Narcolepsy is ... A mysterious disease of narcolepsy: causes, symptoms

A healthy sleep is necessary for man as air and water. If you do not restore strength after a busy day, the body becomes weak, immunity decreases. Narcolepsy is one of the types of sleep disorders that have a negative impact on health. Thus, there is a favorable environment for the development of infections and diseases. To avoid such consequences, it is necessary to lead a correct way of life, combining work with rest.

Physiology of sleep

Sleep in a person's life plays an important role. During the night rest the body is restored to adequately perceive all the events of the new day.

Sleep is a state when inhibition of active activity occurs, there is no consciousness and connection with the environment.

This period can be divided into two phases - fast sleep and slow, and the latter, in turn, is divided into four stages.

Sleep begins with a slow phase

1. A nap. At this time, the person ponders all events that have occurred throughout the day. The brain is working on "digesting" information, looking for a solution to the problems that have arisen.
2. The muscle tone decreases, the pulse and breathing slow down. The brain gradually stops its work, but the person's condition is several times close to awakening.
3. Transitional phase.
4. Deep dream. The most important stage that gives the body a full rest. A person at this stage is difficult to wake up, although there may be conversations and sleepwalking.

After a deep sleep, the third, the second stage, comes again, and only then begins the phase of fast sleep, or, as it is called, the phase of rapid eye movement. The muscle tone is completely absent at this time, but the activity of the brain increases, and along with it the respiratory rate and blood pressure. This stage is still called paradoxical, since it is very difficult to awaken a person at this time. At the fifth stage, the brightest dreams are dreamed. As a rule, they can be recalled in detail after awakening.

Thus, the physiology of human sleep consists of the order of the two phases and looks like this: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 5. This order of sleep stages over night is repeated four to five times. One cycle takes about ninety minutes.

People in a dream spend the third part of their lives. The optimal time for which you can sleep for an adult is eight hours; The child needs ten or eighteen.

What are sleep disorders?

Everyone has come across at least once with such phenomena as drowsiness and insomnia.

The main causes of sleep disorders:

1. Situations that hurt the psyche.
2. Diseases of somatic and neurological nature.
3. Disorders of the psyche, accompanied by stress.
4. Abuse of alcohol, antidepressants, psychostimulants, drugs.
5. Smoking.
6. Sharp change of time zones.
7. Night work.

Sleep disorders are manifested as follows:

• Inability to fall asleep in the familiar mode.
• Anxiety before going to bed.
• Sleep is superficial with frequent awakenings.
• Deep sleep is absent.
• After rest the person feels not vivacity, but weakness and depression.
• Increased fatigue during the day.

There are several types of sleep disorders:

1. Insomnia (insomnia) - full or partial absence of sleep. The reason - ailments, overwork, taking medications, increased nervous excitability.
2. Hypersomnia (narcolepsy) is a neurological disorder associated with the inability of the brain to regulate periods of sleep and wakefulness. In patients with narcolepsy, sleep begins right after the fifth stage (rapid phase). Patients with this problem are more likely to suffer from mental disorders (schizophrenia). Therefore, when a person has a similar sleep disorder, treatment should be performed immediately.
3. Hyper - somnolence is a state characterized by a difficult awakening. Man does not seem to control himself, he is in automatic mode. Consciousness is confused and unclear.
4. Apnea - short-term absence of breathing during sleep. As a result, there is daytime drowsiness and irritability.
5. Klein-Levin syndrome - increased drowsiness for several days, which is replaced by bouts of hunger (bulimia).
6. Sleepwalking is a disorder in which a person walks and performs various actions in a dream. He does this automatically, unconsciously. This behavior is dangerous both for the patient himself and for others.

More on narcolepsy

It is a desire to fall asleep at the wrong time. Such a feeling sometimes visits each of us. Some explain this by night insomnia, others - fatigue at work. In fact, increased drowsiness can be the beginning of a disease called narcolepsy.

A person becomes distracted, feels constant weakness and fatigue, most of his actions he does on the "autopilot". Such a state is often confused with the onset of respiratory infections, and therefore do not conduct timely diagnosis and treatment.

Causes of ailment

Narcolepsy is a violation of sleep, for which a desire to sleep in a non-standard time is characteristic. This happens because of disruptions in the brain, whose parts are responsible for periods of wakefulness and rest.

Harbinger disease - headache, weakness, experience, hallucinations. Sleep disorder affects the quality of life.

