight Regulation in Patients With Narcolapsy”. Other studies that have proven somewhat enlightening are the “Effectiveness Of The Drug GSK 189254 In Treating Patients With Narcolepsy” and the “Trial of Xyrem (Sodium Oxybate) for the Treatment of Narcolepsy”. All of these have concluded that, while there are available medications to relieve some symptoms of narcolepsy, there is still no complete cure for the condition as a whole.

About the Author

Over 70 Million people in the USA suffer from some kind of Sleep Disorder! There are actually hundreds of ways to improve your sleep but the first thing that is needed is to raise more awareness! If you want to sleep better tonight, you can visit this information Sleep Aid Web Site that is packed with FREE information: http://www.Sleep-Aid-Solutions.com

Narcolepsy, Narcolepsy Symptoms

Article by Denn

Narcolepsy is characterized by spontaneous falling asleep. The first one of the narcolepsy symptoms is usually excessive daytime sleepiness. It is the irresistible desire to sleep when a person wants to be awake. Narcolepsy is associated with cataplexy, sudden weakness or paralysis, often caused by laughing, or other intense feelings, then paralysis in a dream, a very frightening phenomenon in which a man is half awake but cannot move, and hallucinations, that is very vivid and frightening dreams that occur at the beginning or the end of the dream. A person may also show signs of automatic behavior, or perform routine or boring tasks, which are later, not remembered fully.Narcolepsy treatment is very difficult sometimes. Narcolepsy is treated with behavioral therapy or by using drugs. Behavioral therapy involves avoidance of shift work, avoids eating heavy meals and alcohol, respect for the schedule of night sleep, and strategically deployed daily rest. Medication use should be controlled, their dosage should be individualized, and stimulants that are trying to increase the level of attention are prescribed, and antidepressants which are controlled by the above conditions related to narcolepsy.What Is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a real sleeping sickness, largely genetically marked, but also symptomatic of brain trauma or brain infections. The cause of narcolepsy is not known, although most of the tested patients had a specific HLA haplotype. It occurs in 0.02 to 0.16 percent of adults, alike in both sexes, and in some patients the family history is positive. It is characterized by an irresistible urge to sleep during the day, which is repeated at various intervals, and inevitably ends up with sleep wherever a person is. In this disease, along with bouts of sleep, and Cataplexy occurs, i.e., momentary loss of muscle tone with ousted from the case, kneeling, and in severe cases and fall, all with clear consciousness. Cataplexy is often caused by excitement, more pleasure than fear. Some of these patients had hallucinations before sleep, as if dreaming while they are still awake, or they happen to wake up at night short paralyzed. The disease is rare. Specifically diagnosed, and treatment is complicated.

There are also some other similar condition narcolepsy, which occur in adolescence and persist a short pass spontaneously. In some way, the treatment of narcolepsy and narcolepsy symptoms is similar to treatment of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. (“pervasive characterological disturbance involving one’s generalized style and beliefs in the way one relates to themselves and the world. Persons with OCPD are typically deeply entrenched in their dysfunctional beliefs and genuinely see their way of functioning as the “correct” way. While generally their daily experience is such that “all is not well,” they tend to be deeply committed to their own beliefs and patterns. They believe that by doing one action that causes their relief can stop bad thing from happening and at one point of view they will “control” some aspect of their future. Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is a personality disorder and that is very important to recognize from the beginning.”)Source: Narcolepsy Sypmtoms

About the Author

Cardiologist and expert in healthcare. Owner of many online healthcare communities along with some of the best medical experts in various healthcare fields.

ParalysisTag Archives

Narcolepsy Symptoms and How to cope

The Treatment For Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy, Narcolepsy Symptoms

More Articles

Categories

Narcolepsy Symptoms

Research