What is life like for a person with narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy can present challenges to daily living: in addition to sleepiness, people with narcolepsy may experience mental fogginess, poor memory, and hallucinations. Social life can be impacted when sleepiness and other symptoms disrupt conversations, social events, and plans for activities.

Can you just suddenly get narcolepsy?

Particularly in the early stages of the illness, more unique narcolepsy symptoms (such as cataplexy, which means experiencing sudden episodes of muscle weakness) often don’t appear until later, anywhere from weeks to years after someone gets the disorder.

What happens when narcolepsy is untreated?

When left untreated, narcolepsy can be socially disabling and isolating. It often leads to the onset of depression. Type 2 diabetes mellitus may occur more often in people with narcolepsy. Making lifestyle changes can help manage the symptoms.

Will narcolepsy get worse as you age?

Whatever the age of onset, patients find that the symptoms tend to get worse over the two to three decades after the first symptoms appear. Many older patients find that some daytime symptoms decrease in severity after age 60.

Is it hard to wake up someone with narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of sleep. People with narcolepsy often find it difficult to stay awake for long periods of time, regardless of the circumstances.

Can emotional trauma cause narcolepsy?

Doctors believe that some people with PTSD may develop narcolepsy as their body’s way of dealing with the strong emotions of PTSD.

What are narcolepsy sleep attacks like?

What Is a Sleep Attack? Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that stops your brain from regulating your sleep-wake cycles. One of the most noticeable symptoms is excessive daytime sleepiness. No matter how much sleep you get overnight, you fall asleep quickly and often during the day.

Does narcolepsy qualify for disability?

Narcolepsy isn’t one of the conditions the SSA considers a disability. But if your symptoms interfere with your ability to do your job, you may still qualify for benefits. The Disability Benefits Help website offers a free evaluation to help you determine whether your condition is considered a disability.

Can a person with narcolepsy drive?

When sleepiness is under good control, many people with narcolepsy are safe to drive. However, they must know their limits. Some individuals may be safe driving around town for 30 minutes but not on a four-hour, boring highway drive.

Does narcolepsy affect your mood?

Recent studies have shown that narcolepsy is caused by defective hypocretin signaling. As hypocretin neurotransmission is also involved in stress regulation and addiction, this raises the possibility that mood and anxiety symptoms are primary disease phenomena in narcolepsy.

What is the life expectancy of someone with narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is not a degenerative disease, however, and patients do not develop other neurologic symptoms. In fact, older patients often report that their symptoms decrease in severity after age 60. Apart from falls or other accidents, narcolepsy does not affect a person’s life expectancy.

Can You Live a normal life with narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy. A person suffering from narcolepsy can fall asleep during regular daytime activities like driving and working. Narcolepsy is a lifelong condition, but it is manageable, and people with narcolepsy can live a normal, healthy life with medical assistance and lifestyle changes.

How could narcolepsy affect your everyday life?

At school. Many people are diagnosed with narcolepsy during childhood.

What is it like living with narcolepsy?

With narcolepsy, the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness are blurred, causing a person to feel very sleepy and fatigued during the day, have vivid dream-like hallucinations and paralysis while falling asleep or waking up, and experience disrupted nighttime sleep.