Narcolepsy is one of those amazing rare disorders that everyone thinks they understand – people just fall asleep at random times, even in the middle of doing something. But there’s a lot more to it and – even better – we actually may be able to explain it.
# Stuff You Should Know: Narcolepsy
Josh and Chuck dive deep into narcolepsy, exploring how this chronic sleep disorder affects roughly one in 2,000 people with far more complexity than most realize. Beyond the famous sleep attacks, they unpack the lesser-known symptoms like cataplexy (sudden muscle paralysis), sleep paralysis, and terrifying hallucinations that can make narcolepsy genuinely frightening and disruptive to daily life. The episode takes a fascinating turn when they reveal the breakthrough discovery in the 1990s of hypocretin, a brain chemical responsible for keeping us awake, and how an autoimmune response may be the real culprit behind narcolepsy—with a stunning connection to a swine flu vaccine that inadvertently triggered cases in children.
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