![]() ![]() Treatment of narcolepsy of adults is reviewed here. Most patients require pharmacologic therapy, and many feel more alert with daytime naps. In many patients with narcolepsy, sleepiness and cataplexy substantially interfere with daily life, impacting school, work, relationships, and social life. Management of narcolepsy is symptomatic, and there are no disease-modifying therapies yet available. Your healthcare provider may talk to you about other lifestyle changes that will help you sleep better.INTRODUCTION - Narcolepsy is a central disorder of hypersomnolence characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness in all patients, along with additional symptoms that may include cataplexy (in narcolepsy type 1), disrupted nighttime sleep, sleep paralysis, and hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Managing your stress can also help you sleep better. Taking daytime naps doesn’t replace the sleep you still need at night. Scheduling naps will help you manage feeling sleepy during the day and keep you more alert when you’re awake. This may be 2 or 3 naps for 10 to 15 minutes or 1 nap for 30 to 60 minutes. Your healthcare provider will suggest you take regular naps during the day. Making lifestyle changes is an important way to treat narcolepsy. This medicine helps to treat cataplexy and other REM sleep symptoms. You may also take medicine that limits part of the sleep cycle called rapid eye movement or REM sleep. These medicines help you stay awake during the day. The type of medicines that are used to treat narcolepsy are central nervous system stimulants. Taking medicine and making changes to your lifestyle are the 2 main ways to treat narcolepsy. It can take weeks or months before you find the best treatment. Treatment for narcolepsy depends on how bad your symptoms are. If you have a positive MSLT, it means you do fall asleep often during the day and may have narcolepsy. ![]() During this test, you'll be asked to take a 20 minute nap every 2 hours (about 4 to 5 naps within 8 hours). This test is more complete than other types of sleep tests that you do at home.Ī multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) measures how long it takes you to fall asleep during the day. This test can also find other sleep disorders that may be causing your symptoms. PSG records the different parts of your sleep (called stages) and how well you sleep. This test is also called an overnight level 1 sleep study because you sleep overnight at a sleep lab. Polysomnography (PSG) mesures how you sleep at night. There are 2 tests to help diagnose narcolepsy. It’s not known what leads to the loss of hypocretin, but research shows it may be linked to a problem with the immune system (called an autoimmune disorder). But people with narcolepsy have low levels of hypocretin (also called orexin) in their bodies. ![]() ![]() We don’t know exactly what causes narcolepsy. In some cases, you may even fall down and not be able to move for a few seconds or minutes. This causes your knees to buckle, your head to drop, or your jaw to drop. With cataplexy, you lose your normal muscle tone (the amount of tightness in your muscles that hold you upright).
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