Student Question

[Drnanjo]

Hello Colleagues:

I am cutting and pasting the following student question about a sleep
disorder because I am clueless:

There is a disorder that somepoeple have (i've seen it on television a few
months ago. As i remember it mainly affects people 18-25, and it is something
where people have been knoen to be asleep for several months. They get
restroom use and food by help usually it was the parents who take care of
them, so in a severly drowsy state they get food given to them like babies,
and wabbly they walk to the restroom. They showed a girl who had been in this
state of sleep for 6 months or so, and even her brother got the same disorder
a few years after her. It's something that comes ang goes, they can be fine
and the next minute just literaly fall and be asleep. The girls parents had
to withdraw her from college, and she lost her friends because they all moved
on. They even showed some home video footage that the parents recorded and it
looked the person is in a transe, they are asleep but can answer sometimes,
it was a really weird thing to see.

And i was wondering does this have anything to do with the "reticular
activating system" in our brains, in class you have menssioned that if a
person has that damaged they might not wake up. However the disorder that
those poeple have, comes and goes. It be got 2 months of sleeping constantly,
and then be absolutely fine for 2-3 years, then there can be a relapse


Thanks for your help folks.

Nancy Melucci
LACCD