What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness. Narcolepsy afflicts 1 in 2,000 Americans and is triggered by a physical problem or a fault in the part of the brain that controls sleep and wakefulness.

Symptoms of Narcolepsy include:

• Excessive daytime sleepiness often resulting in an irresistible urge to fall asleep at inappropriate times.
• Brief and unexpected loss of muscle strength (also known as cataplexy). This is often brought on by a change in emotion such as a joy or anger.
• Sleep paralysis, which is the inability to move your body at all while falling asleep or awakening.
• Vivid dream like visions (hallucination) that occur while you are falling asleep or awakening.

How is Narcolepsy diagnosed?
A diagnosies of narcolepsy is reached after an evaluation of your medical history and a thorough sleep evaluation. The sleep evaluation is made up of two tests in a sleep center. The first is an overnight sleep study, which is then followed by a daytime study starting the next morning known as a Multiple Sleep Latency Test or MSLT.

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