Hypersomnia, or excessive daytime sleepiness, is a neurological condition that creates extreme difficulty to stay awake during the day. It can cause a person to fall asleep unintentionally or at inappropriate times. If left untreated, this condition can interfere with a person’s daily life. It is important to educate yourself on the signs and symptoms in case hypersomnia is the cause of your excessive daytime sleepiness.
Signs & Symptoms of Hypersomnia include:
- Constant unrefreshing sleep is very common in people living with hypersomnia. This occurs when a person sleeps 9 or more hours in a 24-hour period and still feels exhausted. Unlike in narcolepsy where scheduled naps may help relieve symptoms, people with hypersomnia will wake up from naps unrefreshed and often groggy.
- Brain fog occurs when a person cannot concentrate due to excessive fatigue. It can lead to a lack of concentration, forgetfulness, and a lack of productivity.
- Poor decision making can follow the brain fog and lack of productive sleep. When a person undergoes brain fog, they aren’t as sharp-witted as they once were. This can create uncharacteristically poor decisions being made in a person’s personal, school, or work life.
- Difficulty waking up can be a problematic symptom of hypersomnia. Often, a person’s sleep can become excessively prolonged with hypersomnia. Individuals living with hypersomnia often lack responsiveness to external stimuli during sleep, causing them to sleep through alarm clocks or the aid of friends or family.
- Slow speech can occur due to the drowsiness and brain fog. The brain functions its best on a healthy amount of energy. Significantly lower energy can result in slower speech.
Hypersomnia by itself can be inherited through the presence of other sleep disorders, sleep deprivation at night, obesity, drug and/ or alcohol abuse, head injuries, genetics, or depression. However, idiopathic hypersomnia has no direct link to these causes. Idiopathic hypersomnia presents itself to the carrier in the signs and symptoms bulleted above, but the underlying cause is unknown.
People living with idiopathic hypersomnia sleep normal or long amounts of time each night but still feel excessively sleepy during the day. If you or a loved one are living with idiopathic hypersomnia, consider a clinical research study with Preferred Research Partners for help.
