Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy affects an estimated 250,000 Americans. People with narcolepsy have frequent "sleep attacks" at various times of the day, even if they have had a normal amount of night-time sleep. These attacks last from several seconds to more than 30 minutes. People with narcolepsy also may experience cataplexy (loss of muscle control during emotional situations), hallucinations, temporary paralysis when they awaken, and disrupted night-time sleep. These symptoms seem to be features of REM sleep that appear during waking, which suggests that narcolepsy is a disorder of sleep regulation. The symptoms of narcolepsy typically appear during adolescence, though it often takes years to obtain a correct diagnosis. The disorder (or at least a predisposition to it) is usually hereditary, but it occasionally is linked to brain damage from a head injury or neurological disease.

Narcolepsy is classified as a sleep disorder, mainly characterized by intermittent, uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during the daytime.

Three additional symptoms are typically associated with it:

A 53 year old Maryland psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Gleason, was arrested, and later charged for doing something that has become common among doctors: promoting a drug for purposes other than those approved by the federal government.