What are the Symptoms of Narcolepsy?
So your falling a sleep all the time! You may wonder, Am I sleep deprived or do I have narcolepsy? Here are the symptoms of narcolepsy.
The most common major symptom of narcolepsy, other than excessive daytime sleepiness, is cataplexy, which occurs in about 70 percent of all patients. Sleep paralysis and hallucinations are somewhat less common. Only 10 to 25 percent of patients display all four of these major symptoms.
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Excessive daytime sleepiness is the first symptom by almost all patients. Generally, excessive daytime sleepiness interferes with normal activities on a daily basis. People will describe it as a persistent sense of mental cloudiness, a lack of energy, a depressed mood, or extreme exhaustion, great difficulty maintaining their concentration, and memory lapses. Staying alert in passive situations, like listening to lectures or watching television is impossible. People awaken feeling refreshed and their feelings of drowsiness and fatigue are gone for an hour or two.
Involuntary sleep episodes are sometimes very brief, lasting no more than seconds. As many as 40 percent of all people with narcolepsy fall asleep for a few seconds while performing a task but continue carrying it through to completion without any apparent interruption. During these episodes, people are usually engaged in second nature activities like driving.When they awaken, they cannot recall their actions, and their performance is almost always impaired during this microsleep, such as illegible handwriting,forget where they placed something or may get lost or have an accident if driving.
Cataplexy
Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone that leads to feelings of weakness and a loss of voluntary muscle control. In about 10 percent of all cases, cataplexy is the first symptom to appear and can be misdiagnosed as a seizure disorder. Cataplectic attacks vary in duration and severity. The loss of muscle tone can be minimal, involving no more than a momentary sense of slight weakness in a limited number of muscles, such as mild drooping of the eyelids. The most severe attacks result in a complete loss of tone in all voluntary muscles, leading to total physical collapse in which patients are unable to move, speak, or keep their eyes open. But even during the most severe episodes, people remain fully conscious, which distinguishes cataplexy from seizure disorders. Although cataplexy can occur spontaneously, it is more often triggered by sudden, strong emotions such as fear, anger, stress, excitement, or humor. Laughter is reportedly the most frequent trigger.
The loss of muscle tone during a cataplectic episode resembles the interruption of muscle activity that naturally occurs during REM sleep. A group of neurons in the brainstem ceases activity during REM sleep, stopping muscle movement. Using an animal study, scientists have learned that the same group of neurons becomes inactive during cataplectic attacks, a discovery of at least one of the neurological abnormalities contributing to human narcoleptic symptoms.
Sleep paralysis
The temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up also resembles REM-induced stopping of voluntary muscle activity. This natural stopping usually is unnoticed by people who experience normal sleep because it occurs only when they are fully asleep and entering the REM stage at the appropriate time in the sleep cycle. Experiencing sleep paralysis resembles undergoing a cataplectic attack affecting the entire body. As with cataplexy, people remain fully conscious. Cataplexy and sleep paralysis are frightening events. Suddenly being unable to move, many patients fear that they may be permanently paralyzed. However, cataplexy and sleep paralysis do not result in permanent dysfunction. After the episode ends, people rapidly recover their full capacity to move and speak.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations can accompany sleep paralysis or can occur when people are falling asleep or waking up. Referred to as hypnagogic hallucinations when accompanying sleep onset and as hypnopompic hallucinations when occurring during awakening, these delusional experiences are unusually vivid and frightening. The content is primarily visual, but any of the other senses can be involved. These hallucinations represent another intrusion of an element of REM sleep-dreaming-into the wakeful state.
This was some heavy information, Hope it was helpful.
Good Night to All,
Cheryl
Tags: excessive daytime sleepiness, narcolepsy, sleep disorder, symptoms of narcolepsy, too much sleep