考研英语阅读:英国女博士患有嗜睡症
Narcoleptic Woman
嗜睡的女人
Dr Allen, 35, a scientist, suffers from bouts of “cataplexy”, a rare symptom of narcolepsy, triggered by strong emotions — such as fear, surprise or laughter.
艾伦是一位博士，今年 35 岁的她患有一种“悴倒症”疾病。这是一种罕见的嗜睡症，强烈的情感波折，如恐惧、惊讶和大笑，往往引发病症。
The attacks cause her to lose control of her body and she collapses into a deep sleep-although she remains conscious throughout.
这种疾病使艾伦失去对自己身体的控制，虽然她还处于清醒状态，但是整个身体已经陷入深度睡眠阶段。
Each collapse lasts between 30 seconds to five minutes and at its worst Claire can endure up to 100 attacks each day. Claire, from Cambridge, described how she first loses her speech and vision before her body buckles—but she remains completely “awake”.
每一次症状发生都持续 30 秒到 5 分钟不等，克莱尔最糟糕的一次经历，一天竟然发病达到100次。来自剑桥的克莱尔在发言中，描述了她第一次失去对身体的控制，但是仍然处于“完全清醒”状态时的情景。
She said: “The attacks are caused by any emotional surprise or shock but laughter is definitely the strongest trigger.”
“突然猝倒可能是由于惊讶或震惊等情感波动而引起的，但是大笑绝对是引发症状的最强动因”，她说。
However, the new drug, Xyrem puts Claire into a deep sleep for three-and-a-half hours so she must take a second dose in the middle of the night to get a full seven hours sleep.
然而，新型药物“Xyrem”可以让克莱尔进入深度睡眠，但也只能连续睡上三个半小时，所以在半夜她要再吃上一次药，保证自己可以有 7 个小时的深度睡眠。
She said: “For the last five years I hadn’t slept for more than an hour at a time so the first time I slept for more than three hours it was incredible.”
她说：“在过去的 5 年里，我从来没有一次睡觉超过一个小时，所以当我第一次能获得3个多小时的睡眠时，我感到难以置信。”
Researchers have found that narcolepsy may be caused by an irregularity to the brain cells which control the sleep hormone hypo- cretin.
研究人员发现，嗜睡症可能是由于控制睡眠的荷尔蒙下视丘分泌素分泌失调造成的。
An estimated 25,000 people in the UK suffer from narcolepsy but many remain undiagnosed due to the varying nature of the symptoms.
据估计，英国约有两万五千名嗜睡症患者，但很多人因为症状性质不同难以确诊。
