Narcolepsy

A great amount of people experience sleeping disorders in their life which affect the way they conduct. There are many disorders that people suffer from, like insomnia and sleep apnea, but the one disorder that surprises me the most is narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness. This is when people get uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during day time; sudden sleep attacks. Scientists do not know what causes this disorder but think that it is biologically or genetically gained. Something is definitely not right in the person’s brain. Some symptoms people experience are: excessive daytime sleepiness, hallucinations, cataplexy (loss of muscle tone), and sleep paralysis (temporal inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up). During class we saw a video in which we could see a man with narcolepsy and how this affected his everyday life. It was very interesting how this man would fall asleep in any place at any time. He does not have a normal life because he is constantly falling asleep and cannot control it. These attacks only last for a few seconds and a woman had to be with him at all times to help him up. One precaution measure he took was putting a helmet to protect his head whenever he fell down. This disorder prevented him from doing lots of activities and definitely has an impact on his life. I think this disorder is very difficult to live with. It prevents you from doing some activities you once liked and someone will always have to be with you to help you out and be sure you are alright. I think it is very dangerous because sleep can hit you at any time and people that have this disorder will have to abstain from doing certain things. This disorder definitely has an impact on the person's life and it is very hard to carry out a normal life once you have this disorder. Sadly, this disorder cannot be cured. They have to deal with it for the rest of their lives.

picture: http://catherine333.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kitten20with20narcolepsy.jpg