Posted by River1924 on March 11, 2006, at 0:46:27
In reply to Re: Hypnopompia? » River1924, posted by tizza on March 10, 2006, at 18:44:25
hi paul,
I doubt if it is of any signifigance to you but I have EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness.) For me, I just considered it a symptom of my atypical depression. It improved a great deal after I was tested for a fairly common genetic disorder called hemochromatosis. (One in 200 have the gene and one in 1000 need treatment. My body tends to absord too much iron and store it as a protein called ferritin.)
Anyway, I have sleep apnea and I needed a sleep test so insurance would pay for a new machine.
I was quite suprised when the doctor casually remarked that I have narcolepsy. I thought of (and still think of narcolepsy) as sleep attacks and cataplexy. I guess other symptoms include those you have and just live with...
Oddly, I only have EDS but that qualifies me for a diagnosis of narcolepsy. I found that odd. I take provigil and stimulants. (If I didn't I would sleep alot but I am capable of keeping myself awake if necessary.)
So, if you saw my sleep doctor, he would say you have narcolepsy. For me, it seems like an abuse of language. It makes the term so loose as to be meaningless.
A friend of mine had horrible nightmares and sleep paralysis. She also had strange rather peculiar experiences involving ghosts boys who wrote messages in her bathroom mirror. As well as many other odd psychic experience and months of constnat deja vu. She had such bad insomnia that I don't think she knew she was dreaming. (I didn't either at the time. I was open to what she said because she was an honest and normal person. Now I think I would tell her she had some sort of REM sleep disorder.)
I could accept my diagnosis of narcolepsy if I had symptoms such as yours. It would suggest that I dropped into REM states easily and that my body would be paralysed as if I was in a REM state even when I was awake... but I hardly ever dream and have never had sleep or wake paralysis.
Well, there really is no point to this ramble but narcolepsy may not mean what you, I and most people assume it means. It encompasses many symptoms and even one of them can get one the diagnosis. Why would you want the diagnosis? I suppose if my friend had had the right treatment... meds might have been able to suppress her REM sleep so she did not dream month after month about vampires dragging her underground with the heads of all her friends and family stuck on spikes and burning. Do any meds reduce your dreams or sleep paralysis? Do you take anything for EDS?
Well, I've taken a lot of your time. Good health! River.
poster:River1924
thread:616710
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060310/msgs/618678.html