Narcolepsy :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Wake Up! A Quick Look at Narcolepsy It is estimated that humans spend one-third of their lives asleep (1). With sleep appearing to be not only the ultimate pastime, but also a survival imperative, the field of sleep research is quite broad, boasting many different areas of study. By examining phenomena like sleep disorders neurobiologists can hope to understand the mechanisms of normative sleep, in addition to perfecting treatment for suffers. Narcolepsy is one such disorder that affects an estimated 250, 000 or 1 in 2000 Americans; similar numbers are estimated for Parkinson's or multiple sclerosis (2). A widespread, though often misdiagnosed disease (fewer than 50, 000 are aware of their condition), narcolepsy can be characterized by chronic daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hypanogic hallucinations (3 ). The latter three of the tetrad of symptoms also occur in non-narcoleptic individuals; sleep episodes are the main determinant in diagnosis. Only 20 to 25 percent of narcoleptics suffer from all fou r symptoms (2). This paper has several goals, all of which involve clarifying the disease and its symptoms in different contexts. In order to do this sleep will first be explained in some detail, followed by a biological and psychological treatment of narcolepsy. Research of narcolepsy and its implications for the future shows steps to be taken in order to garner a better understanding this particular brain/behavior relationship. To start at a beginning of sorts, REM sleep and its importance should be discussed. Sleep is in fact not the passive activity it was once assumed to be. It appears that during sleep many things are going on in the brain, which are documented by electroencephalograms (EEGs) measuring neocortical neuronal activity. Sleep occurs in a cycle of distinct stages, with apparent contrasts from early sleep, deep sleep, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep (4). During REM sleep neurons in the neocortex behave similarly to how they would when a person is awake, displaying desynchronized EEG. The first REM stage occurs 70 to 90 minutes into sleep and approximately 20% of a night's sleep is spent in this type of sleep (4). Since this stage of sleeping is associated with dreaming, it is logical that in REM sleep muscles become temporarily paralyzed, a state called muscle atonia. REM sleep is important for overall health and regulation of the nervous system. In other sleep stages, or non-REM stages, E EGs are synchronized, only partial muscle relaxation is present, and dreaming is less frequent (2).