It’s well-known that many adults don’t get the rest they should, but there are lots of reasons, from insomnia to sleep apnea and more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep nightly (it’s advised that adults get 7-9 hours of sleep). Even more alarming is the fact that almost 40% of adults unintentionally fall asleep during the day at least once per month.
When it comes to sleep disorders, treatment must be targeted, since each has unique symptoms and solutions.
Two conditions that shouldn’t be lumped together are narcolepsy and insomnia. Though they have some overlapping symptoms, they’re distinct, are defined by different types of “tired,” and require separate clinical solutions.
At Houston Neurological Institute, our knowledgeable and experienced provider team diagnoses and treats a wide range of sleep disorders.
Today, let’s take a deeper look at the exhaustion caused by both insomnia and narcolepsy and what treatment options exist.
Though they’re both classified as sleep disorders, interrupt your sleep at night, and make you tired during the day, narcolepsy and insomnia impact your sleep differently.
With insomnia, you have difficulty falling and staying asleep.
Though some notice insomnia symptoms for short periods, others have long-lasting, chronic insomnia, where falling and staying asleep is impossible for at least three nights per week, for longer than three months.
Insomnia’s effects include daytime exhaustion and irritability. Other disruptive insomnia symptoms also include:
Insomnia can be linked to stress, travel, big life transitions, and napping during the day. It can also be caused by physical discomfort, like a headache or heartburn, certain medications, and a mental health condition like depression or anxiety.
Other sleep disorders may also contribute to developing insomnia, like sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome.
Narcolepsy poses a challenge to your sleep cycles and causes a two-fold problem: sleep disruptions at night and what’s termed as daytime “sleep attacks” — uncontrollably and suddenly falling asleep no matter what you’re doing, even talking. This can pose serious danger if you’re driving or operating machinery at work, for example.
There are two types of narcolepsy: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 narcolepsy can make you lose muscle tone abruptly (cataplexy), especially when you feel a strong emotion that causes you to laugh or cry. Type 2 doesn’t cause this.
We noted that narcolepsy affects your sleep cycles, and we have four distinct ones. The REM (rapid eye movement) stage is when you sleep most deeply and dream. It starts about an hour-and-a-half after you drift off.
When you have narcolepsy, the entry into REM sleep is much faster, typically only 15 minutes after you fall asleep — and you might go into a dream-like state while you’re still awake. Narcolepsy can cause you to:
People coping with narcolepsy often have low levels of hypocretin, a chemical that aids the brain in managing sleep cycles.
One chemical messenger that influences both type 1 narcolepsy and insomnia is called orexin, a substance nerve cells produce that helps them communicate with each other and keeps us alert during the day.
People with type 1 narcolepsy don’t have many nerve cells that manufacture orexin, and this causes both daytime exhaustion and cataplexy.
Insomniacs live with an orexin surplus, causing them to stay up.
So, people living with insomnia typically feel tired and cranky during the day — and may even nod off once in a while, but those experiencing narcolepsy have a much more abrupt version of falling asleep during the day, no matter what they’re doing.
If you suspect you have a sleep disorder and your symptoms are affecting your quality of life, it’s time to call Houston Neurological Institute. Diagnosing sleep disorders can be tricky, so it’s best to consult with experts.
Our certified sleep expert team evaluates your sleep at our full-service sleep center, so we can accurately diagnose you.
Successful treatments for insomnia include medications, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and sleep education, where we help you create a healthy nighttime routine that supports good sleep.
Narcolepsy isn’t curable, but it’s treatable. We may recommend:
If you’re caught in a draining pattern of problematic sleep, call our Pearland or Pasadena office to schedule an appointment to get treated, or book one online.
