Nocturnal aspects of narcolepsy with cataplexy

Abstract

Even though the most impressive manifestation of narcolepsy is excessive sleepiness, paradoxically a significant number of patients have trouble sleeping at night. A wide array of alterations can affect the night-time sleep of a narcoleptic patient, and the aim of this review is to increase awareness on this issue, thereby enhancing the care of narcoleptic patients by more specific approaches to their disturbed night sleep. This review covers a broad variety of nocturnal sleep features in narcolepsy. Starting from animal models and the clinical features of patients, the paper then discusses the many comorbid conditions found in narcolepsy at night, the most advanced methods of analysis and the few recent advances in the specific treatment of night sleep in narcoleptic patients.