Narcolepsy: A review amongst sleep disorders

Abstract

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder known and studied about from time to time is a sleep disorder characterized by a combination of myriad of symptoms including excessive day time sleepiness with recurrent irresistible sleep attacks , hypnogogic hallucinations ,hypnopompic hallucinations ,sleep paralysis and cataplexy (sudden and bilateral loss of muscle tone. 1 Narcolepsy may present it self long with cataplexy or without cataplexy. The pathogenesis behind narcolepsy is found to be due to degeneration of hypocretin/orexin secreting neurones in the central nervous system due to disorder of human leukocyte antigen DQB1*0602.Narcolepsy is a deblitating disorder which causes intense functional impairment and hampers quality of life. Diagnosing narcolepsy can be challenging with help from clinical signs and symptoms , serum hypocretin/orexin levels and certain laboratory sleep tests. A definative cure for narcolepsy is not known , but pharmacological therapy with certain lifestyle changes are the main options.