Narcolepsy and dreaming (plus other related stuff)

I was reading a book (fictional) about this 16 year old taht has narcolepsy and it seemed pretty scary but cool at the same time because you would enter a dream at random times of the day/night. the bad things about it, you lose all muscle control and fall to the ground, smashing your head on anything taht gets in the way, supposedly.

The cool part that I was thinking about was, what if you could harness the ability to lucid dream so whenever you do pass out, its like half your life is in the 11th dimension, you live half a normal but also half a fantasy life of whatever you want. Plus i know for a fact that narcoleptic people can spend days asleep which is like, hours of REM sleep. hours of dreaming, literally. would this really be possible or is it like your in a coma? (which i found out your brainwaves are too low frquency to enter REM sleep)

Hi my husband has narcolepsy. He falls asleep all the time but is not as bad as the book you read. He can sleep all night and then get up and be asleep within half an hr if he sts infront of the telly on his own. Certainly going to the cinema is out of the question and he has to set his phone to go off every 10 mins f he goes on the bus alone as he misses his stop by dropping off. I am sure if you have any questions he would gladly answer them if you interested in his condition. His dreams are very intense and it is quite scary sometimes especially when you have a conversation with him with him sitting up and he is actually asleep!
nice meeting you
solartrinity
xxxxxxxxxx
peace

^ Oh WOW that sounds pretty intense! :? Does he feel like this is seriously getting in the way of his life? Is there a treatment available? Thanks for sharing!!

Hi,
He went to a sleep clinic for the day a couple of months back and they booked him in for an over night stay at the general hospital sleep investigations ward. He stayed for 24 hrs and was covered with electrodes on his eyelids, torso, head, and wore breathing aperatus for monitoring his oxygen saturation. They videoed him through the night from 8pm to 6am. He also had a micro phone to measure snoring.
The next day they ran tests through the day where he was placed in a darkened room several times through the day to see if he went to sleep, and was monitored throughout, he fell asleep everytime.
We get the results next thursday and i have my fingers crossed that they can help him out and get medication sorted. He twitches all over the place when he sleeps and can act his dreams out. I cant sleep next to him as he runs in the bed and attacks the pillows. He has also tryed to strangle me in his sleep which was rather scary! If i wake him up he will get up and talk to me and even hold a conversation but not actually be there, as in awake. I think the worst time was when my waters broke and i went into labour he just went back sleep on the bed and then in the ambulance he dropped off, he was awake for the twins being born but 1/2 hr later fast off in a hospital chair.
I will let you know how we get on if your interested.

solartrinity

Wow! Yes do please let me know how everything goes.. I'm really interested in this. I take it narcolepsy interferes with sleep paralysis then, which is why he acts out his dreams? I'm glad you don't risk sleeping next to him.. that must be a little disappointing to not be able to, but I've heard of lots of cases where spouses have been injured during the night because of something related. Glad he was there for the birth! :D (And twins, cool!)

Hi there again, sorry for the delay in replying someone broke my laptop! but im back now. My hubby went for his results of his sleep clinic visit and tests came back showing he definately has narcolepsy. The test results showed that Jay (my hubby) never reach deep sleep (rest or recouperating sleep) He never makes it past the first couple of stages of sleep and gets stuck in REM. Because he never reaches deep sleep he is left hovering around the first couple of stages and because he is dreaming when he is so close to being awake he experiences sleep paralasis and lucid dreaming. The neurologist has prescribed Madafinal which acts on the central nervous system to help him stay awake. He has also been told that GHB could help by putting into deep sleep. Subsequently he has been more alert in the day time and managed to watch a film with me the other night. He still twitches all the time and gets visual disturbances and smells smoke a lot, which isnt there. They are going to test for temporal lobe epilepsy for that so its all going on here! I was really shocked when they suggested GHB for Jay, the neurologist said its an expensive and contraversial drug, and as far as I feel about it I am really worried Jay will start not remembering stuff as it is GHB that is known better as the date rape drug. I am not too keen for him to go on it but I am keen for him to get sorted out too. He has still been dropping off sleep towards the evening so we have a meeting next week to alter his dose and also for me to explain my observations of him. He is taking twice as much meds at the mo and seems a lot happier. We have to make an appointment too to take the twins to the clinic as it is hereditary and they could develop narcolepsy too. I have noticed that the twins sweat a lot when they sleep, like Jay does, which is a sign of the condition but they are far from sleepy!!! They are full on ;) and are 2 1/2. I will let you know how we get on ;)

bye for now
Emma + hubby J