What is hypersomnia?
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a sleep condition where you have extreme tiredness during the day, despite adequate or even excessive sleep at night. Patients can often sleep 10+ hours a night and still feel unrefreshed. This drowsiness often makes day-to-day activities difficult for patients, as they often fall asleep during awake hours. They have the urge to nap, and can easily, yet the naps classically do not help them be more functional during the day. While more women than men are diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia, the actual cause of the condition remains unknown.
What are symptoms of hypersomnia?
They symptoms of hypersomnia can include
- Extreme drowsiness or sleepiness during the day
- Longer than average sleep times
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Brain fog or inability to focus
- Sleep drunkenness or difficulty waking in the morning
- Not feeling refreshed, despite daytime naps
- Headache
- Restlessness
- Hallucinations
How is idiopathic hypersomnia diagnosed?
Your sleep specialist will ask about your symptoms, sleep history, and current medications. You may be asked to keep track of your sleep and wake patterns using a sleep diary. A device, called the Watchman's device, is worn on your wrist to track disruptions in your sleep-wake cycle over several days or weeks. Other tests your sleep specialist may order include:
- Polysomnography – an overnight sleep study to measure your brain waves, breathing patterns, heart rhythms, and muscle movements during sleep.
- Multiple sleep latency test – a daytime sleep test to measure a person's tendency to fall asleep.
You will likely be diagnosed with hypersomnia if you:
- Experience excessive sleepiness despite at least seven hours of sleep and have at least one of these additional symptoms:
- Lapse into sleep several times within the same day
- Get more than nine hours of sleep and still don't feel refreshed and awake
- Don't feel fully awake after an abrupt awakening
- Experience hypersomnia at least three times a week for at least three months
What are the treatment options for hypersomnia?
Treatment will depend on what is causing your hypersomnia. Wakefulness-promoting medications are tried to prevent sleepiness. Maintaining good sleep habits, like establishing a regular sleeping schedule and having a good environment that allows for sleep are important for good sleep.
How can I prevent hypersomnia?
There is no way to prevent most types of hypersomnia, but there are some things you can do to improve the quality of your sleep:
- Go to bed at the same time each night
- Avoid caffeinated products within several hours of bedtime
- Avoid alcohol before bedtime
- Avoid tobacco and nicotine-containing products near bedtime
- Avoid night shift work