Damien is a 21 year old narcoleptic who lives in York with his parents, who run an old fashioned guest house. His unusual condition has had a devastating impact on all of their lives. He often finds many of the things that we take for granted a real struggle: paying attention, learning, getting and keeping a job, communicating, sleeping (ironically).
Duration : 0:6:17
Im doing a research project in school and I need info about what happens in the brain when you have narcolepsy. I’ve been searching and searching on google and all of the articles say the same things like what it is, symptoms, and other stuff like that. i really need help!
depends on what you mean by "what happens in the brain."
if you’re asking about how this comes to be and what exactly is going on in our physiology, then the latest theory is that our brains are missing a particular peptide (amino acids) called hypocretins or orexins. researchers think this is caused by our auto-immune systems destroying them during the fetal development of that particular part of the brain, possibly in response to exposure to a virus. (those born in march have a higher rate of being born with this, partly because the mother is in her second trimester during the big cold/flu season…while those born in september have the lowest, which puts the pregnant mom in her second trimester during a low cold/flu time of year.) the orexins regulate things like the body’s ability to stay awake. hence, no orexins, no fighting sleep.
here’s a few websites on that:
http://www.npi.ucla.edu/sleepresearch/NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY25/NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY25.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin
http://www.phschool.com/science/science_news/articles/narcolepsy_science.html
if you’re asking about what it’s like to go thru it, that’s a different and much longer story. feel free to IM me if that’s what’s you’re looking for.
This is a news segment CNN did a few years ago about Narcolepsy.