Other features of narcolepsy include restless night sleep and automatic behavior. During the episodes of automatic behavior one may continue to function or talk but upon awakening there is usually no memory of such events. People with narcolepsy may also act out their dreams and during sleep one may notice gross body movements like crying, flailing arms, screaming, or kicking.
The above features of narcolepsy are most prominent in adulthood and do lessen with time but never go away.
No one knows why narcolepsy develops and it has been attributed to bad genes, infection(s) or some type of brain of damage
Brain chemicals
The chemical which allows one to stay awake, hypocretin, appears to be missing or decreased in individuals with narcolepsy. Hypocretin is vital for stable sleep and maintenance of normal muscle tone. Why or how the cells that make hypocretin are damaged in narcolepsy is not known but experts speculate that an infection may be responsible. Narcolepsy also tends to run in families. While some physicians do measure hypocretin levels to make a diagnosis of narcolepsy, there is no absolute correlation between the disorder and the levels. Narcolepsy is more common in males and tends to occur in all races and cultures.
The diagnosis of narcolepsy is obtained from the history and evaluations done at a sleep center.
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