Sleep attack and dealing with it
A sleep attack is a condition that occurs in the form of intense sleepiness and the penetration of dream sleep into the waking stage. These attacks are periodic and the affected person is not able to resist it. Each sleep attack lasts 10 to 20 minutes, and then there is a feeling of complete or mild vitality. Falling asleep may occur in inappropriate situations such as while eating, talking or driving.
These people suffer from hallucinations before falling asleep, sudden and temporary loss of muscle strength and consistency, and sleep paralysis. The occurrence of REM dreams (dreaming) at the beginning of sleep and after ten minutes of sleep may be a sign of narcolepsy. This disease is sometimes very dangerous and causes traffic accidents and injuries with industrial equipment.
They used to think that sleep attack is a rare complication, but they do not believe this and believe that 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people suffer from it. In some cases, the occurrence of this complication has been observed in families. Narcolepsy is not a form of epilepsy or psychosis; Rather, it is probably a disorder in the mechanisms of sleep (dream). Interestingly, in addition to humans, this condition has also been investigated in some animals, such as sheep and dogs.
Narcolepsy can be seen at any age, but the most common age is adolescence and early youth, usually before the age of thirty. This problem progresses slowly or reaches a relative stability and continues throughout life. Its most prominent symptom is the inevitable attack dreams. It is often accompanied by a sudden loss of muscle tone (consistency), which sometimes manifests itself in the form of dropping the chin, head, sudden loosening of the knees, and falling down.
The patient is often awake during short and mild periods of sleep attacks, after losing muscle tone, but during longer periods, he falls asleep and the EEG shows REM sleep (dream). The accompanying symptoms of this condition are auditory or visual hallucinations before going to sleep or when waking up. These signs sometimes make the patient afraid for a short moment, and then he realizes that it is unreal. One of the less frequent symptoms associated with this condition is sleep paralysis, which often occurs when waking up in the morning.
During these periods, the patient is apparently awake for a few seconds and has a very unpleasant feeling of paralysis and inability to call out to others or get out of the situation. People with narcolepsy usually fall asleep quickly at night, but wake up frequently during the night. If the diagnosis is not clear, a 24-hour sleep log is helpful.
People with narcolepsy have an abnormal structure in their sleep (dreams), which causes them to start dreaming immediately after falling asleep at night and during daytime naps. The number of people suffering from this condition is 10 to 60 people per ten thousand people.
Mental and cerebral emotions such as laughing or anger in this way cause muscle loss. The severity of the losses is sometimes transient and localized or sudden paralysis of the entire muscles, which leads to the person falling down. In this condition, the sleep pattern is fragmented. Patients who do not treat narcolepsy (sleep attacks) may also develop depression. Social isolation, academic, occupational problems and fear of driving due to fear of losing the skill are some of the consequences of narcolepsy.
In fact, complete recovery is rarely seen and the patient should be helped in managing the symptoms. A mandatory schedule for regular daily naps at a fixed time will help a group of patients. If medication is needed, stimulants are the first step in treatment. Tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin reuptake inhibitors are also effective in treating loss of muscle tone. Although medication is considered the first step of treatment, the therapist must follow a regular daily nap schedule, changing and adapting life to those conditions, counseling, medication holidays to avoid resistance to medications, managing and closely monitoring the way medication is taken, and also the overall effect on Also pay attention to heart symptoms and conditions.
Taken from the book Synapse Psychiatry