ABSTRACT
NARCOLEPSY Narcolepsy is the classic example of a true sleeping sickness. First described in 1877, the disorder was given its name by the French neuropsychiatrist Jean Baptiste Gelineau. Understanding of narcolepsy has slowly developed over the past 50 years culminating in a flood of knowledge since 1999. Diagnostic techniques have evolved, and new drugs have provided increasing relief for patients. However, much remains to be understood, especially about the disorder’s pathogenesis and the borderlands where it merges with other conditions such as idiopathic hypersomnia (IH).
