Characteristic Manifestations
Severe daytime sleepiness and bouts of suddenly falling asleep
The manifestation of this during the daytime are usually the first symptoms of narcolepsy. The drowsiness is so severe that patients fall asleep despite their natural extreme reluctance to do so or a completely inappropriate environment. After waking up, patients feel cheerful and energized. However, after a few hours, marked drowsiness develops again. This is especially dangerous if a person is associated with professions that require increased attention.
The patient may sleep for a longer period in the night, doze in the daytime, and fall asleep at inappropriate times and places (e.g at work or school). Some patients with increased daytime sleepiness [4] may have episodes of “microsleep” during which they fall asleep for a very short time and may not even know that they were asleep. After microsleep, a person feels as if he is “thinking” or distracted for a short time.
In contrast to states of increased tiredness or fatigue, increased daytime sleepiness is not eliminated by increasing the duration of sleep.