Thank you for the response! I don't have the results of my polysomnogram yet so I don't know if my doctor will feel an MSLT is necessary. Right now I think she's leaning toward a diagnosis of idiopathic hypersomnia, but is that a real diagnosis or just a label to explain unexplainable symptoms? I don't want to have to take a stimulant for the rest of my life; the thought of doing so makes me nervous.
In your experience, would even mild narcolepsy result in excessive daytime sleepiness but only occassional sleep attacks? If I do not take Adderall I could nap at any point during the day, but sometimes I am just excessively tired and will lie down but I won't fall asleep, or at least not within 10 minutes.
Does narcolepsy exist in a very mild form? Before Adderall I had occassional experiences where I would hear the tea kettle whistling but have absolutely no memory of putting it on, or tasting toothpaste with no memory of brushing my teeth. I never connected this to narcolepsy, but now I suppose it could be. However, since I've been taking either Adderall or Provigil for over a year and have not had experiences like that while on these medications. I do experience sleep paralysis-like occurrences upon waking from a dream every so often, but not frequently, maybe once every few months.
Yes, narcolepsy can result in disturbed nighttime sleep. Narcolepsy can only be diagnosed with a multiple sleep latency test during the day (usually preceded by an all night sleep study).
Dr. Jacobs