Narcolepsy as a cause of unexplained accidents is a rare combination. You are more likely to have sleep apnea, a very treatable medical condition to mention one example as a precipitant. Other conditions like epilepsy, if you are already an adult are just as unlikely.
This was started by a recent debate about the possibility that a diver who plunged to his death with supposedly a working and unopened parachute had narcoleptic fit as the discussion group called it. This pre supposes that the cause of death is not a massive coronary artery disease or sub arachnoid hemorrhage on post mortem.
Narcolepsy is a separate entity from epilepsy. It is characterized by four main symptoms.
Uncontrollable need to sleep in an inappropriate situation is the major symptom.
Cataplexy or sudden loss of tone that can lead to falling sometimes.
Sleep paralysis (occurs in REM in normal subjects as well)
Hypnagogic hallucinations
The subject will hopefully know about his condition and avoid situations where he may end up a danger to himself or others.
He does not have an insight problem and his brain function is normal unlike people who have drowsiness from a general disease (hypothyroidism, hypoxia, and hypercapnia) or local brain stem disease (pontine hemorrhage)
The fact that a nap gets him to recover that well from the uncontrollable need to sleep leaving him refreshed is an asset well known to the subject and he uses it to its full benefit.
Every opportunity he gets to nap is used to its full extent.
I don’t miss an opportunity to sleep myself and I am not narcoleptic.
Cataplexy may be associated with emotional outburst, usually laughter or any positive emotion is common part. Most subjects have about an episode a year for diagnosis to be solid.
Sleep paralysis which in normal people occurs during the dream stages or later during sleep, is usually at the onset of the sleep cycle in narcolepsy. That is to say REM starts the sleep cycle in narcoleptics.
The Hypnagogic hallucinations are similar to what happens in the rest of the population, the stuff that nightmares are made of.
To conclude a relatively rare syndrome, narcolepsy is rare as a cause of an accident like what happened recently. The narcoleptic will as an individual have more accidents than the general public but adds very little to the accident cluster.
We cannot treat narcolepsy medically by the way.
If biochemistry and physiology of beauty and health are the elements of every mix, then results are assured
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