Rebecca Smith
How To Know If You Have Narcolepsy – Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder caused by an inability to regulate the sleep cycle. It is a rare disease that occurs in about 1 in 2,000 people. (x) Narcolepsy seriously interferes with a person’s daily activities. In this condition, most people sleep at night and sleep during the day. Many people experience irregular, disorganized, uncontrollable and intermittent sleep throughout the day. (x)
This type can include excessive daytime sleepiness, low levels of hypocreatine (which helps regulate sleep patterns), cataplexy, or both. Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone when you wake up, including slurred speech and even paralysis.
How To Know If You Have Narcolepsy
This type does not include cataplexy. During the day, patients are very tired, but without muscle weakness or paralysis. Symptoms are milder and hypocretin levels are less persistent.
Narcolepsy Overview: Causes, Signs And Treatment
In your teens or early twenties, you start to notice the symptoms. (x) However, many people may experience symptoms for years before being properly diagnosed. In most cases, the disease is not diagnosed, because patients do not receive adequate treatment.
Some people believe that narcolepsy is a lifelong problem that affects everyone differently. The most common symbols are: (x)
EDS is often an early symptom of narcolepsy. People with narcolepsy often fall asleep without warning during daily activities, regardless of how much sleep they got the night before. This condition also causes lack of energy, lack of concentration, mental cloudiness, extreme fatigue and depression.
Cataplexy causes muscle weakness and loss of muscle control, often due to emotions. Some people have one or two attacks in their life, while others have several attacks a day. About 60 percent of narcoleptics have cataplexy, but in about 10 percent, it is the first symptom of narcolepsy that precedes EDS in the patient. (x) In a severe attack, the person is completely paralyzed, but still healthy, leading to misdiagnosis.
Narcolepsy: Causes, Symptoms, And Treatments
People with narcolepsy often experience sleep paralysis, a temporary inability to speak or move while asleep or awake. Sometimes the patient has difficulty breathing. It usually lasts a few seconds to a few minutes. These events will scare you, especially children and teenagers. Even if the person is out of control, they are still conscious and can remember the hit. However, not everyone with sleep paralysis develops narcolepsy. (x)
About 60% of patients with narcolepsy may experience frightening and vivid hallucinations while sleeping or waking up. Hallucinations are often visual, but can involve other senses as well.
People with narcolepsy often sleep through the night, which can make EDS worse. Their sleep experience may be characterized by vivid dreams, insomnia, sleep apnea, or limb movement disorder (PLMD). (x) (x) (x)
The division of the sleep cycle begins with rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep. People with narcolepsy enter REM sleep within 60 to 90 minutes, while people with narcolepsy enter REM sleep within 15 minutes. (x) (x)
Classification Of Hypersomnias
If you have narcolepsy, you may experience short periods of sleep during daily activities, such as eating or driving, and continue to do so without realizing it. (x)
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a condition similar to narcolepsy. Excessive daytime sleepiness is an important symptom of both. However, patients with IH sleep excessively at night and have difficulty waking up, while patients with narcolepsy do not. Another important difference is cataplexy, which is not a characteristic of IH and rarely occurs outside of narcolepsy. (x)
Researchers do not know the exact cause of narcolepsy. They theorize that hypocretin deficiency may be the cause, and some believe it is linked to specific genes that control the nerve signals that activate sleep and wakefulness. The consensus is that genetics, along with environmental factors, can affect your body and cause hypothyroidism. Researchers identified the following risk factors: (x)
Although rare, narcolepsy can develop after brain damage, tumors, or other diseases that target the areas that control sleep. (x)
Narcolepsy Causes & Symptoms + Natural Ways To Manage It
If a patient has cataplexy, they lose some of the neurons that make hypocretin, which research shows is sometimes associated with autoimmune diseases. For example, in narcolepsy, the immune system can mistakenly target cells that produce hypocretin. (x)
Although narcolepsy is often sporadic, meaning it rarely runs in families, research has shown that it can be hereditary. People who have a family member with narcolepsy have a 40 percent chance of developing the disease. (x)
Researchers have made a link between narcolepsy and the swine flu virus (H1N1 FLU). Some vaccines block the hypocretin receptor in people with a certain genetic makeup, and H1N1 infection can cause symptoms similar to narcolepsy. (x) (x)
The symptoms of narcolepsy are not unique to this disorder, because they can be confused with other sleep disorders. Cataplexy is the most specific symptom used by doctors for diagnosis because it is rarely present in other disorders. Doctors use the following tests to review a physical exam or the patient’s complete medical history and sleep history: (x)
Narcolepsy Infographic: What Is Narcolepsy?
PSG records the brain, muscle activity, eye movements and breathing during the night to determine if the patient is in REM sleep due to narcolepsy or another condition.
The MSLT measures how long it takes the patient to fall asleep and whether they are in REM sleep.
There is currently no cure for narcolepsy, but behavioral therapy and medications aim to improve symptoms so patients can improve day-to-day functioning and lead more productive lives. (x)
Changing your lifestyle and health habits can help reduce the severity of narcolepsy and help manage it. Some lifestyle treatments include:
Narcolepsy: Symptoms, Traits, Causes, Treatment
There aren’t many recommended supplements for narcolepsy, but you may want to consider vitamins, herbs, protein, and other supplements that help strengthen your nervous system and immune system.
It is also recommended to eat a balanced diet with plenty of fresh and clean water. Discuss this with your primary care physician. Precautions while taking supplements:
Eating foods rich in vitamin B12 helps improve energy, mood and memory. According to the National Institutes of Health, the recommended dose for vitamin B12 powder is between 0.4 micrograms and 2.8 micrograms. (x)
Studies have shown that people with narcolepsy are more deficient in vitamin D, which can cause pain and fatigue. (x) Vitamin supplements are the best source of nutrition.
Narcolepsy: Symptoms, Treatment, And More
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Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder with no known cure or cause. It usually occurs in childhood or adolescence, but it can strike at any time. This can cause your body to fail to regulate your sleep cycle and cause excessive daytime sleepiness.
Narcolepsy Across The Lifespan
The main symptom of narcolepsy is the inability to wake up during everyday tasks such as cooking or driving. Other symptoms include cataplexy, sleep paralysis and vivid and frightening hallucinations. Although there is no cure, patients can control their symptoms and increase productivity with medication and lifestyle changes.
Adding supplements to your diet as a way to manage the condition is not a bad idea. It can work. Before taking anything for your health, talk to your doctor about vitamins and other supplements.
These statements have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Narcolepsy is a condition in which your brain cannot control your ability to sleep or stay awake. People with this condition often have daytime sleepiness with other symptoms. Although this condition is serious and difficult, it usually responds well to treatment. With care and caution, this situation can be managed and you can adapt to its consequences.
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes a sudden urge to sleep during the day and is almost impossible to resist. Although this condition is not common, it is common for its symptoms and how it develops. Narcolepsy is usually treatable, but the condition can seriously interfere with your ability to live, work and socialize.
Common Myths About Narcolepsy
There are four main symptoms of narcolepsy, but most people with the condition do not have these four symptoms. The four symbols are:
There are two main types of narcolepsy, and whether you have cataplexy or not is the difference between the two. There are two types:
Under normal circumstances, your brain stops controlling most of the muscles in your body, preventing you from realizing your dreams. People with cataplexy experience sudden muscle weakness, as your body stops during REM sleep.
Mild cataplexy may occur