Sleepiness is a kind of pathological sleepiness, which can be awakened, but once the stimulus is removed, it will soon fall asleep. Sleepiness is an early manifestation of consciousness disorder and should be paid attention to.
Narcolepsy is difficult to diagnose. Its initial symptoms are usually severe daytime sleepiness. There are many reasons for this symptom, so it usually takes several years to confirm that the patient really has this disease.
1? Symptoms of narcolepsy
Typical narcolepsy has the following four symptoms:
Excessive daytime sleepiness: This symptom is the most obvious symptom of narcolepsy.
Cataplexy: This symptom refers to the sudden loss of muscle tension in a fully awake state, leading to paralysis of the head or body without losing consciousness. It can last for a few seconds or minutes. Mild symptoms are slurred speech, stuttering, drooping eyelids or inability to hold things with your fingers. Severe cataplexy can lead to knee bending and make people collapse. Laughter, excitement or anger are typical causes of cataplexy, and the sudden relaxation of muscle mass may be the result of the brain suddenly falling into rem sleep. Cataplexy is not very common, and less than half of narcolepsy patients have cataplexy.
Sleep paralysis: this symptom refers to the temporary inability to exercise when people fall asleep or want to wake up. It only lasts a few minutes. Similar to cataplexy, sleep paralysis may also be related to insufficient transition between REM sleep and waking state.
Hypnotic hallucination: refers to an image that is mentally like a dream, usually scary, and often occurs during sleep or before sleep paralysis.
For teenagers or just adults, these symptoms have never appeared before, and usually appear suddenly. People suffering from narcolepsy will complain that they feel tired easily and perform poorly in work, study and social activities. Excessive sleepiness during the day will make people lose their due ability and reduce their memory, thus greatly reducing their quality of life, and the visual impairment caused by sleepiness may be particularly disturbing.
More than half of the people who are sleepy will have memory loss or memory interruption at the same time, which is caused by "micro-sleep" that breaks into the awake state. At these stages, people with drowsiness will be at a loss, babble or scribble, and put things wrong or bump into things when walking or driving. Usually, they can't control their behavior at these stages, and they don't remember what happened later.
Sleepiness should be distinguished at the same time: menstrual period, adolescence and neurasthenia.
2. Primary narcolepsy
This kind of narcolepsy will occur when the patient complains of excessive sleepiness for at least one month, and the sleep time is prolonged almost every day, or when he can't help but want to sleep during the day. Moreover, this situation is not caused by not sleeping well the night before, or by lack of sleep, nor by drug use or poor physical condition. At this point, it can be preliminarily concluded that it is primary narcolepsy.
3 Recurrent narcolepsy
The common diseases of recurrent narcolepsy are Klein-Guwen syndrome and recurrent premenstrual narcolepsy.
Klein-Guwen syndrome is a disease that mostly occurs in adolescents, and it is more common in men than in women. The clinical symptom is narcolepsy, accompanied by increased food intake and increased sexual desire. Symptoms usually appear suddenly (within a few hours) or gradually (within a few days), accompanied by changes in mental state, especially restlessness. The duration of drowsiness symptoms ranges from one day to 30 days, but it is usually four to seven days. And it will recur every once in a while, usually a few months. At the same time, the frequency of narcolepsy will decrease with age. At present, the etiology is not clear, which may be related to the abnormal function of inferior colliculus.
Recurrent premenstrual sleepiness is characterized by the periodic occurrence of sleepiness symptoms, which is related to women's menstrual cycle. After menstruation, the symptoms of drowsiness disappear. This condition must occur continuously for at least 3 months before it can be diagnosed as premenstrual sleepiness. During premenstrual narcolepsy, many sleep physiological EEG tests showed normal sleep at night, but many sleep latency tests showed drowsiness during the day.
4 narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is an irresistible sleep, which occurs every day (mainly during the day), lasts for at least 3 months, and will happen. When the patient suddenly falls down, he can usually realize what happened, which is caused by the strong emotion that the muscle tension on both sides of the body disappears, so that the patient will suddenly become weak and fall. I fell asleep during the day, and rem will happen soon. Some people will have vivid hallucinations at the beginning or near the end of sleep, and some people will have sleep paralysis (commonly known as "ghost bed").
Narcolepsy patients often fall asleep immediately after falling asleep during the day. Whether driving, watching movies or talking to others, they can't stop sleeping. Dreaming begins about 5 minutes after falling asleep (the average person's time from falling asleep to dreaming is about 90 ~ 120 minutes), and the duration varies from a few minutes to dozens of minutes. Then the patient will wake up and feel better.
