What is Hypersomnia?
Hypersomnia is characterized by recurrent episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged nighttime sleep. Different from feeling tired due to lack of or interrupted sleep at night, persons with hypersomnia are compelled to nap repeatedly during the day, often at inappropriate times such as at work, during a meal, or in conversation. These daytime naps usually provide no relief from symptoms. Patients often have difficulty waking from a long sleep, and may feel disoriented. Other symptoms may include anxiety, increased irritation, decreased energy, restlessness, slow thinking, slow speech, loss of appetite, hallucinations, and memory difficulty. Some patients lose the ability to function in family, social, occupational, or other settings. Hypersomnia may be caused by another sleep disorder (such as narcolepsy or sleep apnea), dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, or drug or alcohol abuse. In some cases it results from a physical problem, such as a tumor, head trauma, or in
Hypersomnia is a condition which causes excessive sleepiness, not generally due to insufficient sleep at night. Generally the person with hypersomnia will feel the need to nap several times during the day, and may feel sleepy throughout the day. This condition may persist for more than two weeks and may be due to numerous causes. Difference in cause means that treatment varies for individuals with hypersomnia. Prolonged hypersomnia can cause confusion, memory loss, a decrease in energy, and anxiety that extra naps are not providing relief from. Social, family and work life can all be affected by the condition, and people with a lengthy case of hypersomnia may lose jobs and have strained relationships with family and friends. This is challenging because hypersomnia is not the fault of the person and is in fact an illness. People with hypersomnia cannot simply “snap out of it” by drinking additional cups of coffee or getting more sleep. In fact using caffeine may worsen the condition. So
Hypersomnia refers to either excessive sleepiness during the day or extended, overly long periods of nighttime sleep. Other words that are synonymous with hypersomnia are excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), excessive sleepiness, or somnolence. Hypersomnia is fairly common, with nearly 5% of the population affected. The age groups most affected by hypersomnia are teenagers and young adults. As with most sleep disorders, hypersomnia is underreported because many people inaccurately believe that always feeling sleepy and taking naps are normal behavior. A distinction should be made between simple tiredness, fatigue, or depression, and hypersomnia. Sleep deprivation is a common state for most of the population – many people are tired or sluggish at certain periods during the day. The depressed person either will not want to get out of bed or will suffer from insomnia, even though he or she feels a nap will improve the depression. On the contrary, hypersomniacs are so sleepy during the day
