If you suffer from narcolepsy, throughout the day, you will experience excessive daytime sleepiness or (EDS) as the primary symptom. When the urge to sleep becomes too strong, you will instantly fall asleep. The length of time you are asleep could be just a few seconds though it could last several minutes. There is medication available that helps narcolepsy sufferers stay awake during the day. While only some experience a normal waking period, most patients who are on the medication often see anything up to a 50% improvement in their ability to stay awake, and a 25% reduction in the number of times their go into an involuntary sleep.
Some people who suffer from narcolepsy have a nocturnal body clock and find that by selecting a job that properly complements their body's natural sleep cycle (for example, sleeping in the day and working at night).
Getting support from within your family and workmates will go a long way to helping you cope with narcolepsy within your normal daily routine.
Sodium oxybate (Xyrem) is one form of medication that is known to help eliminate daytime sleepiness for narcolepsy sufferers.
If the symptoms of drowsiness causing instant sleep were not enough for the narcolepsy sufferer to deal with, another important symptom that accompanies narcolepsy is cataplexy. This is a sudden, partial or complete muscle paralysis that is brought on by sudden changes in the emotional state such as joy, elation, or despair. There is wide variation between countries on the number of narcolepsy cases diagnosed, ranging from Japan having one in 600 people and Israel having one in 500,000 people. The figure for the United States is approximately one in 2,000.
Research completed during the last ten years has shown that narcolepsy is caused by the absence of the brain cell type that is used to produce orexin. It has been found that orexin also helps determine when we sleep and wake and also has a role in regulating appetite and addiction.