5 female menstrual narcolepsy
Women's menstrual narcolepsy refers to the disease that women feel sleepy all day and night, wake up when they scream, and then want to sleep after waking up. Some women with dermatitis will forget the date of menstruation, but she has a unique symptom of sleepiness during menstruation, and then naturally know that menstruation will come again. From the analysis of patients in clinical contact, this phenomenon has a certain relationship with women's physical endowment. Women who are usually fat, bloated or anemic, or women in loose stool at ordinary times, will feel sleepy and weak before menstruation comes, just want to sleep, or even be confused.
Women who are sleepy after menstruation should pay attention to strengthening physical exercise, such as jogging, playing ball and playing Tai Ji Chuan. Choose a kind of exercise you like and stick to it for a long time. Eat less sweets and high-fat foods in your diet. You can eat more watermelon in summer and more sweet radish in winter. You can also cook porridge with red beans and barley at ordinary times. Generally speaking, women who are sleepy during menstruation can achieve satisfactory therapeutic effect as long as they pay attention to their lives and take medicine on time under the guidance of doctors.
If you have the following conditions, you should consider whether you have narcolepsy:
Even if you sleep a lot all night, you will still feel sleepy during the day.
I will fall asleep when I don't want to sleep or I shouldn't. For example, when I laugh at dinner, drive or work, or get angry, surprised or shocked, my body will suddenly become paralyzed, or my head muscles will be weak and I can't support my head.
When you are about to fall asleep or wake up, you will find yourself temporarily unable to speak or move. [Edit this paragraph] The following reasons should be considered when you are sleepy or sleepy during the day: 1. Doctors usually think that daytime sleepiness is due to insufficient sleep time or poor sleep at night, resulting in biological clock and sleep disorder.
2, sleep apnea, that is, snoring while sleeping, intermittent breathing, will affect the quality of sleep.
3, obesity: overweight is also an important cause of excessive daytime sleepiness.
4. Diabetes is also closely related to daytime sleepiness. Among diabetics, they are nearly twice as likely to be sleepy during the day as others.
5. Depression: It may be the main reason for excessive daytime sleepiness. Among people who receive treatment for depression, the probability of feeling too sleepy during the day is three times that of the normal level.
6. Hypothyroidism: Patients with hypothyroidism are often sleepy due to low basal metabolism.
7, insufficient nutrition: eating less and insufficient nutrition can easily lead to drowsiness and love to sleep. Eating more protein food can improve symptoms.
Therefore, middle-aged people are always sleepy. First of all, we should find out the above reasons, check blood sugar and thyroid function when necessary, and rule out pathological reasons.
For those who have no obvious reason, there is no need to worry. They should readjust their lives, concentrate on their work during the day, or arrange some interesting activities to strengthen physical exercise. Take a nap at noon and ensure the quality of sleep at night, so that you will have plenty of energy during the day.
Dietary Precautions for Sleepy Patients
Many patients with sleepiness want to relieve the symptoms of sleepiness through diet, so what problems should be paid attention to in diet?
1. Diet should be light: after eating greasy dishes, blood will gather in the digestive tract when the human body digests fat, which will inevitably affect the blood supply to the brain, thus making people tired after meals and reducing work efficiency. Eating some leeks and garlic seedlings in moderation, and yellow-green vegetables rich in vitamin A can restore energy and eliminate drowsiness.
2. Eat vegetables and fruits: eat more seasonal vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins in spring to ensure a balanced diet, which has a positive effect on maintaining normal function and maintaining vigorous energy.
3. Eat ginger: Ginger is spicy, which can make the body warm from the inside out, enhance immunity and refresh the mind.
4. Drink milk with tea or coffee: you can't drink milk alone, otherwise you will feel sleepy. Tea or coffee should be added to the heated milk, and fresh mint leaves can also be added. Peppermint oil helps blood circulation.
5. Eat fish and lean meat: Eating more fish is good for learning and memory. Fish does not increase the accumulation of fat, but also has the function of strengthening the brain. Scientific research has found that lean meat such as beef and chicken is rich in protein, which is high in energy and low in fat. Regular consumption can effectively keep people energetic.
Sleepy patients need to pay more attention to some problems in their diet, which can alleviate the symptoms of sleepiness to a great extent. But if the symptoms are serious or last for a long time, please go to the hospital in time. The drugs commonly used in western medicine to treat drowsiness are toluene salt (ritalin and other trade names) or dextroamphetamine and other stimulants, and the traditional prescriptions commonly used in Chinese medicine to treat drowsiness, such as Xingpi Kaiqiao Decoction, are modified.