Narcolepsy

Symptoms:

• drowsiness
• difficult for a young adult to stay awake during classes or work
• a sudden, uncontrollable need to sleep during the day (hypersomnia)
  • may occur several times during a day
  • usually after eating but may occur at any time
  • each sleep episode lasts about 15 minutes

• awake and refreshed feeling after each episode
• hallucinations, visual (sight) or auditory (hearing) may precede sleep or occur during the sleep episode
• sudden loss of muscle tone (cataplexy)
  • may be associated with emotional reactions such as laughter, anger
  • may be similar in appearance to seizures

• temporary inability to use muscles (sleep paralysis)
  • usually occurs immediately upon awakening or at the onset of drowsiness

Signs and tests:

Examination and testing are used to rule out disorders that may cause similar symptoms, including sleepiness that results from seizures, sleep apnea, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, or other sleep disorders.

The diagnosis is confirmed by sleep studies (polysomnogram).

Tests to rule out other disorders may include:

• lab tests (variable, depending on the suspected cause)
• ECG, electrocardiography (heart monitor)
• monitoring of breathing
• EEG, electroencephalography (brain wave monitoring)
• recording of the amount of sleep,
• recording of observed sleep cycle including episodes of REM sleep (rapid-eye-movement, the part of the cycle where dreaming occurs)