narcolepsy/cataplexy

I have suffered from sleep disroders my whole life. When I was 10 years old I had a type of sleep apnea called Hypopnea. Every night would result in me seeing spiders and snakes and getting out of bed screaming and running away out of terror. After months of this happening I went to a sleep Dr and had a sleeo study done, they informed me of what I had and that my tonsils were blocking my airways. After getting my tonsils removed my sleep problems got a lot better, although I always talk in my sleep. When I started getting older I began seeing things, I would be asleep with my eyes open and see the ceiling falling on me, babies falling from curtains, and sometimes people in my room. Not only would I see these things happening but I would react to them, which always resulted in me running out of my room sometimes falling or not seeing the things around me and running into things. These hallucinations have become a nightly thing and are very scary. Along with this I had suffered from what I always thought were panic attacks. When I was in the car one night my hands got really cold and starting shaking and all of a sudden I couldn't hold my head up. It felt like I lost control of my body and couldn't hold anything up. This feeling went away and within a few minutes came back. I got out of the car and could barely walk I just couldn't control my body. When I loose control of my body I will start shaking uncontrollably. To someone else it looks like I'm having a seizure. I was hospitilized for this because noone knew what was going on. Noone found anything wrong with me, not in brain or heart scans. After all of this I still do have them I can feel the cold coming on and If im standing up someone has to catch me because my legs won't work. Im awake the whole time and feel absolutely fine. I never thought narcolepsy could be a possibility but after seeing a dr and scheduling a sleep study he thinks it may be a possibility. I never though it was possible because I was very uninformed on what it was, I always heard about the stories were people fall alseep constantly mid sentence. I don't fall asleep mid sentence I'm just tired all the time. I'm 19 years old and thought that it was natural to always be tired and to be able to sleep all day. I hate it because i can easily sleep until 2 in the afternoon. I don't want to sleep my life away. I'm schedule for a sleep study in a month and a half but I'm just really unsure of all of this. When I talked to the Dr I didn;t really get to talk about a lot of this. I just wonder if it really is a possibility that I could have both cataplexy and narcolepsy or if it is maybe something completely different. Thanks

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive day time sleepiness, sleep paralysis, cataplexy where the person has episodes of loss of muscle function while awake, hypnogogic hallucinations and automatic behavior. Narcolepsy is diagnosed by the sleep onset REM episodes (SOREMs), wherein the person goes into the dream phase or REM cycle soon after sleep onset. This is evident in the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT). It can however be regulated with medications. So, ensure to take them regularly and follow up with your doctor.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive day time sleepiness, sleep paralysis, cataplexy where the person has episodes of loss of muscle function while awake, hypnogogic hallucinations and automatic behavior. Narcolepsy is diagnosed by the sleep onset REM episodes (SOREMs), wherein the person goes into the dream phase or REM cycle soon after sleep onset. This is evident in the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT). It can however be regulated with medications. So, ensure to take them regularly and follow up with your doctor.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.