![]() working, playing a game, walking, talking to someone, eating, driving or operating machinery. People can fall asleep doing absolutely anything, e.g. Narcolepsy may also affect a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities. ![]() Overweight: people with narcolepsy are more likely to be overweight or obese.The person’s performance of the task will usually be impaired and they may not remember doing those things when they wake up. Automatic behaviour: continuing with a task (usually a task that a person does often) even though they are asleep.Disrupted night time sleep (especially trouble staying asleep) and other sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea.Hallucinations: hearing, seeing or feeling things that aren’t there often happens when falling asleep or waking up.Sleep paralysis: a person temporarily can’t move any part of the body upon waking or when falling asleep.Cataplexy: sudden loss of muscle function while conscious.Difficulty staying awake for long periods of time.Abrupt napping (‘sleep attacks’) during the day no matter how much a person sleeps at night.Excessive daytime drowsiness and sleepiness.What are the symptoms of narcolepsy and cataplexy? In rare cases narcoplexy is caused by a genetic defect, a traumatic injury to the brain or a brain tumour. The reason for this is unknown, but it is thought to be an auto-immune reaction, where the body’s immune system mistakenly starts to attack its own cells. When a person also has cataplexy, there appears to be a loss of the brain cells that produce hypocretin. In some cases, narcolepsy runs in families. ![]() Hypocretin promotes wakefulness, so when there’s not enough, a person can fall asleep. The exact cause of narcolepsy is unknown, but it is thought to develop when the levels of a brain chemical called hypocretin are too low.
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