When insomnia strikes a person, he/she complains about sleepless nights. Hardly, anyone knows that there is a disease called fatal familial insomnia (FFI). This is an illness which starts from sleeplessness and ends in death, within a year.
Some suffer rarely but those who have this disease might become a strong victim of it, without knowing. Sleepless nights can lead to death.
This disease could be hereditary, carries a genes which are transferred from generations to generations. Researchers are busy in studying more about this disorder.
According to science writer D.T Max, “The name sort of puts it all on the table. It’s a progressive, inherited condition, characterized by eventually total insomnia – leading within about nine months time to death,”
Max’s book “The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery” includes all the details regarding disease and can guide a person. In this Max discuss abut the man named Silvano who become a victim of this disease.
Wrote regarding him, what challenges he faced and how did he overcome from all of it. A proper guide for anyone who is in need.
“I mean, I would always be reluctant to rank diseases in terms of horribleness, but I think a case certainly could be made that this disease in many ways (is probably the worst disease in the world),” Max stated.
Fatal familial insomnia usually begins with minor symptoms such as excessive sweating. Then the pupils shrink to the size of pin pricks, the result of the body losing its ability to regulate the autonomic system.
Sleeplessness starts from here which leads a person to sleeps uncomfortably resulting in improper functioning of muscles.
It will cause high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, and ataxia, or the inability to control the body’s movements. Eventually, the body loses weight and muscle mass before succumbing to death, all within the span of about one year.
