What Are the Five Signs of Narcolepsy?

Do you doze off while talking to your close friend?  Do you asleep while talking on the phone in the daytime? If yes, then seriously you need help. It may be sign of narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is serious sleep disorder which exists worldwide. This can be dealt with lot of care and support from your loved ones. You just need to indentify the signs of the Narcolepsy.  These signs of narcolepsy can be identified easily. In the clinical terms the doctors suggest to indentify these signs, they are called CHESS. Here C is for cataplexy, H defines hallucination, E is for excessive daytime sleepiness, S is for sleep paralysis and another S comes for sleep disruption. Not all narcolepsy sufferers show all these symptoms. Sometimes, people show only a couple of symptoms especially excessive daytime sleepiness. 

Here let us discuss the first symptom of the narcolepsy. Cataplexy, this is said to be the loss of muscle tone; it is associated with the disrupted speech tone for few minutes. Sometimes it is associated with positive emotions like laughter and excitement however it can be negative emotion also like anxiety, surprise, fear and anger.  It is suggested that 65 to 70% of people get this kind of symptoms while other miss it out. This is specific symptom associated with the narcolepsy type 1.

The other symptom is hallucination. It is common symptoms related to sleep disorder. Generally poor quality of sleep in night disrupts the brain activity and because of this the brain of the person acts weird sometime resulting in hallucination. The in hallucination dreamlike experience occur which can be frightening in some cases. Nightmares can occur while going to sleep or while waking up. This depends on the personal daily routine and brain activity. Counselling can be done to improve one’s response to nightmares and post nightmare situation.

Now we will discuss the most common symptom of narcolepsy that is excessive daytime sleepiness. Most of the people complaining about narcolepsy feel that excessive daytime sleepiness   prevalent symptom of this sleep disorder. This needs to be addressed urgently as it hurts the day to day activity of the suffering person. Daytime sleepiness occurs in episodes in some people however in others it can be like a long unending period. These issues can be taken care by just taking adequate sleep in the daytime. However, it is not possible for working people. They can take wakefulness enhancers after consulting with their doctor.

Sleep paralysis is another underlying symptom of narcolepsy. This symptom is said to affecting people with more serious condition of narcolepsy. However this symptom occurs in few people, at around25 to 50% people. Sleep paralysis can be for a short while but can be frightening. In this symptom the person is unable to move for few minutes or seconds. In some people this condition persists and worsens with permanent disability. Some people experiencing sleep paralysis say that they are aware of the condition and are able to recall the experience. Experts suggest that this condition occur when the person is in the REM sleep. Sleep experts suggest that IN REM sleep the dream activity occurs. People with narcolepsy instantly get in to the REM sleep pattern and sleep paralysis can occur.

Sleep disruption is another condition wherein the person is wake up frequently. Poor quality sleep is the most common cause of narcolepsy. Sleep wake instability is one of the common symptoms of narcolepsy. This leads to intermittent sleep which ultimately leads to daytime sleep bouts. The best news is these sleep pangs can be controlled with the help of medicines prescribed by your doctor.