4 ms·
Fatal Familial Insomnia: the tragic fate of people who stop sleeping
- germinalphrase 10y agoEverything about this is horrifying. "The disease has four stages: - The person has increasing insomnia, resulting in panic attacks, paranoia, and phobias. This stage lasts for about four months. - Hallucinations and panic attacks become noticeable, continuing for about five months. Complete inability to sleep is followed by rapid loss of weight. This lasts for about three months. - Dementia, during which the patient becomes unresponsive or mute over the course of six months. This is the final progression of the disease, after which death follows. - Other symptoms include profuse sweating, pinpoint pupils, the sudden entrance into menopause for women and impotence for men, neck stiffness, and elevation of blood pressure and heart rate. Constipation is common as well. As the disease progresses, the patient will become stuck in a state of pre-sleep limbo, or hypnagogia, which is the state just before sleep in healthy individuals. During these stages, it is common for patients to repeatedly move their limbs as if dreaming."