Is Narcolepsy Simply Comical Or A Life-threatening Sleeping Disorder?

A lot of people are familiar at least with the concept of narcolepsy as it is often referred to for comical effect in stories and movies. The common image is that of an individual in mid-conversation who suddenly falls to the ground and goes from a state of alertness to complete sleep. The person concerned then awakens not realizing that he has been sleeping and continues on with their conversation.

Not surprisingly, narcolepsy is not exactly as it is shown in the films. Although in some extremely rare cases of narcolepsy people do fall asleep without any warning, most sufferers have difficulties with overwhelming tiredness throughout the day and occasionally have to give in to the desire for a nap.

Like other sleep disorders there are different degrees of narcolepsy. For example, some people might merely have a problem with getting extremely sleepy during the day while others may have a whole variety of issues all of which indicate narcolepsy.

One example of narcolepsy is sleeping while you are working or engaged in conversation and not even appearing to be asleep to others around you. While others may think that your mind is merely wandering or you might begin to think that you have memory problems because you do not seem able to remember what people have told you, the simple fact is that you are really sleeping during your interactions. You just do not appear to be sleeping because your eyes remain open and the people around you are unable to tell that you are asleep.

Other characteristics of some rarer types of narcolepsy include paralysis and hallucinations. Having hallucinations when waking up might be a sign of narcolepsy but it is not an absolute indicator although people with severe narcolepsy could well experience scary and dramatic hallucinations as a result of this relatively rare sleep disorder. Sleep paralysis is actually a relatively common thing and our bodies are in essence 'paralyzed' while we sleep so that we are not able to act out our dreams. However for individuals suffering from narcolepsy the paralysis goes beyond the usual sleep paralysis and a narcoleptic individual may be completely paralyzed upon waking up but be aware of his situation and therefore understandably very frightened.

Of course there is medication which is designed to assist individuals with narcolepsy and medication is normally quite effective in assisting people to keep awake during daylight hours and then to get a full night of sleep.

A few people find a problem with narcolepsy medication because the stimulant effect which is designed to keep them awake during the day makes them feel jittery or nervous. It is a trade-off for a few narcoleptics who must either continue to have erratic sleep or solve their sleeping problems and put up with the side-effects of the medication.

However, some narcoleptics do not have a choice because for them the desire to sleep during the day is so strong that they end up falling asleep while at the wheel of a car or at other obviously dangerous times. In these luckily rare instances medication can be a life-saver.