Narcolepsy
A rare brain disease that causes irresistible sleep attacks during the day.
A little more detail
Reflects the selective loss or dysfunction of orexin (hypocretin) neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. In type 1 narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness is accompanied by cataplexy; hallucinations, sleep paralysis and broken night sleep can also occur. The diagnosis rests on clinical findings and is supported by markers such as REM periods starting soon after falling asleep, orexin deficiency in the cerebrospinal fluid and HLA-DQB1*06:02 positivity. On the MSLT, a mean sleep latency of 8 minutes or less and at least 2 early REM periods are considered consistent with narcolepsy.
Source: Bassetti CLA, Adamantidis A, Burdakov D et al. Narcolepsy: clinical spectrum, aetiopathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019;15(9):519-539. doi:10.1038/s41582-019-0226-9; Krahn LE, Arand DL, Avidan AY et al. Recommended protocols for the Multiple Sleep Latency Test and Maintenance of Wakefulness Test in adults: guidance from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(12):2489-2498. doi:10.5664/jcsm.9620