In August 2024, we finished interviewing patients with narcolepsy. These interviews were conducted in patients’ homes, at a neurological outpatient clinic or clinic, and online. We had the opportunity to speak with 25 patients suffering from this very rare neurological sleep disorder. In Slovakia, only around 80 people suffer from this disease. We have managed to understand the nature of excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy or parasomnias, such as hallucinations, sleep paralysis or automatic behaviour. We also gained a closer understanding of the seriousness of the impact of this disease on the patients’ daily, work, personal and family life.

These interviews will be part of the module on narcolepsy from the patient’s point of view for DIPEx Slovakia and should be available in August 2025 on the website http://www.rozhovoryozdravi.sk.

These interviews were conducted by a researcher from the Faculty of Medicine of P.J. University. Šafárik and at the same time PhD student of Comenius University Ján Hlodák.