Having trouble keeping your eyes open during the day? Your daytime sleepiness could be the result of a prolonged period of inadequate nocturnal sleep.
Idiopathic hypersomnia refers to either excessive sleepiness during the day or overly long periods of nighttime sleep. This condition can have an intense or even dangerous impact on your life. In this article, we’ll discuss the symptoms of this sleep disorder and how it can be treated.
People suffering from hypersomnia often lose the ability to function in family, social and occupational settings. The condition most commonly impacts teenagers, young adults and people who are overweight. This can exacerbate their weight problems, as their excessive sleep patterns means that they will use less energy.
In addition to excessive sleepiness and long nighttime sleeping, symptoms include irritability, mild depression and difficulty concentrating. For this reason, people with hypersomnia should be cautious when driving or operating machinery.
Kleine-Levin syndrome is a form of hypersomnia that features slightly different symptoms. Sufferers may sleep for eighteen or more hours a day and are irritable, uninhibited, and make indiscriminate sexual advances. People with Kleine-Levin syndrome often eat uncontrollably and rapidly gain weight. However, this form of recurrent hypersomnia is very rare.
Recurring hypersomnia involves periods of excessive daytime sleepiness that can last from one to many days, and recur over the course of a year or more. With recurring hypersomnia, a person will have prolonged periods where they do not exhibit any signs of the malady. However, persons experiencing idiopathic hypersomnia are affected by it nearly all the time.
Lifestyle can greatly affect the quality of our sleep. Reducing your intake of caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants can help you fall asleep easier and stay asleep longer. Getting into a regular sleep schedule and sticking to it even on the weekends will increase your alertness during the day.
For more serious cases of idiopathic hypersomnia, a doctor may prescribe drugs such as Provigi, Ritalin or amphetamines to minimize daytime sleepiness. However, these medications can make you edgy, so tell your doctor if you experience side effects.
Sleep deprivation or excessive sleeping can impact both your health and quality of life, so it’s important to see a doctor if you suspect that you are suffering from a sleep disorder. Because idiopathic hypersomnia can have dangerous consequences, it must be treated as soon as possible. A sleep disorder center can give you great medical care and support so that the condition doesn’t prevent you from participating in all of the activities that you normally enjoy.
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