Narcolepsy – Just Funny Or A Serious And Life-threatening Sleeping Disorder?
Many of us will be familiar at least with the concept of narcolepsy as it has frequently been used for comical effect in films and stories. The common image is that of an individual in the middle of a conversation who suddenly drops to the ground and goes from a state of total alertness to complete sleep. The individual concerned then awakens not realizing that he has been asleep and carries on talking.
Not surprisingly, narcolepsy is not normally as it is portrayed in the movies. Although in a few very rare instances of this sleep disorder individuals do suddenly fall asleep without any warning, most sufferers have problems with overwhelming tiredness throughout the day and sometimes have to give in to the need for a nap.
Just like other sleep disorders there are different degrees of narcolepsy. For example, some people may merely have a problem with getting excessively sleepy during the day while other people might suffer from a wide variety of issues that all point to narcolepsy.
One example is sleeping while you are engaged in conversation or working and not even appearing to be asleep to others around you. Although people might think that your mind is merely wandering or you might begin to think that you are suffering from memory problems because you do not seem able to remember things people have told you, the simple fact is that you are actually sleeping during these interactions. You just do not appear to be asleep because your eyes remain open and those around you cannot tell that you are asleep.
Other characteristics of some rarer types of narcolepsy include hallucinations and paralysis. Experiencing hallucinations on waking might be a sign of narcolepsy but it is certainly not an absolute indicator although individuals with severe narcolepsy could well find themselves experiencing scary and dramatic hallucinations as a result of their fairly rare sleep disorder. Sleep paralysis is in fact a relatively common thing and our bodies are essentially ‘paralyzed’ during sleep so that we do not act out our dreams. But for a person suffering from narcolepsy the paralysis extends beyond the normal sleep paralysis and a narcoleptic individual might be totally paralyzed on waking yet be aware of the situation and understandably very scared.
Of course there is medication that is designed to assist people with narcolepsy and medication can usually be quite effective in assisting people to keep awake during daylight hours and then to enjoy a full night’s sleep.
Some individuals find a problem with narcolepsy medication because the stimulant effect which is designed to keep them awake during the day also makes them feel jittery or nervous. In the real world is a trade-off for a few narcoleptics who must either continue to have erratic and insufficient sleep or solve their sleeping problems and put up with the side-effects of the medication.
However, some narcoleptics have no choice because the urge to sleep during the day is so great that they wind up falling asleep while driving a car or at other dangerous times. In these rare instances medication is quite literally a life-saver.
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