Could you imagine standing around talking to your friends and just dropping to the floor and falling asleep? After seeing the movieDeuce Bigalow? narcolepsy may seem like just a joke but it's not a joke, it's a really serious condition. Just imagine falling asleep without knowing when and where it's going to happen. This is what a person with narcolepsy has to go through everyday of their life. They just pass out at any given time without even knowing it's about to happen to them.
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder with no known cause. The main trait of narcolepsy is excessive and overwhelming daytime sleepiness. The sleep attacks can last anywhere from 30 seconds to more than 30 minutes regardless of how much sleep you had the night before. A person with narcolepsy is likely to become drowsy or to just fall asleep, usually at the wrong place at the wrong time. The person may not even have a warning that this attack is about to happen. This may also occur more than once a day. .
Some more characteristics of narcolepsy, which may not occur to every patient, include: loss of muscle function, weakness, inability to speak clearly, temporary inability to talk or move when falling asleep or waking up, and very vivid dream-like experiences which occur while falling asleep.
If you fall asleep when you don't intend to, such as while having dinner, talking, driving, or working or if you find yourself briefly unable to talk or move while falling asleep or waking up, I suggest you get checked for narcolepsy. .
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This disorder affects about 300,000 Americans (American Narcolepsy Association, n.d.). Fewer than 50,000 of these 300,000 are actually diagnosed with it. Ten to Fifteen years may pass by before a correct diagnoses of narcolepsy is made. Narcolepsy is often mistaken for other disorders such as epilepsy or depression. .
A diagnosis is pretty easy when all the symptoms of narcolepsy are present.