Is it possible to have a mild case of narcolepsy?
Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at
11:45 pm
Is it possible to have a mild case of narcolepsy?
Also could someone not get it until they are 17? Just wondering. I noticed yesterday and today I just suddenly got really tired out of nowhere until I fell asleep (it took about 1 maybe 2 minutes for me to fall asleep) and then I woke up and felt perfectly fine and alert. I am going to try to keep track of it to see if it persists and if it does I may go see a doctor. Can it be controlled?
Tagged with: google • mild case • narcolepsy
Filed under: Insomnia
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narcolepsy comes in all severities. some have it very severe & experience all the symptoms, some just experience one…every case is different. so yes, it’s possible that the only symptom one may have is tiredness from time to time.
as for the age, MOST cases don’t show up until late teens/early 20s…and many times not until much later in life. while the person has been born with it either way, it just doesn’t show itself until then. (brain waves & sleep cycles in children is very very different than in adults so it doesn’t have much affect on young ones.) it’s actually pretty rare for someone younger than mid-teen to exhibit any symptoms. first one to usually manifest is the EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness). sometimes it’s the only one people have, sometimes they eventually develop other ones like cataplexy, automatic behavior, hallucinations or sleep paralysis…but not always. few narcos have them all, and those are generally the very severe cases. narcolepsy has no cure but it can often be controlled with proper meds and/or lifestyle changes, like daily naps or changing nighttime sleep habits to better suit your needs. (and of the hundreds of narcos i know, not one has seen theirs go away. it is a physiological disorder which is caused by a lack of a certain amino acid in the brain…those amino acids don’t generally miraculously reappear, lol. a narcoleptic may learn how to deal with it to the point where it doesn’t impact their life much, but it doesn’t go away.)
hard to say the cause of your sleepiness. at your age, there can be many factors that would cause that to happen. i’d suggest keeping a diary of times when you experience these problems & keep track of it all. if it seems to be an ongoing thing, get with your doc to schedule a sleep study. that will diagnose or rule out any number of sleep disorders including narcolepsy.
Some people can be born with it, get it at random times in there life, and possibly have a mild case in which you have it for a short period of time and then it goes away.