In this episode, I explore the curious sleep disorder narcolepsy. With apt patient memoirs, I describe its clinical manifestations, from sleep attacks and cataplexy, to sleep paralysis and sleep-related hallucinations.
I also review its association with other sleep disorders, and its non-sleep related manifestations. The podcast also discusses the genetic and acquired causes of narcolepsy, its association with hypocretin deficiency, and its risk factors. I also explore the investigations of narcolepsy, such as multiple sleep latency test, and its treatments, such as modafinil and sodium oxybate.
I also discussed the history of narcolepsy, such as anecdotes its discovery by Jean-Baptiste Édouard Gélineau. I also narrate the history of how sleep researcher Eugene Aserinsky discovered the two sleep phases, REM and non-REM.
To illustrate the lived experience of narcolepsy, I cite such insightful patient memoirs as that of Corrina Wetzel titled The Journey Beneath Her Heavy Feet, by Henry Nicholls titled Sleepyhead, and of Claire Crisp titled Waking Mathilda. To support the historical themes, I cite such works as When Brains Dream, by Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold, and A Portrait of the Brain by Adam Zeman.
