Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder which is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis and hallucinations.

This disorder occurs due some problem in the neurons of the brain as a result of which the brain becomes incapable of regulating the cycles of sleeping and keeping awake. Throughout the day, people suffering from this disorder feel the urge to sleep. When they are unable to control the urge, the narcoleptics fall of to sleep for few seconds to minutes. In rare cases, the person can also sleep for an hour or so.Narcolepsy cannot be cured, but the symptoms of the disorder can be treated and controlled through prescription drugs like stimulants and antidepressants.

According to some sources, around 200,000 Americans suffer from narcolepsy. However, less than 50,000 cases have been diagnosed. Doctors and researchers believe that narcolepsy is quite prevalent across the American population, and it is as common as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis. However, since many people do not know that such a condition exists, they do not seek treatment for it. Also, many times narcolepsy is misdiagnosed as depression or epilepsy.

Under normal circumstances, when a person falls asleep, the brain waves become slow and irregular. This state of sleep is known as non-rapid eye movement sleep or NREM. After an hour and half, the person enters rapid eye movement sleep or REM. In this stage of sleep, the brain waves become active, and this the stage where a person tends to dream. However, when a person suffers from narcolepsy, the NREM and REM states of sleep get disturbed. The person directly enters REM stage when he first falls of to sleep rather than the NREM state of sleep. Therefore, it can be said that narcolepsy is a sleep disorder wherein the rapid eye movement sleep occurs at an uncharacteristic time.

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