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Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder with no known cause. A person who has narcolepsy may feel drowsy
or fall asleep at unwanted times. Narcolepsy is a very disabling and underdiagnosed illness and it effects an estimated
25 in every 100,000 people in the U.S. Studies show that narcolepsy effects an estimated .06 percent of the world
population, however some countries show extreme variations. In Japan for example, the percent of people that
have it is as high as .16 percent while in Israel it is extremely rare(1 in 500,000). If someone has narcolepsy, the order and length of NREM sleep and REM sleep periods are disturbed,
with REM sleep occurring at sleep onset instead of after a period of NREM sleep. So REM sleep occurs at an abnormal
time for people with this.
REM and NREM Sleep
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