Sleep Paralysis and Narcolepsy....?

What is Narcolepsy??

and how is it connected??

Im scared i have it now, cos i get sleep paralysis!

narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by many different symptoms.
sleep paralysis is when you are technically awake and yet you can't move anything for several minutes.

sleep paralysis, although it also occurs for other reasons as well, can be one of the symptoms of narcolepsy...along with sleep attacks (they occur at any time and last for several minutes...no holding them off no matter how hard you try), cataplexies (loss of muscle tone so you go limp) and hypnagogic hallucinations (dream state REM carries over to when we're waking up so our dreams still continue, making us hallucinate). sleep paralysis often occurs with the hallucinations, since when you are in the REM stage of sleep, your body is locked down and paralyzed while you sleep. and since the REM is accidentally carrying over to the wake time for one symptom as you wake up (hallucinations), the other symptom (paralysis) occurs at the same time. that's the connection with narcolepsy.

my advice on dealing with them is to just ride thru it...fighting it won't stop it, nor will it ever hurt you. they only last for a few minutes at most, so try to relax as you wake up and it'll help them end sooner.

best bet is to get a sleep study done. your doctor can arrange one thru a sleep center in your area. that will tell if you have narcolepsy or if it's caused by something else.

Narcolepsy--- sleep during day time. Sleep paralysis--- have long uninterruted spellsof sleep.