The cause of narcolepsy has not been determined. However, medical researchers believe that the cause is related to a genetic disorder that affects certain genes capable of controlling the sleep and wake chemicals throughout the brain.
Narcolepsy is a disorder known to impact your neurological systems and, more specifically, affects the part of the brain responsible for being awake and responsible for sleep control. Essentially, this disorder involves uncontrollable and intermittent sleeping episodes. This leads to significant fatigue and leads the patient to fall asleep suddenly during the daytime regardless of the activity someone is participating in or the time of day.
You can find that narcolepsy can cause a person to fall asleep at inopportune times and at dangerous times. For example, you may fall asleep during a work meeting if you have narcolepsy or even fall asleep when driving your car. In addition, most narcoleptics are undiagnosed and untreated.
If certain chemicals are impacted, then REM sleep, for instance, can be harmed.
People are usually diagnosed with this disorder between 15 and 25 years of age, but it can come at other points in time. In order to determine whether you may or may not have narcolepsy, at least one of the following signs and symptoms of this disorder must be present, according to the publication Speakinghealth.
You will find that sleep paralysis is the inability to move your body or speak despite being completely conscious during sleep. These particular episodes can last anywhere from several seconds to a few minutes but seem to last for longer durations to the patient.
People with narcolepsy tend to have very visible and terrifying dreams during the night and they tend to experience hallucinations before they fall asleep or immediately upon waking. These hallucinations and dream-like states are very realistic and many narcoleptics claim they are fully aware of their five senses during these episodes. For example, they can taste a cake that isn't there, smell a flower, or hear a violin playing.
People with this particular sleep disorder tend to have focus and attention issues as well as memory problems. In addition, they've been found to be hyperactive, which means they speed up their activities instead of slowing down.
Extreme sleepiness and severe tiredness are some of the most common signs of this disorder. It may be rare, but it is possible for some narcoleptic patients to fall asleep during dinner or while eating a meal with others or even when holding a deep conversation.
When this happens, the patient will actually go into an automatic behavior mode where they continue whatever action they were doing for a few minutes, but the action is extremely subpar due to their sleepiness and fatigue. Interestingly, the patient often does not remember this taking place.
Unfortunately, this type of sleepiness and severe tiredness can bring about other major problems such as memory difficulties, focusing issues, lethargy, depression, and mental fogginess.
Narcoleptic patients also undergo something called cataplexy, which is known as muscle weakness during awake periods. This type of muscle weakness can be felt in certain areas of the body or the entire body at once. Cataplexy may cause muscle weakness in the knees or an inability to grasp due to weakness in the hands.
Entire muscle control that affects the entire body is also a possibility, which leads many patients to fall down. Additionally, cataplexy, while rare in narcoleptic patients, is triggered when strong emotions are felt such as anger, surprise, or fear.
Along with issues like hallucinations, cataplexy, and sleep paralysis, people with narcolepsy tend to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. This, unfortunately, makes their daytime fatigue even worse than usual. Scary and life-like dreams are also found in narcoleptic patients, which usually gives them a bad night of rest.
REM is the period during the night when most dreams occur. This stage can take place at any time of day in a narcoleptic patient, according to the Mayo Clinic. In fact, narcoleptics usually transition quickly to this stage when falling asleep. It usually takes them only 15 minutes to fall asleep and reach the REM stage.
Along with these symptoms and signs, narcoleptic patients often have other disorders associated with sleeping such as obstructive sleep apnea, where breathing can suddenly stop at night, insomnia, or restless legs syndrome.
If you have any of the signs or symptoms associated with narcolepsy or you suspect you have some type of sleep disorder, please speak to a medical professional as soon as possible. This will help you avoid more serious problems such as falling asleep while driving. If you have narcoleptic symptoms, speak with a doctor and it may save your life.
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