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What is Narcolepsy?

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Narcolepsy is a complex, often misunderstood sleep disorder where people experience sudden, strong bouts of sleepiness during the daytime. These people struggle with lack of energy throughout the day and become intensely tired at unpredictable moments. They fall asleep for a few seconds to a few minutes at a time in any situation, be it sitting in class, cooking a meal, or taking a shower. Imagine staying up for two or three days without sleep. That’s the kind of exhaustion that people with Narcolepsy feel on a daily basis.

Most people with Narcolepsy also experience cataplexy.  These are surprising episodes of full-body weakness brought on by strong emotions like fear or laughter. Normally during REM sleep, people’s bodies are temporarily paralyzed by the brain, but in cataplexy, this muscle weakness escapes the bounds of sleep and strikes in the middle of the day. People remain conscious while their limbs rapidly feel heavy and their knees buckle under them.

Narcolepsy usually begins in late adolescence, and excessive sleepiness is almost always the first major symptom. Because teenagers in general tend to need a lot of sleep, Narcolepsy can be easy to miss early on. Dozing off in class and napping a lot are usually viewed as typical in teenagers. However, as symptoms progress, they interfere with school, work, and social functioning, and the disorder goes far beyond the bounds of average adolescent behavior. Mood and behavior issues often appear from lack of good quality sleep in these adolescents as well. Cataplexy comes about a year or so after the initial sleepiness symptoms. These people also deal with many other sleep-related issues, including extremely vivid, stressful dreams, disruptive body movements during REM sleep, and generally poor quality sleep at night.

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