Embarrassing Illnesses

There is currently no cure for narcolepsy. However, there are a number of ways that you can manage your symptoms in order to minimise the impact that narcolepsy has on your daily life.

Sleep habits

One of the best ways to help manage excessive daytime drowsiness is to take frequent, brief naps, evenly spaced throughout the day.

This may not always be possible in a work or school situation. However, your GP should be able to assist you devise a sleep schedule, which will help your body get into a routine of taking naps. Where possible, try and schedule a 10-15 minute nap after meals as this is when you are likely to feel particularly drowsy.

You should also make sure that you stick to a strict bedtime routine. Whenever possible, you should try to go to sleep at the same time each night. This will help your body to get into a regular routine, and should help make your night time sleep less disturbed.

Lifestyle

There are a number of lifestyle changes that you can make to help manage your narcolepsy symptoms. These include:

• avoiding stressful situations because stress can make your condition worse,
• taking regular exercise, and
• avoiding heavy meals during the day and before doing any potentially dangerous activities, such as driving, or operating machinery.

If your child has been diagnosed with narcolepsy, you should inform the school and your child's teachers, in order to avoid their behaviour being interpreted as laziness.

Stimulants

If your GP feels it is necessary, they may prescribe you a type of medicine known as a stimulant.

The stimulants most commonly prescribed for narcolepsy are modafinil and dexamphetamine. These medicines work by stimulating the central nervous system. They may be used if you have narcolepsy because they can help to keep you awake during the day.

Although they are usually effective, stimulants can cause side effects such as:

• nervousness,
• irregular heart beats (palpitations)
• headache,
• dizziness,
• dry mouth,
• nausea,
• diarrhoea, and
• constipation.

You should talk to your GP if you experience these side effects while taking a stimulant medicine because they may be able to prescribe an alternative medicine for you.

Antidepressants

Although antidepressants are most commonly used for treating depression, they can also be used to treat a number of other conditions, including narcolepsy.

Antidepressants may be able to help you if your narcolepsy causes you to have sudden loss of muscle control (cataplexy). See the 'symptoms' section for more details about cataplexy.

Antidepressants should help to reduce the number of hallucinations that you experience. They can also help treat temporary muscle paralysis when you fall asleep or wake up. However, antidepressants will not decrease the number of sleep attacks you have, and they will not make you feel more alert and awake, like a stimulant medicine will.

The most commonly prescribed antidepressants that are used to treat narcolepsy are clomipramine, fluoxetine and venlafaxine. As it can take several weeks for antidepressants to start working, it is important that you do not stop taking your medicine just because you do not see an immediate improvement.

Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines

Some over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, such as cold and allergy medicines, can cause drowsiness as a side effect. Therefore, if you have narcolepsy you should avoid taking these types of medicine because they are likely to make your daytime drowsiness worse.

If you are unsure about which medicines cause drowsiness, speak to your pharmacist or GP. They will normally be able to advise you about alternative medicines which do not cause drowsiness.

Driving

If you have been diagnosed with narcolepsy, you will have to inform the DVLA and stop driving immediately.

Once your symptoms are under control, you can be reissued with a one, two or three year license. Your condition will have to be regularly reviewed. If you have control of your symptoms for seven years, your full license will be restored.

If you drive a large goods vehicle and you are diagnosed with narcolepsy, you will also have to inform the DVLA and stop driving immediately.

As large goods vehicle drivers often have to drive for long periods of time, you will not normally be permitted to drive a large goods vehicle again. However, if you manage to control your symptoms for a long period of time, the DVLA may consider issuing you a license, but this decision will be based on your individual circumstances.