The sleep paralysis and cataplexy of narcoleptics along with the hallucinations, closely resemble the normal events of REM sleep. Dreams are more likely to occur during REM compared with non-REM sleep. REM sleep is characterized by paralysis of voluntary muscles except for the small muscles that move the hands, toes, and eyes. Unlike non-narcoleptics who typically develop dreaming or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep an hour or more after they fall asleep, narcoleptics tend to enter REM sleep within minutes of sleep onset.
However, the most common age of onset is the teens or twenties. Narcolepsy occurs in a roughly equal number of males and females and may begin at any age. During this time, incorrect diagnoses are often made and inappropriate treatments initiated. Often there is an interval of many years between the onset of symptoms and the establishment of the correct diagnosis. Most often excessive sleepiness begins months or years before the onset of cataplexy.Ģ00,000 Americans have narcolepsy, however, only a quarter are diagnosed. They tend to persist throughout life from the time of onset. The symptoms of narcolepsy, except for cataplexy, which occurs only very rarely in non-narcoleptics, also occur in people who do not have narcolepsy. These are called hypnogogic when they occur as one is going to sleep or hynopompic when awakening. It is commonly accompanied by dream-like images or, less frequently, accompanied by hallucinations of touch, voices, or the sense that there is an intruder in the sleep environment. Sleep paralysis is the temporary inability to talk or move while falling asleep or awakening. The narcoleptic is likely to fall asleep if this weakness persists for more than two minutes. Muscle weakness typically occurs for seconds or minutes. Laughter, surprise, and anger are common precipitants. In cataplexy emotional excitement triggers the abrupt onset of twitching of small face muscles, inarticulate speech, drooping of upper eyelids, limpness of the neck, sagging in a chair or sinking to the floor with preserved consciousness. Their nighttime sleep is fragmented by repeated awakenings. Narcoleptics are very sleepy except during the minutes after they awaken from sleep.
0 kommentar(er)
