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By Jake Jarden [ 09/03/2009 ] Publishing Free Articles Zone articles is subject to our Publisher's Terms Of Service |
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Our sleep pattern can be affected by many kinds of sleep disorders. Narcolepsy is one such kind, which is a common sleep disorder. The patients who suffer with this kind of syndrome usually feel drowsy during the day time, and might have frequent sleep attacks, during which they might suddenly fall asleep. This reason for this kind of situation is EDS which stands for Excessive Daytime Sleepiness. The kind of environment in which a person might be working or spending time might act as a criterion for EDS. It happens because of extreme tiredness of the person.
The person suffering from narcolepsy feels sleepy and drowsy during the daytime; on the other hand, he usually does not have proper sleep during the nights. This is often thought of as insomnia, which is not the case, thus diagnosis of the right kind plays a major role here. Sometimes strong emotions in a person can lead to a sudden weakness in the muscles which is termed as cataplexy, can also affect the people who are suffering from narcolepsy. This type of weakening of muscles has varied effect on the body, it might be as mild as few muscles on the face, and as severe as collapse of total knee and leg muscles.
Narcoleptic symptoms are easy to notice and recognize. The important symptom though is Excessive Daytime Sleepiness. This might happen even after having sufficient sleep during the night. The body of the patient won’t be able to withstand the sleepiness, and thus the patient often finds himself sleeping against his will; as the body is in charge of the sleep. The drowsiness in these patients is said to persist for a longer period of time.
One more important behavior which characterizes narcolepsy is called automatic behavior, where a patient of narcolepsy continues doing some work during his sleep episodes and later he finds awakens not remembering what he was doing. 40% out of total narcoleptic population are recorded to show these kinds of symptoms. Narcolepsy can be easily diagnosed with the help of polysomnogram, and also the MSLT which stands for multiple sleep latency tests which are performed by the specialist who is an expert in sleep tests.
When we come to the treatment; there exists no single solution which could solve everyone’s problem. The therapeutic response shown by the patient and the magnitude of his symptoms decide what kind of medication or treatment he receives. The important type of drug which help people against EDS are central nervous system stimulants like modafinil and methamphetamine. Instead of the drug therapy, treatment is also done with the help of scheduled short snaps, where a person is lead to sleep for a short scheduled time to help him control EDS. In either case consulting a doctor has to be done.
About the author:
Jake Jarden specializes in holistic healing approaches for addressing specific conditions and general well-being. He also publishes articles looking at meditation, massage therapy, Pilates, Yoga, aromatherapy and much more.
Read Jakes latest article on useful sleep aides at http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1456169
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