Narcolepsy

A detailed Summary of Narcolepsy

Contrary to popular belief narcolepsy is not a psychological disorder. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that causes sleep problems. Narcolepsy is a very serious sleep disorder ; even though narcolepsy itself isn't fatal, it can cause excessive sleepiness during the day, which in turn can cause the narcoleptic person to fall asleep while driving their car ; this is when the disorder is fatal.

A narcoleptic patient experiences many different symptoms. No narcoleptic experiences the disorder in the same way, not all narcoleptics experience all the symptoms. Also the degree at which a narcoleptic might experience these symptoms can vary greatly from minimum ( less than once a week) to a maximum (daily). Some of the common symptoms include paralysis either when waking or when falling asleep, excessive sleepiness throughout the day, hynagogic hallucinations, and cataplexy. Probably the most common symptom of this sleeping disorder, is the excessive sleepiness. Even after a good nights rest a narcoleptic may feel as if he hasn't slept at all. This is probably because narcolepsy cause the

Narcoleptic sleep is different because REM sleep is immediately begun (sometimes right when the head touches their pillow). This causes the light and unrestful sleep that are related to all of Narcolepsy's symptoms.

patient to have frequent awakenings. Since they have a much lighter sleeping pattern, compared to our deep and restful nights, they may have mini-arousal's that makes them feel as if they have been awake all night. Another symptom that is commonly reported by narcoleptics is the sleep p!

Some narcoleptics experience other symptoms. One of these symptoms is automatic behavior. Automatic behavior is when a patient does a usual task (even a complicated one) and has no memory of doing the task. This can possibly be due to the extreme sleepiness and fatigue a narcoleptic experiences. Another less specific is the disrupted nocturnal sleep that the affected patient experiences. This is the mini-arousals that a narcoleptic experiences, which can be linked to the other more serious symptoms.

· The average sleep onset is less than five minutes.

Since there is no cure for narcolepsy doctors usually treated the symptoms. For example they would prescribe amphetamines to keep the patient awake. Also anti-depressents were prescribed. A new drug just approved by the FDA , called provigil, will take place of these. Since amphetamines are highley addictive doctors were uncomfortable prescribing them. Provigil is not an amphetamins which is an up to the other treatments. Also the new drug does not stimulate the heart and the gastrointestinal systems, nor does it cause irritability and anxiety like many other drugs.

A normal sleep pattern begins in stage one. Stage one usually doesn't last longer than five minutes. During stage one Theta waves are mostly predominant. Theta brain waves are much slower than the alpha and beta waves that our brains emit when we are alert and active. Also

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Category: Science