EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness)
EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness): A neurological disorder marked by a sudden recurrent uncontrollable compulsion to sleep. Also known as narcolepsy. It is often associated with cataplexy (a sudden loss of muscle tone and paralysis of voluntary muscles associated with a strong emotion), sleep paralysis (immobility of the body that occurs in the transition from sleep to wakefulness), what are called hypnagogic hallucinations (pre-sleep dreams) and automatic behaviors (such as doing something “automatically” and not remembering afterwards how one did it).
125,000 Americans are estimated to have narcolepsy. It strikes males and females and all races. Symptoms most commonly appear in a person’s teens and early twenties. The disease can vary in severity. Some persons with it have mild sleepiness or rare cataplexy (less than one episode per week). Other persons may have moderate sleepiness or infrequent cataplexy (less than one episode a day). Still other persons with narcolepsy may experience severe sleepiness or have severe cataplexy (with one or more episodes of cataplexy per day).
The cause(s) of narcolepsy are unknown. It is not a fatal disorder in itself but it can lead to fatalities. For example, a narcoleptic may fall asleep while driving.
Narcolepsy is usually treated with a medication to improve alertness and an anti-depressant that helps control cataplexy.
Other names for narcolepsy include hypnolepsy, sleeping disease, paroxysmal sleep, and Gelineau syndrome.
Read Also:
- Edwards syndrome
Edwards syndrome: Trisomy 18 syndrome. Children with the syndrome have an extra chromosome 18 with a characteristic pattern of multiple malformations and mental retardation. Features include low birth weight, small head (microcephaly), small jaw (micrognathia), malformations of the heart and kidneys, clenched fists with abnormal finger positioning, and malformed feet. The mental retardation is profound […]
- EEG
Electroencephalogram.
- EFEMP1
EFEMP1: A gene that encodes a protein with the long, complex name of EGF-containing fibulin-like extracellular matrix protein 1. EFEMP1 is now also known as FBLN3. See: FBLN3.
- Effacement
Effacement: Thinning of the cervix, which occurs before and while the cervix dilates.
- Effect, founder
Effect, founder: The positive effect on gene frequency when a population (colony) has only a small number of original settlers, one or more of whom had that gene. For example, the gene for Huntington’s disease was introduced into the Lake Maracaibo region in Venezuela early in the nineteenth century. This is now the largest known […]