Being constantly sleepy or sleeping several times during the day can go beyond just having a bad night or having accumulated tired days. When these episodes become frequent and endanger people’s lives by altering their daily routine, it can be related to narcolepsy, a chronic disorder characterized by the normal interruption of the wake and sleep cycles. It usually manifests with excessive daytime sleepiness accompanied or not by cataplexy. On this occasion, Dr. Frank Villarreal, a neurologist at Clinica Ricardo Palma and a specialist in sleep disorders, provides us with more information.

Most frequent symptoms

• Daytime sleepiness accompanied by a feeling of fatigue, tiredness and the need to take restful naps.
• Cataplexy: episodes of loss of muscle tone causing the patient to fall that may or may not be accompanied by a short nap. The episodes can occur at any time, so they are dangerous for the patient.
• Sleep paralysis: brief episodes in which, despite being awake, you are unable to move (a situation that generates a lot of anxiety and stress).
• Hypnagogic hallucinations (when falling asleep) or hypnopompic (when waking up).
• Unrefreshing night’s sleep.
• Attacks of daytime sleepiness that are rarely preventable and occur at any time

Diagnosis

First, the specialist searches with the patient for common causes of daytime sleepiness. Then, an overnight sleep study is done, followed by a multiple latency test, which measures how easily a person falls asleep and how long it takes to initiate rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Other studies can also be performed depending on the specialist.

Treatment

Currently, narcolepsy does not have a definitive cure. However, there are different treatments that improve the patient’s quality of life. Among these is pharmacological treatment, which seeks to reduce daytime sleepiness and episodes of cataplexy, in addition to other multidisciplinary interventions aimed at managing other comorbidities that may appear.

As important as the prescription of drugs is the orientation of the patient and his environment for the adaptation of schedules and nap schedules that allow him to fully develop.

Dr. Frank Villarreal
Neurologist at Clinica Ricardo Palma and a specialist in sleep disorders