We are helping to raise awareness on World Narcolepsy Day!

Established by 24 patient advocacy organizations across 6 continents in 2019,?World Narcolepsy Day?unites the international narcolepsy community to inspire action, increase public knowledge, and elevate the voices of the 3 million people living with narcolepsy worldwide.

World Narcolepsy Day (Sept. 22nd) is a day dedicated to raising awareness of narcolepsy on a global scale.?World Narcolepsy Day inspires action, increases public knowledge, and elevates the voices of people living with narcolepsy worldwide.

Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological condition affecting about 3 million people worldwide.?Yet, because of low awareness, a majority of those living with narcolepsy are currently undiagnosed. Narcolepsy impairs the brain’s ability to control the normal balance between sleep and wakefulness and affects about 1 in 2,000 people— 3 million people worldwide.

Some narcolepsy symptoms may include:

• Excessive daytime sleepiness: Periods of extreme sleepiness during the day that feel comparable to how someone without narcolepsy would feel after staying awake for 48-72 hours. Often resulting in difficulty concentrating and staying alert.
• Cataplexy: Striking, sudden episodes of muscle weakness usually triggered by emotions such as laughter, exhilaration, surprise, or anger. The severity may vary from a slackening of the jaw or buckling of the knees to falling down. The duration may be for a few seconds to several minutes and the person remains fully conscious (even if unable to speak) during the episode.
• Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations: Visual, auditory, or tactile hallucinations upon falling asleep or waking up. Sleep paralysis: The inability to move for a few seconds or minutes upon falling asleep or waking up. It is often accompanied by hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations.
• Disrupted nighttime sleep: Unlike public perceptions, people with narcolepsy do not sleep all the time. Timing of sleepiness is “off” with narcolepsy so one may fight sleepiness during the day but struggle to sleep at night.

There are two types of narcolepsy: narcolepsy with cataplexy and narcolepsy without cataplexy. Recent research suggests that narcolepsy with cataplexy is caused by a lack of hypocretin, a key neurotransmitter that helps sustain alertness and regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Less is known about narcolepsy without cataplexy.

Treatments are available today and can improve symptoms of narcolepsy. Symptom management varies widely by person and it often takes a long time to find an optimal combination of treatments. Because of low awareness and misperceptions, there is an average of 8 to 15 years between narcolepsy symptom onset and diagnosis. It’s estimated that the majority of people with narcolepsy are currently undiagnosed or misdiagnosed (common misdiagnoses include epilepsy, depression and schizophrenia)

Together, we can reduce delays in narcolepsy diagnosis, reduce stigma and improve outcomes.?

For more information, please visit:?Project-Sleep