Also, the premature occurrence of REM sleep onset (SOREMs) characterizes these sleep episodes, representing an essential element for diagnosing narcolepsy.

EDS consists of daily periods of an irrepressible need to sleep that leads to real sleep attacks, and is exacerbated by periods of relative physical inactivity (e.g., watching television, driving car, etc.). Narcolepsy is a chronic debilitating sleep disorder affecting humans and animals, characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. This review aims to provide a synthesis of behavioral, neurophysiological, and neurochemical evidence to discuss the complex relationship between NC and emotional experience and to direct future research. Notwithstanding this evidence, the relationship between emotion and narcolepsy is poorly investigated. Interestingly, NC patients, even during sleep, have a different emotional experience than healthy subjects, with more vivid, bizarre, and frightening dreams. Consistently, NC patients seem to use coping strategies even during their sleep, avoiding unpleasant mental sleep activity through lucid dreaming. Furthermore, behavioral studies suggest an impairment of emotions processing in narcolepsy-cataplexy (NC), like a probable coping strategy to avoid or reduce the frequency of cataplexy attacks. Neurophysiological and neurochemical findings suggest the involvement of emotional brain circuits in the physiopathology of cataplexy, which seems to depending on the dysfunctional interplay between the hypothalamus and the amygdala associated with an alteration of hypocretin levels. Some symptoms of narcolepsy depend on emotional stimuli for instance, cataplectic attacks can be triggered by emotional inputs such as laughing, joking, a pleasant surprise, and also anger. This disease affects significantly the overall patient functioning, interfering with social, work, and affective life. Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.

Narcolepsy and cataplexy in dogs