Lifestyle Choices

Do you ever collapse after hearing a funny joke, or after becoming very angry? Do you have any relatives who are always sleepy? If you answer yes to these questions, you might have narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations (explained below). Narcolepsy is thought to be an attack of REM sleep during the day.

A person with narcolepsy will have recurring episodes of naps, or lapses into sleep. The narcoleptic will sleep for fifteen to twenty minutes and awaken refreshed, but within the next two to three hours will begin to feel sleepy again. This pattern repeats itself throughout the day. Sudden sleep attacks can occur in situations when it is quite inappropriate to sleep, such as while eating, conversing or driving.” (more…)

Persistent bed-wetting, sleep enuresis, is considered a disorder after the age of five. It occurs in all sleep stages, and daytime bladder control can be normal. While the prevalence of bed-wetting in childhood decreases with age, about 3 per cent of adolescents between the ages of twelve and eighteen continue to wet their beds.”

Bed-wetting has a hereditary component. Approximately 77 per cent of children whose parents both wet their beds as children are bed wetters themselves.’ A congenitally small bladder, bladder infections, allergies, obstructive sleep apnoea or metabolic or endocrinologic disorders may be predisposing factors. Contrary to popular belief, bed-wetting is almost never emotionally or psychologically caused; less than 1 per cent of bed^-wetting has an emotional source.” (more…)