Has anyone been diagnosed with ADHD, but thought it might be Narcolepsy?
Friday, October 30th, 2009 at
11:35 pm
Tiffany asked:
My son was diagnosed with ADHD 10 years ago. About 6 years ago I, with the advise of my doctor, tried his medication to see if it would help my problem with alertness. It did, so my doctor perscribed it to me, and it has always helped. The last couple of years, because of the fact that I have dealt with sleep disorders, I thought my problem might be Narcolepsy. I have done a lot of internet research, and believe that might be my problem. I have never brought this up to my doctor, because Ritalin always helps me stay alert during the day. The sleep disorder is not the only symtom I have that makes me think it might be Narcolepsy. I will also do things that I have no recolection of doing. I constantly lose things. It is very irritating and time consuming. I will take short naps, 20 minutes or so, and have very vivid dreams. (Losing things can be a symtom of ADHD, but having vivid dreams within 5 minutes of sleep is not.)
My son was diagnosed with ADHD 10 years ago. About 6 years ago I, with the advise of my doctor, tried his medication to see if it would help my problem with alertness. It did, so my doctor perscribed it to me, and it has always helped. The last couple of years, because of the fact that I have dealt with sleep disorders, I thought my problem might be Narcolepsy. I have done a lot of internet research, and believe that might be my problem. I have never brought this up to my doctor, because Ritalin always helps me stay alert during the day. The sleep disorder is not the only symtom I have that makes me think it might be Narcolepsy. I will also do things that I have no recolection of doing. I constantly lose things. It is very irritating and time consuming. I will take short naps, 20 minutes or so, and have very vivid dreams. (Losing things can be a symtom of ADHD, but having vivid dreams within 5 minutes of sleep is not.)
Filed under: Narcolepsy
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Very vivid dreams when asleep for 5 minutes is indeed suggestive of narcolepsy. The gold standard sleep study for narcolepsy is a multiple sleep latency test, where they give you 5 opportunities to take a nap and record how quickly you fall asleep and how quickly you enter REM (aka dream) sleep.
As you have likely discovered in your research, Narcolepsy is thought to be very under diagnosed (and frequently misdiagnosed). I would suggest you have a sleep study with a multiple sleep latency test done largely for pharmacological reasons.
Ritalin is a drug with good use, but I’ve found others to be more useful (like Concerta and Provigil). SSRI’s (like many anti-depressants) can suppress REM sleep, including in your waking life. (In other words, less frequent automatic behaviors where you do things you don’t remember doing). That aspect is separate from just level of alertness, but make a big difference in quality of life.
Best of luck.