Everybody has those nights where sleep, is either not reached, or it is reached with difficulty. While this is a common occurrence globally, constant sleep deprivation can be a serious thing, if treatment is not reached, it can lead to many health issues. One of the most diagnosed and known sleep condition is narcolepsy, a neurological sleep disorder.
What Is Narcolepsy?
In short, Narcolepsy is the brain’s inability to regulate a healthy and constant sleep cycle. The word comes from French origins, it originated from the French doctor named Jean Baptiste, whom combined two Greek words, one for numbness, one for seizure. Typically, people diagnosed with narcolepsy have disturbed night cycle slumbers, and irregular daytime sleep schedules, making the disorder a very frustrating endeavor.
Unique from other neurological disorders, narcolepsy isn’t caused by mental illnesses or psychological problems, but more caused by mutations that affects the brains regular sleep process. Although commonly called “insomnia”, the two disorders are different in both characteristics and symptoms. Generally, symptoms of Narcolepsy are usually commonly experienced; however some stand out as having Narcolepsy. The most common symptom found with narcolepsy, is Cataplexy. Cataplexy episodes can be likened to muscle relaxers, as muscle function is eliminated, along with complete collapsing of the body.
The trigger for this lies in sudden emotional episodes, and the person remains conscious for the whole thing. This only lasts up to a couple minutes, so the episode is without danger. Another similar symptom is sleep paralysis, where the body is in a paralyzed state; again this is frightening, but not dangerous as its runtime is small. Night time hallucinogens, might be the most frightening symptom, as it deals with seeing objects that are not there in reality. These occur as someone is falling asleep, or dozing off, but are not completely unconscious. These occur in both auditory and visual forms.
Automatic behavior is another symptom, its likeness to “sleepwalking” as regular activities are performed while somebody is asleep, only to find once woken up they have no recollection of the events. Typically, one or two of these symptoms are experienced by narcoleptics, however 20-25% of those diagnosed experience all four.
Hereditary Factors
Although Narcolepsy is a lifelong problem, medicine and technology has combated the symptoms to make it easier to live with. Although a main cause in narcolepsy formation has yet to be reached, it seems several inherent factors may cause the disorder to arise. The disorder has not been narrowed down exclusively to it being hereditary, however it was found if a child has a parent who is diagnosed with it, they have a 1 in 20 chance to get the disorder.
