“C’est de la bonne viande”, Emmanuel Mignot, a Paris native, whispered to his dog, Beau, as he presented him with an aromatic can of dog food – much more appealing than his usual diet of dry pellets. Beau happily trotted over to the food, rolled his eyes in pleasurable anticipation, and dropped to the floor – completely still and asleep. (Discover 78) Beau is a dog suffering from narcolepsy. Because Beau became excited by the food, he collapsed to the floor in sleep. As unusual as this may sound, Beau is not alone in this world. Narcolepsy doesn’t affect just animals but humans as well. Between one in 1,000 and one in 2,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with this potentially dangerous disease. Narcolepsy, a condition in which a person is overcome by periodic bouts of overwhelming sleep, is a biological disorder stemming from a single genetic defect, prompted by environmental factors.
Scientists believe that a mutation in a gene encoding a cell-sur
Even if one is diagnosed with the disease narcolepsy, the environment plays a large role in determining the severity of the attacks and symptoms. Being aware of one’s surroundings and its effects can help to suppress the symptoms. The most commonly known symptom associated with narcolepsy is cataplexy which is the sudden loss of muscle control, ranging from slight weakness such as facial sagging or slurred speech to total collapse. Many times the person is still conscious as this occurs and can hear and remember everything that is going on around them. Other common symptoms of narcolepsy are sleep paralysis which is the inability to talk or move for a brief period when falling asleep or waking up, hypnologic hallucinations which are vivid or scary dreams and sounds reported when falling asleep, and automatic behavior in which routine tasks are performed without full awareness or memory of them. These symptoms, especially cataplexy, are usually prompted by intense emotion such
Example Essays Home
