Welcome to Living with Narcolepsy Patient Support Community

What is Living with Narcolepsy Support Network?

Living with Narcolepsy is a dedicated patient-to-patient support community for families affected by Narcolepsy. Narcolepsy Support Network is powered by BensFriends.org, patient support communities for rare diseases, and is run by volunteer moderators who have been affected with Narcolepsy.

Who can join Living with Narcolepsy?

If your family has been affected by Narcolepsy, consider Living with Narcolepsy Support Network your second home. Living with Narcolepsy Support Network, as well as the rest of BensFriends.org’s patient communities, is free for members to join.

What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia, characterized by excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks at inappropriate times, such as while at work. People with narcolepsy often experience disturbed nocturnal sleep and an abnormal daytime sleep pattern, which often is confused with insomnia. Narcoleptics, when falling asleep, generally experience the REM stage of sleep within 5 minutes; whereas most people do not experience REM sleep until an hour or so later.

Narcolepsy is neurological and not caused by mental illness or psychological problems. It is most likely affected by a number of genetic mutations and abnormalities that affect specific biologic factors in the brain, combined with an environmental trigger during the brain’s development, such as a virus.

What is BensFriends.org?

In 2007, Ben Muñoz suffered a rare form of stroke caused by an AVM. He was unable to find the support he needed during the most difficult time, so he created an online support community AVMSurvivors.org to connect with others like him. AVMSurvivors.org led to the founding of BensFriends.org, driven to provide patient-to-patient support communities for people living with rare diseases.

BensFriends.org is a network of patient communities for people living with rare diseases. Launched in November 2007, BensFriends.org provides valuable patient support by creating and running compassionate, responsive communities. BensFriends.org maintains dozens of patient communities and has changed thousands of lives.

You can learn more about BensFriends.org at http://www.bensfriends.org or watch one of our videos at http://www.youtube.com/BensFriendsVideos.