Tips For Narcoleptics

Narcplepsy is not simply a variant of normal sleep but, rather, a significant sleep disorder, literally a disease of sleep, and it is impossible to diagnose without a consultation with a physician and a sleep study. If you suspect you may have narcolepsy, see your doctor. Though no specific cure for narcolepsy is known, the disorder can be managed with a physician's assistance. 

• Maximize the efficiency of your sleep. You need a regular sleep schedule, going to sleep and awakening at specific times - to protect your deep sleep and prevent excessive daytime sleepiness. Avoid shift work, irregular schedules, late nights, and variable wake-up times. 

• Use short daytime naps to your advantage. Because narcoleptics are usually at their most alert after a nap, schedule short rests before important meetings or activities. In many cases, a regular nap two or three times a day will improve efficiency and prevent sleep attacks. Such naps need not be long (fifteen to twenty minutes is often enough) and can be accommodated by most work schedules. 

• Increase physical activity and avoid boring or repetitive tasks during those times when you are least alert (such as the afternoon circadian sleep-wake trough between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.). The tendency toward sleep attacks is enhanced by high temperatures, indoor activity, idleness, heavy meals, and boring or repetitive tasks in a nonstimulating environment. These factors should be avoided, but if that is impossible, they should be scheduled for your most alert periods of the day. 

• Avoid alcohol and other sedatives (such as antihistamines) as they aggravate many of the symptoms of narcolepsy.

• Use caffeine to increase your alertness, bearing in mind that caffeine use may interfere with your obtaining deep sleep (particularly if the caffeine intake occurs in the later part of the day), though it can help keep you awake earlier. 

• Avoid dangerous activities such as swimming, cooking, driving, handling machinery, and caring for infants. No matter how hard you try, you may not be able to protect yourself or others from the onset of irresistible sleepiness, or a loss of muscle control or coordination that could be disastrous. Because cataplexy and sleep attacks are unpredictable, caution must be exercised at all times. 

• If you and your doctor decide to use medicines to treat narcolepsy, some sort of stimulant is the mainstay of treatment. Drugs such as methylphenidate, pemoline, and mazindol are examples of stimulating medicines used to decrease the frequency of sleep attacks and excessive daytime drowsiness. Drugs such as clomipramine, an antidepressant, can be used to treat the drop attacks of cataplexy, as well as sleep paralysis and hallucinations. Sometimes sleeping pills, especially short-acting ones, are used to improve the quality of nighttime sleep. Modafinil, a new alertness-promoting drug, may be quite beneficial in treating the chronic tiredness and irresistible sleep attacks.
  
• The psychological consequences of narcolepsy are significant and inevitable. It is not possible to avoid feelings of guilt, inadequacy, anger, and depression. Try to address this component of the illness by learning all you can about narcolepsy - no one has as much to gain from a thorough understanding of the disease as you. Self-help groups are excellent sources of information and support.