Not Enough Sleep Last Night; It Could be Narcolepsy!

Posted by Peter Keyzor on 5 May 2010 filed in Narcolepsy

Well, there I was having an interesting conversation with this lady over coffee, the next moment she had fallen forward on the table and I found myself talking to the top of her head! Heavens, is she dead? Have I bored her to death? Was my inane chatter that bad? Afterwards, to my relief, I found out that it was narcolepsy that caused this sudden mood of inattention from the lady, but at the time it was most disconcerting. She later told me that narcolepsy was an affliction she had been suffering from for many years and that she could fall asleep at the most inconvenient times. In fact she hasn’t seen a movie through to the end for many years!

Narcolepsy is more common than many people realise and the main symptom is sudden and excessive sleepiness during the daytime. It can happen without warning and can occur whilst watching TV, during mealtimes, attending meetings, even whilst reading a newspaper or a book. They just fall asleep without warning, often in mid sentence of a conversation, as I found out with that unintentional demonstration over coffee. It doesn’t seem to be less prevalent even after a good night’s sleep.

Someone with this problem of daytime sleepiness has it with them all through the day but it can sometimes be overcome for a while with a great deal of effort and concentration, by the person actively resisting the desire to fall asleep. However, generally that effort is too much to sustain for long and sleepiness finally overcomes them. The state of narcolepsy can last for just a few minutes or even seconds, but sometimes much longer.

In addition to giving a fright to those who are not familiar with this problem, myself over the coffee incident for instance, the sufferer from narcolepsy can often become irritated, have an impaired memory, lack concentration and motivation and in general be able to function less well. It can be a debilitating problem with, at present, no long term permanent cure, as far as one knows.

Quite vivid dreams can often be experienced by people in a narcoleptic state and these can take the form of hallucinations that can, in some instances be quite frightening. These can happen during the transition from wakefulness to sleep, and, being technical, is called hypnologic hallucinations. On the other hand, hypnopompic hallucinations occur during the transition from sleep to wakefulness. But whichever term you choose, it can, on occasions, be a most disturbing experience. It can also be a worry to some sufferers believing, often mistakenly, that this could be leading towards some form of mental illness. In such cases expert counselling might be advisable.

It would also be helpful if members of the family and friends would learn to understand the fears and frustrations of the narcoleptic. The fact that the sufferer can be irritable, unresponsive, angry, sometimes depressed and often resentful needs to be accepted, and realised that this is due to the condition itself and not what the sufferer intends. They need to be supportive and show compassion without being pitiful of the person with the condition, and endeavour to lead, and help the patient to lead, as normal a life as possible.

A rare case of narcolepsy in the animal world

It's not only us humans that can suffer with this debilitating problem, our animal friends have their troubles with narcolepsy too! Although at first sight these cases do appear to be funny you can feel the pain that they are having to endure on a day to day basis!