ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION In 1880, Gelineau coined the term narcolepsie to describe a pathological condition that was characterized by recurrent, brief attacks of sleepiness (1). He recognized that the disorder was accompanied by falls or astasias which were subsequently defined as cataplexy. Narcolepsy is a lifelong disorder of rapid eye movement (REM) in which there are attacks of irresistible daytime sleep, cataplexy (sudden loss of muscle tone and weakness in response to emotional triggers such as laughter, fright, or rage that can lead to head dropping or falls), hypnagogic hallucinations (vivid dreams at sleep onset), and sleep paralysis (momentary inability to move as one is falling asleep). Commenting about what he felt was a possible psychiatric basis for the disease, Adie in 1926 (2) wrote that true narcolepsy “is a functional disorder of the nervous system, probably an undue fatigability of the nerve cells in individuals with a peculiar kind of nervous activity that allows excessive responses to emotional stimuli and favors the spread of inhibitions.” By 1963, however, the organic basis for narcolepsy had been firmly established by Rechtschaffen and colleagues following their description of the pathognomonic sleep onset REM periods on polysomnography (3).
