Narcolepsy? Something else?!


Question: Narcolepsy!? Something else!?
I don't want to be "that guy"--you know, the one who goes on Wikipedia and thinks they have and are an expert on every odd disease on the planet--but I've had sleeping problems for most of my life, finally decided "hey, this isn't normal," and looked into causes Narcolepsy looks surprisingly plausible!.

I'm constantly tired (always attributed it to said sleeping problems), have hypnagogic hallucinations most nights, wake up with sleep paralysis fairly often, and sometimes can't quite work my legs right if I'm excited (say, after a roller coaster!. Or sex)!. Possibly unrelated, I remember my dreams a lot, I sometimes have trouble falling asleep at night, and I've been known to sleepwalk/talk and sometimes wake myself up flailing about in my sleep!.

I can only think of 3 times where I've all-out collapsed!. They generally started with 10 minutes of delusions/hallucinations, which is my main doubt about claiming narcolepsy!. But even if I was only out for a few mins, I dreamed!.Www@Answer-Health@Com


Answers:
1 in 2000 people has narcolepsy to some degree!. that's a lot of people, many of them undiagnosed simply because they don't exhibit every symptom of it!. by your accounts, most of your symptoms do fit the profile of narcolepsy pretty well!.

but let me correct you when you say falling asleep at inappropriate times is a fairly important symptom!. it's not!. it's the excessive daytime sleepiness that is a big symptom, but many narcoleptics do not have sleep attacks at all!. they feel dragged out all day and have a hard time concentrating because their body is using all its resources just to stay awake!. but the falling asleep when you're eating or driving or talking on the phone!? not really as common as people think!.

and for the record, cataplexies do not happen in our sleep!. they are emotion driven, we are 100% awake and we aware of everything going on around us!.!.!.we just can't move anything!. sleep paralysis is brought about for different reasons than cataplexies are!. (they correlate more with hallucinations than cataplexies!.)

there are four narcoleptics in my family, and each one of us has a different severity of it with a different mix of symptoms!. *most* narcos don't have all of the classic symptoms!. many have just one or two!. my father has never had a cataplexy in his life!. he's never fallen asleep against his will and he's only had a few hallucinations over the years!.!.!.he's in his 60s now!. i have hallucinations on a regular basis, seldom have paralysis, suffer cataplexies only when extremely angry a few times a year ( i control my emotions very well because of this), have automatic behavior every day, EDS every minute of my life and sleep attacks every other day or so!. someone else i know has cataplexies every hour and can't stay awake for more than 4 hrs any given day!. each case really is different!. so don't discount your theory because it doesn't match every symptom in the textbooks every day!. it changes as you age anyway, so how narcolepsy is today is not how it will be ten years later!. my nephew had been diagnosed with adhd/add most of his life, but has recently been diagnosed with narcolepsy instead!. his reasons for needing meds have changed, but the treatment plan has not changed!. (this is a common misdiagnosis for narcos!.!.!.but given that both disorders affect the exact same part of the brain with entirely opposite affects and causes, it is generally doubted that someone could actually have both disorders!.)

most doctors prescribe something like concerta to begin with, so your being on that would just continue if it seems to be helping!. (nothing helps everything 100% of the time!.) beyond that, practicing good sleep hygiene is the other thing generally advised!.!.!.get plenty of sleep each night, sleep a regular schedule no matter if it's a work/school day or not, don't exercise right before bed, etc!.!.!.mostly common sense things people should be doing anyway!.

on a side note, we narcoleptics often have very vivid dreams that we remember more often than not!. and many of us also suffer from periodic insomnia!. the two problems are not exclusive of each other, and trouble falling asleep or staying asleep will happen from time to time to us too!.

only way to really tell for sure is to get bloodwork done (there may be a "marker" on your DNA that flags on the right tests being done) and a sleep study (with a multiple sleep latency test)!. only then can you rule out or diagnose this disorder!.Www@Answer-Health@Com

My answer is not from wikipedia!. it's from my medical books!. Your right about Narcolepsy!. It is sudden attacks of sleep, It can cause sleep paralysis as well as hallucinations, visual or auditory at the onset of sleep!. Memory loss and poor muscle tone occurs during waking hours!. called, cataplexy, or while the person is asleep!. Some doctors will prescribe a stimulant or amphetamine to help you stay awake!. Whether or not they are still using these types of treatments, I'm not sure!. The flip side of this is fibromyalgia!. You can have a lot of the same symptoms with this, by falling asleep while eating for example, Severe fatigue and of course poor muscle tone!. Has this been tested for or ruled out!?
EDIT" Sleepy!. if you read my answer correctly, you would have seen that I said Cataplexy happens during waking hours OR while asleep!. This is from my medical book!. The rest of my answers are for the questionair!. I have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia as well as my sister, we both share the same experiences with sleeping!. I have sleep paralysis, I sometimes fall asleep while eating!. etc!. I don't have narcolepsy, You need to see a Rhumatologist to have the proper blood work done to be sure if you have fibromyalgia!. I can be very painful at times and display many of the symptoms you are experiencing, I wish you well!.Www@Answer-Health@Com





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