Narcolepsy is a very serious sleeping disorder that affects an estimated 1 in every 3000 people in the U.S alone. Surely with a disorder so prevalent in our society, we know the causes of narcolepsy? The answer to that may be a bit disturbing.

1. Causes of Narcolepsy
Finding Out Why This Sleeping Disorder Happens
Narcolepsy Causes - The Short Answer
No one knows with any certainty what the
causes of narcolepsy are.
Narcolepsy Causes - The Longer Answer
Starting in the 1970s at the Stanford Medical Center, a doctor Emmanuel
Mignot, began research that involved the breeding of narcoleptic dogs in an
effort to pinpoint narcolepsy causes in humans. In 1999, a mutation of a
specific gene, hypocretin, was pinpointed as the cause of the dogs'
narcolepsy.
Around the same time in Texas, a medical researcher named Masashi
Yanagisawa along with a group of scientists, was working on an unrelated
research project involving mice. Quite accidentally, they determined that
the same gene, but one which Yanagisawa had named orexin, was linked to
the sleep-wake cycles in the mice which, when "knocked out" or removed
from the mice, produced a condition very similar to human narcolepsy.

2. These two findings - that a lack of the gene hypocretin / orexin is
responsible for narcolepsy in animals, triggered a frenzy of further research
and study on the subject.
From that point to today, three hypotheses have been put forth about the
possible causes of narcolepsy in humans.
1. Lack of hypocretin / orexin in the brain Autopsies of narcoleptic
patients with cataplexy have shown a substantially lower amount of
hypocretin.
2. Genetic factors Narcolepsy tends to run in the family - around 8-10%
of people suffering from narcolepsy have a close relative with the
disorder. However, most scientists agree that this is not the only
factor and that some other environmental trigger such as:
 stress
 hormonal changes
 immune system difficulties
 infection
 trauma
may also play a contributing role.
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3. Autoimmunity Dr. Jerome Siegel, Professor
of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences,
University of California published data that
supports the theory that one of the causes of
narcolepsy could be an autoimmune
disorder. Dr. Siegal, through autopsies of
narcoleptic patients, found scar tissue in the
place of what should have been healthy
hypocretin cells in the brain. He has thusly
postulated that the body's own defences may
be attacking hypocretin cells, thereby contributing to one of the causes of
narcolepsy.
That however, brings us back to the short answer about the causes of
narcolepsy: no one knows for sure. Research is still ongoing and, although
there may be treatments for narcolepsy, there is no cure for narcolepsy and
to date, no solid evidence as to what causes narcolepsy.
An autoimmune disorder is a condition
where an individual's own immune system,
thinking that it's attacking a foreign virus,
starts attacking healthy cells.
If you suspect that you, or someone you
know, may be suffering from the sleep
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