Increased drowsiness can be accompanied by catalepsy (sudden loss of muscle tone, which occurs spontaneously at the wrong time).

The causes of the disease are not fully established. Scientists believe that drowsiness develops as a result of an insufficient level of active substance of the brain - orexin. Also, the disorder can occur against a background of mental illness.

Narcolepsy symptoms can have a variety of - from a constant desire to fall asleep until complete "shutdown".

The following people are at risk:

• Head injured.
• Pregnant women.
• Those who have mental disorders in the family.
• Children, students, students.

Symptoms of the disease

To recognize the disease and take timely measures, you need to know its symptoms. Among the most common signs are the following:

• Drowsiness during the day for no apparent reason.
• Sleep takes from a few seconds to fifteen to twenty minutes.
• Absence, lack of concentration.
• Constant fatigue. Sleeping in minibuses, during conversations, at work.
• Muscle weakness in the knee area. Feeling that the legs are weak.
• Short-term paralysis, sometimes accompanied by a lack of speech.
• The appearance of hallucinations and other mental disorders.
• A person starts to see dreams, just closing his eyes.
• Night sleep intermittent.
• Inability to control oneself on waking, morning catalepsy.
• Hyperhidrosis (increased sweating).
• Tachycardia (increased number of heartbeats).

These symptoms in a complex or alone occur in all patients with narcolepsy. Often they are taken for signs of diseases of a different nature. Over time, symptoms increase, and a person can become dangerous to others. For example, when driving a vehicle or working with machinery.

Nightmares as a cause of the problem

All people at least once in their lives face nightmares. Especially often bad dreams are seen by small children. So, perhaps, therefore, a brief daytime sleep (narcolepsy) is the result of terrible dreams? Fear, anxiety, which a person experiences during the night rest, as a result lead to fatigue and depression during the day.

Nightmares - this is normal, but they can not only cause a desire to sleep, but also affect the health of people in general.

First, horrific dreams are the first step towards depression and stress, against which even cancer can develop! Sometimes such dreams also lead to suicides.

Secondly, nightmares, tormenting a person at night, often cause obesity, diabetes and heart disease, blood vessels. Therefore, it is necessary to struggle with such sleep disorders.

How to fix the problem:

1. Psychotherapy. Consultations of psychologist, psychiatrist.
2. Compliance with diet before bedtime. Abuse of food makes our brains more active during sleep, which, in turn, provokes the appearance of terrible dreams.
3. Coping with stress. Yoga, long walks in the fresh air, including before going to bed. A good way is meditation. Cope with depression and stress will also help your favorite activities, hobbies - knitting, embroidery, beading, reading books and magazines, watching positive films.
4. Relaxing and soothing baths before going to bed.
5. Particular attention should be given to those medicines that a person is accustomed to using. Perhaps the reason for restless sleep lies in them. This applies primarily to antidepressants and tranquilizers.
6. It is necessary to minimize the use of caffeine, alcohol, reduce the number of cigarettes smoked.
7. It is good to learn to dream and abstract. Positive emotions and moods can defeat nightmares and insomnia.
8. You should learn how to combine work and rest. Most nightmares occur against the background of overwork.
9. Visit a couple of hypnosis sessions.

It should be noted that nightmares can not only cause disease, they also warn people about existing problems. So listen to your body!

Is the disease the result of insomnia?

Narcolepsy symptoms are most ambiguous. However, the main ones are drowsiness and catalepsy. Often, the desire to sleep in the daytime appears when a person does not get enough sleep at night. The main reason is insomnia.

Insomnia - is the difficulty associated with falling asleep and the duration of sleep. A significant part of the world's population faces such a problem. And different age categories.

The causes of the disorders can be the following:

• Unsuitable for sleeping conditions - noises, screams, uncomfortable mattress or pillow, temperature regime, insects, snoring partner.
• A new unknown situation - moving, traveling, flight, sudden change of time zones, unusual night work (for example, the shift method - the body gets used to not sleeping for a couple of nights, and as a result, when you need to sleep, it does not work).
• Diseases accompanied by pain, shortness of breath, intestinal and bladder disorders .
• Depression, stress.

Insomnia, like narcolepsy, treatment requires immediate effect. A person who spends a long time without sleep, becomes like a drug addict - he is irritable, tense, his condition is distracted and alarming. Of course, it can not do anything good.

The main methods of treating insomnia are the same as narcolepsy or nightmares: more motor activity in the daytime, relaxing baths, favorable emotions and restful daytime sleep.

