excerpt: "Mignot, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues found that the occurrence of narcolepsy is due to lack of a hormone known as hypocretin, which promotes wakefulness. The researchers later discovered that those who suffer from the disease are missing the brain cells that produce hypocretin. The team has now discovered that among narcoleptics is the presence of a specific variation of a T cell gene that plays a part in all immune responses. The finding serves as confirmation of the long held belief that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease"