Sleep is one of those aspects of our lives that we usually neglect and take for granted. It’s all too easy to dismiss the critical role sleep plays in how we feel and perform in our daily lives. Sleep is regarded as a fundamental requirement of every human being and is required for physical and mental wellness.
The typical individual sleeps 7-8 hours every day on average. It’s easy to forget that if the typical human being sleeps for eight hours every day, this equates to more than 30% of our lives.
Any disruption to the quality or quantity of our sleep has a profoundly detrimental influence on our lives. This encompasses our mood and energy levels throughout the day, our ability to work and play, and our interactions with others.
Narcolepsy is a sleep condition that affects around 1 in every 2000 people’s sleep quality and duration. Narcolepsy affects both men and women equally. Unfortunately, despite being a widespread and well-recognized sleep problem, it is not detected as often as it should be by doctors and other health care providers. This implies that many individuals who are now suffering from the harmful symptoms of narcolepsy may have spent years misdiagnosed and untreated.
Once narcolepsy is identified, it may be treated in a variety of ways. The most successful treatment for narcolepsy is a mix of behavioral and pharmaceutical strategies. Stimulants are one kind of medication used to treat narcolepsy. Modalert 200 is also being used to treat narcolepsy.
How is narcolepsy defined?
People often battle and deal with the hardships that this ailment might bring to their personal and professional lives.
The average narcoleptic would report feeling drowsy and weary far more often throughout the day than is considered normal, as well as having disrupted sleep at night. Additionally, people report rapidly falling asleep and having little to no control over when and where they sleep. They may have very vivid dreams, nightmares, vivid hallucinations, and sleep paralysis when they do fall asleep. Sleep paralysis is a condition in which individuals awaken from sleep but are unable to move.
These symptoms make people who suffer from narcolepsy feel helpless and outmatched. Due to their limited awareness, patients with narcolepsy are often mistaken for being slothful, unproductive, and indifferent. Narcolepsy has a significant societal cost for people who suffer from it. To make matters worse, people often lack understanding of their own situation.
What are the narcolepsy symptoms?
Narcolepsy is a neurological sleep condition that occurs on a chronic basis. This is a prevalent symptom of narcolepsy in teenagers and young adults. Unfortunately, having a long-term illness means that if someone has narcolepsy symptoms, they will almost certainly keep having them for the rest of their lives.
Excessive drowsiness throughout the day:
Patients with narcolepsy typically complain of falling asleep without notice at inconvenient times. Additionally, they fall asleep in locations that may not be suitable for sleeping.
Night-time sleep disturbances
While having narcolepsy implies that a person may fall asleep often and randomly during the day, it does not indicate that they get a typical amount of restful sleep at night that corresponds to their daily cycle of remaining awake and sleeping at night.
Cataplexy:
This is a temporary or permanent decrease in muscular tone. This is an unpleasant symptom that only some people with narcolepsy experience, in which they suddenly lose the function of part or all of their muscles. Cataplexy strikes suddenly.
This loss of control isn’t long-term, and recovery usually happens over the course of a day
Dreaming incessantly
Narcolepsy patients also suffer from vivid and often highly realistic dreams (including nightmares) that frequently begin shortly after they fall asleep. It might be disturbing for the individual, depending on the dream.
Hallucinations and Sleep Paralysis
Sleep paralysis is the sensation of awakening yet being unable to move. This is a regular occurrence throughout adolescence and sometimes into adulthood. However, individuals with
This is a common symptom of narcolepsy.
Additionally, hallucinations may occur during sleep paralysis. They may be frighteningly realistic to the individual experiencing them.
What is the cause of narcolepsy?
While we now have more knowledge about what causes narcolepsy than in the past, despite breakthroughs in the study of sleep and sleep disorders, our understanding of the causes and why it occurs in some individuals but not others remains restricted.
How is narcolepsy diagnosed?
Narcolepsy is diagnosed by a doctor after a thorough medical history and physical examination. Neurologists, ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) experts, and pulmonary specialists are often among these physicians.
Following the history and physical examination, a doctor will often conduct specialized tests, which are typically conducted in a sleep lab. Two critical tests are necessary to make a diagnosis of Narcolepsy:
Polysomnography: This is sometimes referred to as a sleep study. This is overnight research in which various measures are taken while a person sleeps to assist physicians in understanding more about a person’s sleep cycle in more detail.
Multiple Sleep Latency Exams: This is a daytime test. It regulates how often a person sleeps throughout the day, how long it takes them to fall asleep, and whether or not they dream while sleeping.
After a proper diagnosis of narcolepsy is made, a patient may be given a wide range of treatment options, including new stimulants like Modafinil.
Narcolepsy Treatment
It is critical for everyone diagnosed with narcolepsy to recognize that it is a chronic sleep disease with no known treatment. However, modern medicine still makes it feasible for
Patients with narcolepsy should prioritize getting enough sleep and overcoming the problems associated with the disorder.
Narcolepsy management includes modifying a person’s sleep behavior and medicines. Modafinil and other anti-narcolepsy medications may help treat narcolepsy and other sleep disorders with low side effects, resulting in healthier, higher-quality sleep.
How to treat narcolepsy?
Sodium Oxybate Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCA) (commonly known by their commercial drug name, “Xyrem”)
SSRIs, SNRIs, and TCA are used to treat cataplexy (abrupt loss of muscular control), hallucinations, and sleep paralysis, which often coexist with narcolepsy. Also, sodium Oxybate can help treat the symptoms of cataplexy and help people sleep better at night.
Stimulants such as methylphenidate, marketed under the brand name Ritalin, and amphetamines, marketed under the brand name “Adderall,” function by releasing the same chemicals in the body as are produced during an adrenaline surge. They have been shown to help people with narcolepsy control their excessive drowsiness, but they can also cause heart palpitations, high blood pressure, sleep deprivation, tiredness, and digestive problems.
Fortunately, new drugs such as Modafinil have shown a paradigm shift in terms of controlling narcolepsy symptoms with fewer adverse effects.
Modafinil: What is it and how does it work?
Modafinil is usually referred to as “Provigil,” “Modvigil,” depending on the market. Modafinil works on the histamine chemical system to make people more alert and less likely to fall asleep.
Modafinil does not have the same potential for habit formation and addiction as other stimulants. Numerous individuals report feeling aware and present without experiencing any change in their feelings.
Modafinil inhibits the same mechanism that is often engaged when someone takes an allergy or cold medicine and experiences drowsiness. This mechanism contributes to our state of awareness.
Modafinil makes people more awake, alert, and less drowsy during the day by focusing on the main symptom that causes narcolepsy.
What are the modafinil side effects?
Modafinil has fewer and milder adverse effects than other stimulants. The most commonly reported adverse impact by patients is headaches. This adverse impact subsides after a day.
Modafinil may be beneficial in the treatment of narcolepsy in the following ways:
People with narcolepsy have proven to be quite beneficial in using Modafinil and other novel stimulants, as well as behavioral strategies that encourage good sleeping patterns, in their quest for sleep. Patients can now stay awake, be less tired, have fewer side effects, and have a much better quality of life.