The presence of the HLA-DQB1* 0602 allele may be important for the differential diagnosis of situations that resemble those sleep disorders such as secondary changes in sleep structure due to drugs' consumption.
Narcolepsy (hypocretin deficiency), a sleep disorder characterized by sleepiness, cataplexy and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep abnormalities, is tightly associated with HLA-DRB1*1501 (M17378) and HLA-DQB1*0602 (M20432).
The cataplectic narcolepsy differed from non-cataplectic narcolepsy by having more rapid eye movement (REM)-related clinical symptoms (more sleep paralysis and sleep-related hallucination) and sleep disturbances (shorter REM latency), as well as tighter association with HLA DQB1*0602.
HLA-DQB1 typing was performed in 60 Caucasian subjects with sleepwalking (SW) disorder and their families and 60 ethnically matched subjects without any diagnosed sleep disorder.