Narcolepsy symptom examination and treatment and self-diagnosis test
Hyuna made an appearance on Radio Star and made headlines by saying that she was suffering from narcolepsy from her boyfriend, E’Dawn. You may think that narcolepsy is simply sleeping a lot, but narcolepsy is a rare and incurable disease that reduces the quality of life and requires treatment. Learn more about narcolepsy today and check if you have narcolepsy. 기면증 자가진단
What is Narcolepsy? 좋은뉴스
Narcolepsy is a type of sleep disorder characterized by excessive sleep. It is characterized by unbearable drowsiness during the day even after getting enough sleep at night.
It is a neuropsychiatric disease that shows symptoms such as excessive sleepiness during the daytime and abnormal manifestations of REM sleep, such as hallucinations, sleep paralysis, and sleep seizures when falling asleep (hypnosis) or waking up (awakening).
Idiopathic hypersomnia and narcolepsy can be confused with idiopathic hypersomnia, in which you sleep for more than 10 hours a day and continue to feel sleepy even after taking a nap. Narcolepsy is different from hypersomnia because even a nap of about 20 minutes tends to temporarily relieve sleepiness for about 2 hours.
narcolepsy symptoms
Symptoms of narcolepsy include daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations. Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle strength triggered by jokes, laughter, or emotions of anger.
50-70% of patients with narcolepsy experience cataplexy, and it can start with mild symptoms limited to the face, such as the eyelids, chin, and head, to systemic symptoms such as the trunk and knees.
Sleep paralysis is a common so-called scissor stroke and appears at the beginning or end of sleep, most commonly when waking up in the morning. A person is conscious but unable to move his muscles.
Hallucinations and auditory hallucinations are experienced by about 60%, and there are cases in which spring seizures or scissors press appear first, followed by sleep seizures.
narcolepsy causes
Narcolepsy is caused by an autoimmune system disorder and a lack of hypocretin. More than 85% of patients with narcolepsy have abnormalities in the human leukocyte antigen complex related to autoimmunity.
Hypocretin is a substance secreted by the brain’s hypothalamus that plays a role in maintaining a state of alertness during the day. As this cell decreases, drowsiness suddenly comes and you cannot sleep well at night.
Also, hypocretin is known to suppress REM sleep, which is the stage of dreaming. There is also a hypothesis that it is mostly caused by autoimmune destruction of hypocretin cells, which usually occurs during adolescence.
narcolepsy test
In order to confirm narcolepsy, polysomnography and sleep latency testing are performed.
Polysomnography is a test that continuously records brain waves, breathing, and muscle function during a night’s sleep. Patients with narcolepsy have a reduced sleep onset time and are characterized by REM sleep after hypnosis that appears very quickly within 15 minutes, compared to normal REM sleep, which occurs after a period of about 90 minutes after sleep.
The multiple sleep latency test is a test that is repeated every 2 hours during the day when you are normally awake to evaluate sleep latency and REM sleep after waking up.
The test method is to first perform a polysomnography, and then take a nap every 2 hours from the morning of the next day. If the average sleep latency of 5 times is less than 8 minutes and REM sleep is seen after wearing it twice or more, it can be diagnosed as narcolepsy.
narcolepsy treatment
Narcolepsy is a rare and incurable disease that is difficult to cure. Because symptoms other than sleep attacks are not associated with narcolepsy, they often go untreated. However, if left untreated, it can progress further and increase the risk of various accidents, such as sudden falling asleep even during daily life.
With appropriate medication and behavioral therapy, it is possible to maintain a normal life. Narcolepsy can be controlled to a large extent with drugs that promote dopamine secretion that maintains wakefulness or antidepressants that suppress REM sleep.
The representative drug is Modafinil, which has fewer side effects than traditional central nervous system stimulants. Antidepressants, such as SSRIs, control symptoms caused by the abnormal expression of REM sleep.
Since daytime sleepiness affects the time the patient is mainly active, the duration of the drug’s effect is considered important during drug treatment.
In addition to drug treatment, lifestyle correction such as regular napping, psychological counseling, and drug withdrawal to reduce drug resistance are required.
Narcolepsy self-diagnosis
When I sit down and read something, I feel drowsy.
Drowsiness comes when watching TV
Sleepy when sitting still in public places.
I get sleepy after riding public transportation for an hour.
I feel sleepy when I lie down comfortably during my afternoon break
I feel sleepy when I am sitting and having a conversation with someone.
Sleepy when sitting quietly after lunch.
I feel drowsy when I’m driving in my car and stopped for a few minutes in a traffic jam.
※ Not at all sleepy 0 points / Slightly sleepy 1 point / Fairly sleepy 2 points / Very sleepy 3 points
If the total score is 11 or higher, the probability of narcolepsy is high