Automatic behaviour: continuing with a task (usually a task that a person does often) even though they are asleep.Disrupted night time sleep (especially trouble staying asleep) and other sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea.Hallucinations: hearing, seeing or feeling things that aren’t there often happens when falling asleep or waking up.Sleep paralysis: a person temporarily can’t move any part of the body upon waking or when falling asleep.Cataplexy: sudden loss of muscle function while conscious.Difficulty staying awake for long periods of time.Abrupt napping (‘sleep attacks’) during the day no matter how much a person sleeps at night.Excessive daytime drowsiness and sleepiness.What are the symptoms of narcolepsy and cataplexy? In rare cases narcoplexy is caused by a genetic defect, a traumatic injury to the brain or a brain tumour.
The reason for this is unknown, but it is thought to be an auto-immune reaction, where the body’s immune system mistakenly starts to attack its own cells. When a person also has cataplexy, there appears to be a loss of the brain cells that produce hypocretin. In some cases, narcolepsy runs in families. Hypocretin promotes wakefulness, so when there’s not enough, a person can fall asleep. The exact cause of narcolepsy is unknown, but it is thought to develop when the levels of a brain chemical called hypocretin are too low.
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