TREATMENT OF CATAPLEXY FULL

Fragmented sleep and insomnia-While individuals with narcolepsy are very sleepy during the day, they usually also experience difficulties staying asleep at night.Most often the content is primarily visual, but any of the other senses can be involved. Hallucinations-Very vivid and sometimes frightening images can accompany sleep paralysis and usually occur when people are falling asleep or waking up.

TREATMENT OF CATAPLEXY FULL

Even when severe, cataplexy and sleep paralysis do not result in permanent dysfunction-after episodes end, people rapidly recover their full capacity to move and speak. As with cataplexy, people remain fully conscious. Sleep paralysis resembles cataplexy except it occurs at the edges of sleep. Sleep paralysis-The temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up usually lasts only a few seconds or minutes and is similar to REM-induced inhibitions of voluntary muscle activity.While scary, the episodes are not dangerous as long as the individual finds a safe place in which to collapse. Episodes last a few minutes at most and resolve almost instantly on their own. The loss of muscle tone during cataplexy resembles paralysis of muscle activity that naturally occurs during REM sleep. But even during the most severe episodes, people remain fully conscious, a characteristic that distinguishes cataplexy from fainting or seizure disorders.

The most severe attacks result in a total body collapse during which individuals are unable to move, speak, or keep their eyes open. Attacks may be mild and involve only a momentary sense of minor weakness in a limited number of muscles, such as a slight drooping of the eyelids. In about 10 percent of cases of narcolepsy, cataplexy is the first symptom to appear and can be misdiagnosed as a seizure disorder. Some people may only have one or two attacks in a lifetime, while others may experience many attacks a day. The symptoms of cataplexy may appear weeks or even years after the onset of EDS. It is often triggered by sudden, strong emotions such as laughter, fear, anger, stress, or excitement.

Cataplexy-This sudden loss of muscle tone while a person is awake leads to weakness and a loss of voluntary muscle control.

In between sleep attacks, individuals have normal levels of alertness, particularly if doing activities that keep their attention. However, sleepiness in narcolepsy is more like a “sleep attack,” where an overwhelming sense of sleepiness comes on quickly. EDS is characterized by persistent sleepiness, regardless of how much sleep an individual gets at night.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)-All individuals with narcolepsy have EDS, and it is often the most obvious symptom.

Symptoms can partially improve over time, but they will never disappear completely. Narcolepsy is a lifelong problem, but it does not usually worsen as the person ages. If left undiagnosed or untreated, narcolepsy can interfere with psychological, social, and cognitive function and development and can inhibit academic, work, and social activities. This helps explain some symptoms of narcolepsy. Also, the muscle weakness or dream activity of REM sleep can occur during wakefulness or be absent during sleep. People with narcolepsy frequently enter REM sleep rapidly, within 15 minutes of falling asleep. Dreams occur during REM sleep, and the brain keeps muscles limp during this sleep stage, which prevents people from acting out their dreams. In a normal sleep cycle, a person enters rapid eye movement (REM) sleep after about 60 to 90 minutes. Other symptoms may include sudden muscle weakness while awake that makes a person go limp or unable to move (cataplexy), vivid dream-like images or hallucinations, and total paralysis just before falling asleep or just after waking up (sleep paralysis). People may unwillingly fall asleep even if they are in the middle of an activity like driving, eating, or talking. Narcolepsy can greatly affect daily activities. Many individuals with narcolepsy also experience uneven and interrupted sleep that can involve waking up frequently during the night. People with narcolepsy may feel rested after waking, but then feel very sleepy throughout much of the day. Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to control sleep-wake cycles.

Treatment of cataplexy