narcolepsy

In this video I learned about a very peculiar condition, Narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness. People with this condition feel sleepy all day and experience continuos episodes of falling asleep. These individuals do not go through the different stages of sleep, they skip them and go directly into REM sleep, and this not only happens at night but also throughout the day, and since in this stage limbs are paralyzed, they experience cataplexy, which is when you loose control of your body causing you to fall when they have their attacks. The condition is caused by the lack of production of hypocretin, a chemical that tells your brain when you have to sleep and when you have to be awake. I think having this is terrible because you suffer a lot. WHY? Well, you may miss out on or interrupt beautiful moments, moments that you might not experience again and the sleepiness wins you over. You may fall asleep when you are walking or crossing the street and it may produce minor injuries or lead to terrible accidents. You will always be confused because you will have trouble realizing which part of your memories are true or which were just dreams.