Tuesday, November 10, 2009

WHAT IF I HAVE NARCOLEPSY?
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3 comments:

Colin Welch said...

From Wikipedia:

Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia. The condition is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in which a person experiences extreme fatigue and possibly falls asleep at inappropriate times, such as while at work or at school. A narcoleptic will most probably experience disturbed nocturnal sleep and also abnormal daytime sleep pattern, which is often confused with insomnia. When a person with narcolepsy falls asleep or goes to bed they will generally experience the REM stage of sleep (rapid eye movement/dreaming state), within 10 minutes; whereas for most people, this shouldn't occur until generally 30 minutes of slumber.

Cataplexy, a sudden muscular weakness brought on by strong emotions (though many people experience cataplexy without having a emotional trigger[citation needed]), is known to be one of the other problems that some narcoleptics will experience. Often manifesting as muscular weaknesses ranging from a barely perceptible slackening of the facial muscles to the dropping of the jaw or head, weakness at the knees, or a total collapse. Usually only speech is slurred, vision is impaired (double vision, inability to focus), but hearing and awareness remain normal. In some rare cases, an individual's body becomes paralyzed and muscles will become stiff.

The term narcolepsy derives from the French word narcolepsie created by the French physician Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau by combining the Greek narke numbness, stupor and lepsis attack, seizure. [1]

You don't sound narcoleptic.

November 11, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Tasha said...

Yeah, definitely read that yesterday.

My mom has narcolepsy. My great grandfather had narcolepsy. They think there might be a genetic link.

My mother does not have cataplexy.

I have really vivid dreams immediately. I have daytime drowsiness. See why I'm scared?

November 11, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Tasha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
November 11, 2009 at 1:17 PM

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