![]() In about 10 percent of cases, narcolepsy runs in families. Less often, the cause of narcolepsy is an injury that damages the brain. Their immune system mistakenly turns against their body and attacks the brain cells that produce hypocretin. Some people experience hallucinations and sleep paralysis when they’re falling asleep or waking up.Ĭertain people with autoimmune disorders are more likely to get narcolepsy with cataplexy. Gelineau proposed that narcolepsy could either be a primary disorder or be triggered by other pathologic conditions, the most common example at the time being neurosyphilis 2. The lack of hypocretin makes it hard for someone to stay awake during the day, blurring the line between wakefulness and sleep. Westphal and Gelineau described the combination of severe daytime sleepiness and attacks of muscle weakness triggered by emotions, later termed Cataplexy. That loss of muscle tone causes you to lose control over your body when you’re awake. It’s the same loss of muscle tone that naturally happens during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The loss of muscle tone, cataplexy, happens because sleep and wakefulness overlap in narcolepsy. Cataplexy was preceded by signs of fun in every attack, such as a smile or laugh. When it’s in short supply, your brain has trouble regulating your sleep-wake cycles. The mean duration of cataplexy was 4.4 s, ranging from 2.1 s (Patient 17) to 5.5 s (Patients 9 and 19). This chemical, which is produced in a brain region called the hypothalamus, controls sleep and wakefulness. Low levels of the chemical hypocretin cause narcolepsy with cataplexy. Narcolepsy affects signals in your brain that are supposed to keep you awake.
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