Abstract
Narcolepsy is often considered to be an illness of excessive sleep; more precisely, it is a disorder manifested by brief, inappropriate episodes of sleep, often in association with other “auxiliary” symptoms. Sleep attacks have been described by a number of 19th-century physicians, among whom the best known is Westphal (1877). Gelineau in 1880 gave the name narcolepsy to a disturbance “characterized by an imperative need to sleep of sudden onset and short duration, recurring at more or less close intervals.” As Zarcone (1973) points out, characters with symptoms suggestive of narcolepsy have appeared in many famous works of fiction, including Eliot’s Silas Marner, Poe’s “The Premature Burial” and Melville’s Moby Dick.
Sleep may be produced by excessive direct or indirect debility; but such sleep is not salutary or refreshing, but what is termed morbid.—Thomas Ball, 1796
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© 1977 Plenum Press, New York
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Mendelson, W.B., Gillin, J.C., Wyatt, R.J. (1977). Narcolepsy and Diseases of Excessive Sleep. In: Human Sleep and Its Disorders. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2289-4_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2289-4_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-2291-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-2289-4
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