Cataplexy is a sudden, brief loss of voluntary muscle tone triggered by strong emotions such as laughter, excitement, anger or fear. There is a strong association between cataplexy and narcolepsy, a ...

And not figuratively, either. Sometimes people have found that certain emotions literally cause their muscles to unhook from their brains. They collapse entirely. This is not some strange disease, or ...

Cataplexy refers to episodes of muscle weakness that typically occur with narcolepsy type one — roughly 75% of people with this sleep disorder experience cataplexy. But among the general population, ...