People who suffer from excessive drowsiness during the daytime may be victimes of a condition known as "narcolepsy". While most people may feel sleepy while watching TV or fater eating a meal, narcoleptics may fall asleep at unusual or embarrassing times. They may doze while eating, talking, taking a shower, or even driving a car. Victims can be affected in one of two ways. Most narcoleptics have several sleeping spells during each day with alert periods in between. A minority of others feel drowsy almost all the time and are alert for only brief intervals.

      There are no reliable data showing how many people have narcolepsy. Some estimates put the number as high as 300,000 in the United States alone. The cause of this illness has not been identified, although recent research suggests that the problem may stem from an immune system reacting abnormally to the brain's chemical processes. There is currently no cure for narcolepsy, so sufferers of this condition can only have their symptoms treated through a combination of counseling and drugs.

The passage implies that narcolepsy