Two Cases of Narcoleptic Patients with Sleep Paralysis as a Chief Complaint
Yong Won Choi, Ji Hyun Song, Tae Won Kim, Sung Min Kim, In Hee Cho, Seung Chul Hong
Sleep Medicine Research January 11, 2019 DOI: 10.17241/smr.2018.00311 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 2 |
| Population | Men diagnosed with narcolepsy presenting with sleep paralysis |
| Keywords | Narcolepsy Sleep paralysis Polysomnography |
| Key findings | Sleep paralysis in narcolepsy patients has a prevalence of 20–50%, and clinicians should evaluate for narcolepsy using multiple sleep latency tests when patients present with sleep paralysis. |
Abstract
Sleep paralysis is considered as a dissociated state during which rapid eye movement sleep related muscle atonia appears while a subject is fully awake. We present a 22-year-old man and a 19-year-old man diagnosed with narcolepsy who previously visited our clinic with phenomenon of sleep paralysis. When a patient is brought to the clinic with sleep paralysis, various physiologic and medical conditions such as stress, trauma, hereditary factors, physical health, sleep disorders and other psychiatric disorders are taken into consideration. Prevalence of sleep paralysis in narcolepsy patients is known to be 20–50%. Therefore, it is necessary that clinicians should carefully examine the presence or absence of narcoleptic symptoms when dealing with patients with sleep paralysis and should conduct the multiple sleep latency tests confirm the diagnosis of narcolepsy if necessary.