Sleeping On the Job

Funny stories surround narcolepsy, both from those who watch narcoleptics fell into dreamland in the snap of a finger, and from the narcoleptics themselves if they happen to have a sense of humor themselves.

“PATCH, have you heard of narcolepsy?”

"Would you take care of this one for me, please?"

Narcolepsy is a long-running sleep disorder resulting from problems in human nerves. It is technically called "Dyssomnia."

Narcoleptics have excessive urge to sleep when they should not sleep, such as while at work or at school. Imagine what chaos will result when a teacher in kindergarten slept standing before her pupils.

That would be less noisy with college students who, having noticed their professor in his “turn-off” mode, would simply sneak out of the classroom with as much silence as possible.

Indeed the pull toward slumber is very strong among narcoleptics. While most people take 90 minutes to get into rapid eye movement (REM) when asleep, narcoleptics breeze the way within... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 26 October 2011.

Comments

Deadly X-Gene Mutants

A RECENT study on macrophages (i.e. defensive cells in our body that engulf threatening substances inside our body) introduced me to a lethal, genetic disease that targets the male population. This disease is called Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), named after the French neurologist Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne, who described it in 1861. While it has an incidence of one in 3,500 newborn males, health experts consider this as the most common lethal disease of childhood around the world. Mutation in the male (X) chromosome [dystrophin gene, locus Xp21] causes a rapid degeneration of the muscles, leading into an eventual loss of walking ability and then death. While females do not exhibit symptoms, they can be carriers of these defective genes, especially if the father had this condition or the mother is also a carrier. Symptoms usually appear before age five; at times visible in early infancy. These symptoms involve... ( Read more .) This article appears in Sun-Star Ce...

Death By Heat Stroke in the Philippines

The hotter and earlier-onset El Niño phenomenon this year 2010 poses a threat to the Filipino lives. How much life it took? See incidence that reached the news. UPDATE On 19 May 2010, candidate army soldier Ericson Pascua (22) came on his first day of training in Isabela when he collapsed after a series of strenous exercise. Although rushed to the hospital immediately, he died shortly afterwards (around 11 a.m.) due to heat stroke. That day Isabela peaked at 38.2 degrees Celsius. Sixteen others were rushed to the hospital for dehydration and heat exhaustion. (Check report ) On 28 April 2010, a veteran Cavite cop, PO3 Florencio Gamana Alivio (48), succumbed to cardiac arrest as a result to heatstroke while having tae bo with his colleagues at the Cavite Police Provincial Office (CPPO) grounds in Camp General Pantaleon. He reached the Imus MEdical Center but pronounced dead at 5:15 PM. (Check report ) In Batangas, former governor Amando Sanchez (57)di...

Breakthroughs Today

Search This Blog