Good in the fight against insomnia, herbal teas and infusions, which are soothing.

Often to treat such disorders, doctors prescribe sleeping pills. The lack of drugs is a quick addiction to the body. Therefore, the best assistant is the people's means, which act more gently.

Secrets of traditional medicine. Recipes of medicinal broths

• Two tablespoons of chopped hop cones insist one hour in 500 ml of boiling water. Strain and drink a quarter cup three times daily before meals. Easy relaxation is provided.
• Peony root tincture . The medicine can be purchased at the pharmacy. Take it three times a day for one teaspoon.
• A motherwort has a calming and soporific effect. Four spoons of grass should be poured a glass of boiling water and insist in a closed dark place for about two hours. Drink on the third part of the glass for half an hour before meals.

Diagnosis and treatment

First of all, in order to exclude other possible diseases, you should address with narcolepsy attacks to a specialist. Medical sleep disorders are treated by a somnologist.

After examining and examining the patient's complaints, two tests are performed to confirm the diagnosis: multiple latency to sleep and polysomnography.

Polysomnography is a study of a patient's sleep, during which all physiological processes are recorded - snoring, body position, facial expressions, brain activity, tone, limb movements, respiration rate. Diagnosis is carried out in a medical institution with the help of special devices and electrodes. This method allows you to determine the majority of all somnological disorders. A multiple latency test (MSLT) is administered the next day after polysomnography.

MSLT is conducted in the same way, only the dream is studied in the afternoon. The test is done 5-6 times with an interval of two hours. After such a survey, specialists get a pattern of sleep - a pattern that for narcolepsy patients will be specific.

In addition to all, they can also assign encephalography - diagnosis of bioelectric activity of the brain.

To date, this disease is incurable: narcolepsy. Treatment is aimed only at alleviating the unpleasant symptoms of the disease. For this, drugs that normalize sleep can be attributed. The patient is recommended to observe the regime of the day and lead a healthy lifestyle, as well as to abandon bad habits.

Prevention of sleep disorders

The best prevention of the problem - physical activity, walking in the fresh air and proper nutrition. Unfortunately, we live in a time when very few people think about a healthy lifestyle. Work - home - work. People began to pay less attention to themselves and their health. Hence all the ailments! Signs of disease in many cases are associated with sleep disorders. Observing simple rules, you can avoid conditions such as insomnia and narcolepsy (the reasons for which were described above).

1. You should wake up and fall asleep at about the same time.
2. Limit substances containing caffeine.
3. Avoid drinking alcohol in the evening hours.
4. If there are problems with night sleep, you need to limit or exclude sleep during the day.
5. Physical exercise and exercise are integral activities for those who have the problems described above.
6. Favorable effect is provided by warm soothing baths on herbs and aromatic oils.
7. Before going to bed is not recommended to eat food.
8. It is necessary to avoid emotional overstrain, nervous disorders, stress.
9. You can not abuse drugs, especially tranquilizers.
10. If such measures do not help to eliminate sleep disturbance, treatment should be done medically.

Problems with sleep (insomnia, narcolepsy) - is, unfortunately, not uncommon today. However, it is somehow necessary to solve such a question, otherwise soon a person will become angry, irritated and not at all interested in life. There are, of course, cases where people calmly exist without a night's sleep and feel great. They can be called an exception to the rules, a phenomenon.

The record holder in the nomination "life without sleep" became Belarusian Yakov Tsiperovich. He has not slept in his nearly sixty-two years for thirty-six years! After a clinical death, a man just lost the ability to sleep. Moreover, he practically does not grow old. Science can not yet explain this mysterious fact. The Ukrainian Fyodor Nesterchuk is competing with Yakov, who has not slept for 20 years in a row. He does not get tired and does not feel weak. A man restores a night rest by reading books and playing chess with a computer.

Conclusion

On how a person rests, depends on his mood and health. Sleep disorder is a disease that requires a reasonable approach and proper treatment. Once you have overcome the disease, you will not get a one hundred percent guarantee that there will not be a secondary narcolepsy or insomnia. In some cases, such problems are life-threatening. In this case, the patient himself and others can suffer. After all, often accidents in production or on the road are provoked by a short-term sleep, which people who suffer from chronic lack of sleep, simply can not control.

A person who is confronted with sleep disorders should know what narcolepsy is, how to get rid of her symptoms and improve the quality of life.