Narcolepsy? Anyone have an idea?

When I was 12 I began feeling depressed and always tired. At 15 I was diagnosed bipolar. I slept all the time except at night i had difficulty sleeping. At 18 I began having muscle weakness and sleep issues continued. As the years went on the weakness during the day increased and I began having nightmares at night., & hallucinations 7 years ago I had my son and the daytime muscle weaknness increased badly. I started having full body paralysis at night and day. I began dozing off while driving and as always exhaustion. My dreams became so real I would wake up crying and I would also find eatten bowls of cereal in the kitchen in the morning and not remember doing it. My sleep test revealed I was 1 of 5% of Americans that can fall asleep in less than 5 mins and not even realize they were asleep. All subsuquent testing has been normal and I have had scores. My neurologist says I might have narcolepsy with cataplexy, anyone out there have it and have an idea if it sounds like me to

I work in the sleep field. And narcolepsy patient tend to start showing signs in their adolescent and teen years and then progress, just as you did. Hallucinations at the onset or upon waking of sleep, sleep paralysis, muscle weakness proceeding a strong emotions like laughter in one side or both sides of the body are REM phenomena and can directly be related to narcolepsy. Narcolepsy patient will have a mean sleep latency of less than 5 minutes and have at least 2 rem sleep onset out of the four naps. Most people achieve REM 90-120 minutes after sleep onset. Narcolepsy achieve REM a lot faster b/c REM sleep is invading other parts of sleep and wakefulness. If I was you I would go see a sleep doctor. B/c having the ability to fall asleep in less than 5 minutes with your other signs sounds like it to me.

There is hope. I have seen people go majority of their life with the problem and never receive help then finally someone points them in the right directions and it changes their life. GOOD LUCK!!! Report It

i dont have narcolepsy but what i've studied about it your symptoms deffnitley fit the disorder

you need a second opinion make an appointment with another neurologist.

I agree that it would be wise to take with you copies of the reports from every diagnostic you've had (include labs, imaging - bring the films with you -, EKG, EEG, echocardiography, polysomnography, electromyography, electroneuromyography, everything!) and consult with a second neurologist. Get the referral from your primary as soon as you can. Yes, you might have narcolepsy with cataplexy but you want to be certain. Don't you?