Worsening undiagnosed symptoms

[mustang19898]

I have symptoms that some people say are consistent with narcolepsy.  However, all I have seen are people with severe narcolepsy, and I'm not as bad as them.  I do have very vivid dreams that can be stressful to me.  I can write whole books on my dreams because they are so vivid.  They are so stressful sometimes that I wake up sweating.  I can fall asleep quick.  As in I can take an short nap, say an hour, and still dream.  I do not sleep well at night and have very interrupted sleep.  I have to sleep for 10-12 hours to feel even close to rested.  Even then, I still have to take an afternoon nap.  I have fallen asleep randomly during the day although it doesn't happen fairly often.  Also, when I get too excited, work out too much, get angry, or overwhelmed, my legs feel very weak and can buckle under me.  It is happening more and more often than it used to.  I have also experienced hallucinations and temporary paralysis upon waking up.  The hallucinations are more common than the paralysis.  I have both auditory and visual hallucinations.  This symptoms are starting to affect my sleep worse than ever now, and they are affecting my other health conditions.  We don't have the money right now for me to get a sleep study done.  Does anyone have an opinion?  Does this sound like narcolepsy, just not as severe?

[Halloweenbaby1946]

My husband was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea and narcolepsy about 5 years ago and the narcolepsy is under control with 200 mg of Provigil.

He had hypnogogic hallucinations, body jerks when falling sleep, imaginary conversations with no one, talked in his sleep, fell asleep driving, talking and even in activities you'd never imagine a male would fall asleep.

He appears to always have had it since about puberty but it got worse as his sleep apnea did.

He is on auto-pap now but started out on cpap w/oxygen and wasn't allowed to drive or operate heavy equipment for about 6 months.

His narcolepsy if much better - even good now until the Provigil wears off in the late evening and he's right back to his pre-treatment self.

Narcolepsy can be helped and I hope if you have it, you find help soon.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Understand your predicament. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder 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. I would advise you to discuss your symptoms with your primary care physician who may then refer you to a sleep specialist for further evaluation.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.