Narcolepsy

Nar­colep­sy is a chron­ic sleep dis­or­der that affects the brain’s abil­i­ty to con­trol sleep-wake cycles. This is char­ac­ter­ized by over­whelm­ing day­time drowsi­ness and sud­den attacks of sleep. If you are diag­nosed with nar­colep­sy, you may find it dif­fi­cult to stay awake for long peri­ods of time and unwill­ing­ly fall asleep dur­ing any type of activ­i­ty through­out the day. The cause of nar­colep­sy is not com­plete­ly under­stood, but it may be linked to autoim­mune dis­or­ders, fam­i­ly his­to­ry or brain injuries. 

Addi­tion­al symp­toms of nar­colep­sy include cat­a­plexy (sud­den loss of mus­cle tone), sleep paral­y­sis, hal­lu­ci­na­tions, and auto­mat­ic behav­iors. If diag­nosed by your health­care provider, treat­ments can include med­ica­tions and lifestyle changes that may help you man­age the symptoms.