Top 12 Scary Sleep Disorders!

2. Fatal Familial Insomnia

This is classified as a rare genetic disease which can prohibit a person from falling asleep, resulting in-yeah, you guessed it- death. FFI has been identified as a prion disease, which is an abnormal protein developing from a genetic mutation which affects brain function, which can lead to disruptions in sleeping patterns and even hallucinations.

One of the most famous case studies was in 1986, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (E Lugaresi et al (1986)), when a man in his early fifties began developing signs of insomnia, sleeping for less than two or three hours of sleep per night. Two months later, his condition worsened and he was sleeping for less than one hour per night. One reason for this was that he was frequently disturbed by vivid dreams, possible caused by the disease. Between three and six months later, normal sleep became impossible, which lead to him experiencing extreme, severe fatigue and severe physical issues, such as body tremors and respiratory difficulty. After eight months, he fell into a state of stupefaction, and inevitably died.

Later when doctors looked into his family history, it was found that two of the man’s sisters and many relatives had died in similar circumstances.