Fatal Familial Insomnia

Type: Concept

As of November 2026, Fatal Familial Insomnia has been mentioned in one podcast episode on NIH VideoCast (Dec 2025). A specific type of prion disease that affected Dr. Valabh's mother.

Fatal insomnia is a rare, invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease and prion disease characterized by progressive and unrelenting insomnia, autonomic dysfunction, and rapid cognitive decline. The condition is classified into two distinct forms based on its underlying etiology. The vast majority of diagnoses are hereditary cases known as fatal familial insomnia (FFI), which stem directly from a dominant mutation in the PRNP gene. The remaining minority of cases occur sporadically without any un