Narcolepsy Essay

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Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that inhibits a person's ability to function normally in society. Narcolepsy causes a person to fall asleep, almost spontaneously, regardless of the situation they are in. The sufferer could be at school, work, or a grocery store, and suddenly experience an intense haze of drowsiness. Suddenly the sensation overcomes the narcoleptic, and they fall victim to sleep. Usually this sleep state lasts for only a few moments, with the narcoleptic waking almost as quickly as they had fallen asleep. In other instances, the sleep state lasts for minutes; the narcoleptic waking up is not aware they had fallen asleep, they may also become frightened, or confused about events that happened prior to their "sleep attack." About 200,000 people in the United States have narcolepsy, making it a serious mental illness (narcolepsynetwork.org). Despite the number of people who have this disorder, however, only a small amount of information is available on narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a fascinating disease that is looked over by society, if narcolepsy awareness becomes more wide-spread, then people will have a reason to pay attention to how serious this sleep-disorder really is. …show more content…

Orexin is a hormone that regulates appetite and plays an especially vital role in sleep (Schenck, 2007). An Orexin deficiency usually is the result of some abnormality in the gene HLA-DQB1*06:02.

that Narcolepsy is possible to pass down to one's offspring (EIF3G is associated with narcolepsy across ethnicities Anja Holm et.

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