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Narcolepsy – Diagnosis & Treatment

Polysomnogram (PSG) testing & Hypocretin measurement

Polysomnogram is an overnight test that entails that you spend the night in a medical facility. In this overnight test, continuous measurements are taken, including heart rate, oxygen level, eye and leg movements, breathing rate, and brain waves while you sleep. The purpose of a Polysomnogram test is to help evaluate and reveal how quickly you fall asleep and how often you wake up during the night. This test would also help to trace what could have been the cause narcolepsy [1].

Hypocretin measurement is simply checking the level of your hypocretin. For further diagnosis tests, your doctor might need to make use of a spinal tap or lumbar puncture to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The level of hypocretin is expected to be low in people with type 1 narcolepsy.