Narcolepsy (written by a highschool student)
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
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 during this stage eyes move slowly from side to side and breathing, heart, and metabolism rates slow down. 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. · The average sleep onset is less than five minutes. aralysis. When a narcoleptic goes to sleep, during their first stage* (explained later in this paper) they might experience a frightening paralysis. This means that patient won't e able to move for a while. This paralysis, though frightening, is only temporary and usually occurs during the first stage of the sleep patterns or when the patient has just woken up. This happens because unlike normal sleepers a narcoleptics first sleeping stage in REM* sleep. And since the narcoleptic's brain is still awake the are conscious to the automatic paralysis of the body. A similar symptom is called cataplexy. Cataplexy is the loss or paralysis of voluntary muscles. Cataplexy occurs when the narcoleptic is awake and is experiencing a strong emotion, such as joy or fear. The last of the most common symptoms are hypnagogic hallucinations. As I stated earlier a narcoleptics first sleeping stage is REM sleep, because this stage is the deep dream stage, the narcoleptic might think these dreams ! 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
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NARCOLEPTIC SYMPTOMS, SLEEP PATTERNS, MD PhD, SYMPTOMS PSYCHOLOGICAL, NARCOLEPSY Contrary, DIAGNOSING NARCOLEPSY, MSLT Results, CURRENT RESEARCH, Stanford University, rem sleep, Twining Period, excessive sleepiness, heart breathing, narcoleptic patient, stage stage, sleep disorder, experience symptoms, breathing rates, narcoleptic experiences, heart breathing rates, breathing heart metabolism, sleeping stage, heart metabolism rates, stage rem sleep, rem sleep begins,
Approximate Word count = 1284
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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