Given that approximately 1 in 2000 people in the United States has narcolepsy, and their symptoms are so dramatic, there is  a good chance you know someone with this disorder. Narcolepsy is fundamentally a debilitating, lifelong disorder of excessive sleepiness and sleep dysregulation. In this episode, we will:define narcolepsy and learn how it presents in individualstrace the pathophysiology of the chemical disorder related to orexin/hypocretin dysfunctionlist the 5 main diagnostic characteristics of the disorderdifferentiate the causes (hereditary, autoimmune) of narcolepsyoutline the diagnostic pathway and the pitfalls of narcolepsy testinglearn how diagnostic momentum applies to the diagnosis of narcolepsybriefly touch upon treatments (but will largely leave this for a future episode)Produced by: Maeve WinterMore Twitter: @drchriswinter IG: @drchriwinter Threads: @drchriswinter Bluesky: @drchriswinter The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child Thanks for listening and sleep well!