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| Narcolepsy:
Sleep Attacks A sleepy feeling during the day could be caused by insufficient, inadequate, or fragmented sleep, by insomnia, or by boredom, social isolation, physical confinement, or depression. But, if you continually experience excessive daily daytime sleepiness--sometimes expressed as tiredness, lack of energy, and/or irresistible sleepiness--you could be suffering from another little-known, chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy. According to the American Narcolepsy
Association, 1 out of every 100 Americans is afflicted with this disorder.
Yet, between 50 and 80 percent of them remain undiagnosed. People with
narcolepsy suffer from sleep apnea more often than the general population,
although apnea is not a core feature of the disorder. During a narcoleptic attack, the person may
find it physically impossible to stay awake and sleeps for periods ranging
from a few seconds to a half hour. An attack can occur while watching TV,
reading, or listening to a lecture. More surprising, these sudden attacks
of sleep can also strike while walking, eating, riding a bike, or carrying
on a conversation. Usually, narcolepsy starts in the early
teen years, but it can strike anyone at any age. At first, the symptoms
are rather mild. Gradually, over a period of years, they increase in
severity. Narcolepsy With Cataplexy Besides the presence of excessive
sleepiness, which usually is the first symptom noted, the person suffering
from narcolepsy may experience a sudden weakness of the muscles called
cataplexy. A cataplectic attack is usually triggered by such emotions as
laughter, anger, elation, or surprise. It may be experienced as partial
muscle weakness lasting a few seconds or as almost complete loss of muscle
control lasting for 1 to 2 minutes. During this period, the victim may be
in a state of nearly total physical collapse, unable to move or speak, but
still conscious and at least/ partially aware of activity in the immediate
environment. Sometimes, narcolepsy is misdiagnosed as
epilepsy. But while epilepsy is often accompanied by loss of bladder and
bowel control and tongue biting, narcolepsy is not. More often, the
symptoms of narcolepsy are attributed to laziness, malingering, or
psychiatric disorder. Job and home life usually suffer when narcolepsy
goes untreated. Narcolepsy, believed to be caused by a
defect in the central nervous system, has no known cure. However, after
proper diagnosis, the disorder can be effectively managed with drugs. People who have narcolepsy but don't know
it represent a serious safety hazard to themselves and others when they
drive. They may doze off while waiting for a traffic signal to change, or
they may drive to destination and be completely unable to recall how they
got there. At least one in every 500 drivers is estimated to be suffering
from narcolepsy. |