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I fall asleep in class all the time and it’s embarrassing. I saw someone with narcolepsy on TV and think I have it but I don’t really know how it’s diagnosed.
I fall asleep in class all the time and it’s embarrassing. I saw someone with narcolepsy on TV and think I have it but I don’t really know how it’s diagnosed.
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Narcolepsy affects approximately one in every 2000 people. If you have narcolepsy you experience excessive daytime sleepiness and disturbed sleep. People with narcolepsy often fall asleep very quickly and often enter dream sleep almost instantly.
Approximately two out of three people with narcolepsy also have cataplexy, where their muscles relax in response to emotions such as happiness or surprise. Cataplexy ranges from mild, where perhaps one side of their face relaxes, to severe, causing them to collapse on the floor.
To diagnose narcolepsy, you will usually need to have an overnight sleep study called full polysomnography. During the test, you wear several lightweight pieces of equipment on your body and some small sensors on your head, face and underneath your chin, to monitor your sleep stage. This will show whether you are awake, in dream sleep, light sleep or deep sleep.
The following day you will need a Multiple Sleep Latency Test where you are offered four or five naps throughout the day wearing the same equipment. If you fall asleep quickly and enter dream sleep rapidly during most naps, you can be diagnosed with narcolepsy. Sometimes your blood or spinal fluid will also be tested for certain chemicals.