A very rare disease called fatal familial insomnia prevents some people from falling asleep.

One unkind form, known as fatal familial insomnia, has been passed down in an Italian family for several generations.

Many questions about fatal familial insomnia remain.

In fact, the cause of death was always the same: fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that was not formally identified until 1986.

Their hunch that mad cow disease and fatal familial insomnia were somehow connected would turn out to be right.

Fatal familial insomnia, the author suggests, could well be "the worst disease in the world," and this amateur insomniac sees no reason to disagree.

Others, like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and fatal familial insomnia, are exceedingly rare diseases of humans.

Even though the likelihood of having fatal familial insomnia is one in 33 million, in her family, it is one in two.

In fatal familial insomnia, the prion chains form plaque in the thalamus, which regulates sleep and other functions.

This state of increased metabolic activity can signal underlying issues, especially Hyperthyroidism or Fatal Familial Insomnia.

Complete absence of sleep over long periods is impossible for humans to achieve (unless they suffer from fatal familial insomnia); brief microsleeps cannot be avoided.

A rare genetic condition can cause a prion-based, permanent and eventually fatal form of insomnia called fatal familial insomnia.

His book "The Dark Eye," a cultural and scientific history of mad cow, fatal familial insomnia and other prion diseases, will be published next year.

Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a very rare autosomal dominant inherited prion disease of the brain.

In a meeting held in the Roiters' living room, Elisabetta, Ignazio and the Bologna researchers agreed to name the disease fatal familial insomnia.

See also Gerstmann-Straussler Syn-drome and Fatal Familial Insomnia, and nvCJD.

Prion diseases comprise Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, fatal familial insomnia and related disorders.

PRNP: prion protein (p27-30) (Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Strausler-Scheinker syndrome, fatal familial insomnia)

Like other forms of gliosis, astrogliosis accompanies traumatic brain injury as well as many neuropathologies, ranging from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis to Fatal Familial Insomnia.

Fatal familial insomnia is thought to be the result of a point mutation in PRNP at codon 178, which corroborates PrP's involvement in sleep-wake cycles.

"The Family That Couldn't Sleep," D. T. Max's gracefully written medical detective story, explores the mysteries of fatal familial insomnia, their eventual decoding and the strange history of one family.

The few that have been recorded have predominantly been ascribed to a rare incurable genetic disorder called fatal familial insomnia, which patients rarely survive for more than 26 months after the onset of illness-often much less.

While other prion diseases attack the brain's higher cortex, Dr. Gambetti said, fatal familial insomnia attacks the thalamus, a brain region that relays messages between the cortex and the more primitive brain stem.

Yet he realizes that his condition is not in the same pitiless league as fatal familial insomnia or the other destructive prion diseases, and he knows better than to bask in any reflected blackness they may cast.

The mis-folded version PrP is associated with a variety of cognitive deficiencies and neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, fatal familial insomnia, and kuru.