Many symptoms of narcolepsy, such as excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep attacks, occur during the day. Sleep attacks are sudden, overwhelming urges to fall asleep. Another symptom is cataplexy, which is sudden muscle weakness often triggered by strong emotions. These symptoms might affect your ability to work, drive safely, or stay awake and focused during the day. However, it’s also common to have other symptoms at night. If you’ve had nightmares, sleep paralysis, and other nighttime symptoms with narcolepsy, you’re not alone.

You can talk to your healthcare team about how all of your narcolepsy symptoms affect you and work with them to find treatment options.

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Read on to find out more about potential nighttime symptoms of narcolepsy.

1. Sleep Paralysis

During sleep paralysis, your brain temporarily turns off muscle movement during REM sleep, but your mind wakes up too soon, leaving you unable to move. People who experience sleep paralysis find that they can’t move during a period of time while they’re falling asleep or waking up. Some feel like they’re suffocating. This loss of muscle control can last from several seconds to several minutes.

“I’m always freaked out when I can't move. I worry someone is going to come in and rob my house while I'm caught in that state.”

— A MyNarcolepsyTeam member

Sleep paralysis can be frightening. One MyNarcolepsyTeam member said, “I experienced sleep paralysis maybe 10 times, starting in my late 40s, and it was terrifying!” Others shared their fear of something bad happening while they can’t move. Another member wrote, “I’m always freaked out when I can’t move. I always worry someone is going to come in and rob my house while I’m caught in that state.”

2. Nightmares

People with narcolepsy often have nightmares. These scary dreams can wake you up at night and require a lot of mental energy to process or work through.

Nightmares may affect people even after they wake up. One MyNarcolepsyTeam member put it this way: “Most are horrible nightmares where I see my friends in danger, or I’m being chased. I’m trying so hard to scream or stop them, and I can’t. When I actually wake up, I feel sore and out of breath.”

“I have bad dreams every night. They're the bane of my life, and I hate going to sleep. They color my days with pain.”

— A MyNarcolepsyTeam member

Some people struggle with going to sleep because they’re afraid of what they might dream. A member wrote, “Due to my narcolepsy, I have bad dreams every night. They’re the bane of my life, and I hate going to sleep. They color my days with pain.”

Some members share tips that might help, like leaving a light on. One member explained, “I was always hallucinating or having a nightmare. So much so that I slept with a light on for years.”

3. Hallucinations

Sometimes, people with narcolepsy will have hallucinations as they’re falling asleep or waking up. These hallucinations feel especially scary because they blend dreams with the real world. You may be looking at your bedroom, but your brain adds dream images on top of what you’re seeing. Some people report seeing faces or figures, such as an intruder. These hallucinations can also happen with sleep paralysis.

These episodes can be scary, especially when they involve thoughts of an intruder or a feeling that you can’t breathe. One member shared, “I’ve only had the ‘intruder’ hallucination once. I actually managed to get my eyes open several times and saw a shadow stooping over me. He kept putting his hands over my face and trying to suffocate me.”

Some people start experiencing these episodes as children. A member said, “When I was younger, I thought I was going to die! When the demon would come, I would see his figure but never his face. He would cover my face and sit on my chest so I couldn’t breathe.”

4. Automatic Behaviors

Automatic behaviors are actions that happen when your brain goes on autopilot while you’re still technically asleep, and you may not remember them later. Sometimes, these actions can interfere with your daily life. For example, you might send a message to someone or turn off an alarm and sleep through it.

“When I was a little girl, I would wake up somewhere in the neighborhood, lost and scared.”

— A MyNarcolepsyTeam member

Automatic behaviors and mobile phones can be a hard combination. One member reported, “I still do things on my phone in my sleep.” This can cause problems if you text people, access your bank account, or make purchases.

People also commonly turn off their alarms as an automatic behavior. As a MyNarcolepsyTeam member explained, “My biggest annoyance is with alarms. ‘Sleepy me’ will turn off all of my alarms IN A ROW sometimes, which I never do if I’m awake, just in case I fall back asleep.” This is an issue if you need to get up for something!

5. Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking is an unusual behavior that can happen during sleep. It isn’t the same as automatic behaviors, but some people with narcolepsy report it.

Some people have scary experiences when they sleepwalk. A member shared, “When I was a little girl, I would wake up somewhere else in the neighborhood, lost and scared.”

Others find that they struggle with common tasks or wake up in unusual places, like one member who explained, “I got up and couldn’t figure out how to get out of the bedroom. I was on the bed, feeling the walls, trying to find the door. Other times, I found the bathroom and slept the rest of the night on the toilet.”

If you act out your dreams, you may have REM sleep behavior disorder, which happens when the body doesn’t stay still during REM sleep. If this happens, talk to your healthcare team about safety steps at home. You might consider locking doors, hiding any weapons, and putting up gates across stairways.

6. Vivid Dreams

Living with narcolepsy can mean dreaming very vividly. Even if you don’t have nightmares, you can have extremely realistic dreams. Some people struggle to remember what was a dream and what actually happened, as their brain may not be able to file these memories correctly. A member shared, “I have vivid dreams almost every night, and I get confused sometimes during the day whether it was a dream or reality.”

Some members report that having such an active dream life can be tiring. “My dreams are pretty involved, and I feel exhausted from having them sometimes,” a member explained. “I also feel like I didn’t sleep and was awake the entire time when I have vivid dreams,” another wrote.

7. Restless Sleep

People diagnosed with narcolepsy often have restless sleep and may wake up many times during the night. This can happen because the brain lacks hypocretin, a chemical that helps you stay asleep through the night. Some wake-ups may be linked to other symptoms, like nightmares. Other people wake up feeling hot or wide awake without knowing why. These changes may be related to narcolepsy or another health condition. Because poor sleep can affect both your physical and mental health, it’s important to understand what’s causing these symptoms.

Waking up over and over can lead to long-term tiredness that’s frustrating, like it did for the member who lamented, “I always fall asleep very easily, but I wake up a dozen times a night and have trouble getting back to sleep. Why?”

Living with narcolepsy can affect sleep in many different ways, not just during the day but at night as well. Understanding these nighttime symptoms can help you recognize what’s happening and talk with your healthcare team about ways to improve your sleep and overall quality of life.

Join the Conversation

On MyNarcolepsyTeam, people share their experiences with narcolepsy, get advice, and find support from others who understand.

What nighttime symptoms of narcolepsy do you experience? Let others know in the comments below.