A bit off topic, but the characterization of narcolepsy in the article is a bit off (my ex had narcolepsy):
"Narcolepsy is characterized by sudden bouts of sleep, and caused by a lack of a brain hormone called hypocretin. Lloyd longed for this kind of clear explanation for his combination of ambiguous symptoms. But he knew he didn’t have narcolepsy. Sleep didn’t hit his brain like a bolt of lightning; it was more like a slow, thick fog."
That's really only describing cataplexy, which is one symptom of narcolepsy, and one that not even everyone with narcolepsy experiences (only about 70%). That's the flashy one that people associate with narcolepsy where the person appears to just fall asleep out of nowhere, often as a reaction to emotional excitement (fright, happiness, etc. Every once in a while I'd make my ex laugh so hard that she'd have a cataplectic attack). Even cataplexy really isn't "falling asleep". It's more of a sudden muscle paralysis. They remain fully conscious, but collapse and can't physically function for a while.
The main symptom of narcolepsy that takes its toll on day to day life is "excessive daytime sleepiness" (that's the technical term), which is basically just feeling tired and sluggish pretty much all the time, sleeping a lot but never feeling rested. Pretty much the same symptom that IH and sleep apnea patients have.
The difference is that with narcolepsy, the immediate cause of those symptoms appears to be poor sleep (which in turn is caused by something deeper and less well understood). Narcoleptics basically don't get deep sleep cycles like the rest of us; they go straight to REM and miss out on slow wave sleep. If you fix that, the symptoms go away. One of current drugs for narcolepsy is sodium oxybate (tradename Xyrem), which is basically GHB, a heavy sedative. That sounds pretty counter intuitive based on the symptoms (give sedatives to someone who's too tired all the time?), but makes sense when you think about it letting them get proper deep sleep.
Anyway, I'm not questioning the diagnosis in the article (I'm sure the doctors did the usual sleep latency tests and ruled out narcolepsy), but I just wanted to clear up a bit. If anyone's reading the article and has similar symptoms, go talk to a sleep doctor.
"Narcolepsy is characterized by sudden bouts of sleep, and caused by a lack of a brain hormone called hypocretin. Lloyd longed for this kind of clear explanation for his combination of ambiguous symptoms. But he knew he didn’t have narcolepsy. Sleep didn’t hit his brain like a bolt of lightning; it was more like a slow, thick fog."
That's really only describing cataplexy, which is one symptom of narcolepsy, and one that not even everyone with narcolepsy experiences (only about 70%). That's the flashy one that people associate with narcolepsy where the person appears to just fall asleep out of nowhere, often as a reaction to emotional excitement (fright, happiness, etc. Every once in a while I'd make my ex laugh so hard that she'd have a cataplectic attack). Even cataplexy really isn't "falling asleep". It's more of a sudden muscle paralysis. They remain fully conscious, but collapse and can't physically function for a while.
The main symptom of narcolepsy that takes its toll on day to day life is "excessive daytime sleepiness" (that's the technical term), which is basically just feeling tired and sluggish pretty much all the time, sleeping a lot but never feeling rested. Pretty much the same symptom that IH and sleep apnea patients have.
The difference is that with narcolepsy, the immediate cause of those symptoms appears to be poor sleep (which in turn is caused by something deeper and less well understood). Narcoleptics basically don't get deep sleep cycles like the rest of us; they go straight to REM and miss out on slow wave sleep. If you fix that, the symptoms go away. One of current drugs for narcolepsy is sodium oxybate (tradename Xyrem), which is basically GHB, a heavy sedative. That sounds pretty counter intuitive based on the symptoms (give sedatives to someone who's too tired all the time?), but makes sense when you think about it letting them get proper deep sleep.
Anyway, I'm not questioning the diagnosis in the article (I'm sure the doctors did the usual sleep latency tests and ruled out narcolepsy), but I just wanted to clear up a bit. If anyone's reading the article and has similar symptoms, go talk to a sleep doctor.