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Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of sleep. People with narcolepsy often find it difficult to stay awake for long periods of time, regardless of the circumstances. Narcolepsy can cause serious disruptions in your daily routine.Nov 6, 2020
The most common causes of excessive daytime sleepiness are sleep deprivation, obstructive sleep apnea, and sedating medications. Other potential causes of excessive daytime sleepiness include certain medical and psychiatric conditions and sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy.
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of sleep. People with narcolepsy often find it difficult to stay awake for long periods of time, regardless of the circumstances. Narcolepsy can cause serious disruptions in your daily routine.
Hypersomnia, which refers to either excessive daytime sleepiness or excessive time spent sleeping, is a condition in which a person has trouble staying awake during the day.
The most common causes of excessive sleepiness are sleep deprivation and disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia. Depression and other psychiatric problems, certain medications, and medical conditions affecting the brain and body can cause daytime drowsiness as well.
In most cases, there’s a reason for the fatigue. It might be allergic rhinitis, anemia, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease (COPD), a bacterial or viral infection, or some other health condition. If that’s the case, then the long-term outlook is good.
A number of health conditions can also lead to oversleeping and excessive daytime sleepiness: Sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, insomnia, and narcolepsy. Depression and anxiety. Obesity.
In extreme cases, a person with hypersomnia might sleep soundly at night for 12 hours or more, but still feel the need to nap during the day. Sleeping and napping may not help, and the mind may remain foggy with drowsiness.
Most people who have experienced depression know that it is often accompanied by sleeping problems. People with depression may find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep during the night. They can also have excessive daytime sleepiness or even sleep too much.
Hypersomnia | |
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Other names | Hypersomnolence |
Specialty | Psychiatry, neurology, sleep medicine |
Oversleeping is called hypersomnia or “long sleeping.” This condition affects about 2 percent of people. People with hypersomnia might require as many as 10 to 12 hours of sleep per night to feel their best.
Does depression cause hypersomnia? Depression is a common mood disorder that causes both emotional and physical symptoms. Sleep problems are a symptom of depression, which can cause difficulty sleeping or oversleeping in some people. Hypersomnia commonly occurs with depression.
Most people wake up once or twice during the night. Reasons this might happen include drinking caffeine or alcohol late in the day, a poor sleep environment, a sleep disorder, or another health condition. When you can’t get back to sleep quickly, you won’t get enough quality sleep to keep you refreshed and healthy.
While a drastic increase in sleep times can be a real problem for both you and your teenager, most of the time it’s both unavoidable and perfectly normal. There are, of course, times when you should get help for your child if sleep patterns begin to get in the way of their everyday lives.
But nodding off when you want or need to be awake may also be caused by an underlying condition. Depression or a sleep disorder — such as restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea, or narcolepsy — are common causes of problem sleepiness.
Many people with ADHD experience daytime sleepiness and difficulty waking up as a result of poor sleep. Others experience restless, non-refreshing sleep with multiple nighttime awakenings.
Short-term weakness may occur because of overwork, stress, or lack of sleep. You may also feel weakness after overcoming an illness, such as a cold or the flu. It is normal to feel some weakness after some physical activity. You may also feel weakness as a symptom of depression.
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms associated with anxiety, panic disorder, chronic stress, depression and other mental health disorders. Chronic anxiety leaves the body and mind in a constant state of tension and high alertness.
The symptoms include irritability and extreme fatigue. Exhaustion can leave you tired and without energy to set goals and stick with them. You might be able to make goals, but you’ll set them aside and be unsure of when you’ll return to them.
How much sleep someone needs depends on their age. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that children aged 6–12 years should regularly sleep 9–12 hours per 24 hours and teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.
“Long sleepers” are people who regularly sleep more than the average person their age. As adults, their nightly length of sleep tends to be 10 to 12 hours. This sleep is very normal and of a good quality. It is simply much longer than most people because of their natural biological clock.
Too much sleep on a regular basis can increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and death according to several studies done over the years. Too much is defined as greater than nine hours. The most common cause is not getting enough sleep the night before, or cumulatively during the week.
Adults should stay awake no longer than 17 hours to meet the CDC’s sleep recommendation. People tend to experience the adverse effects of sleep deprivation within 24 hours.
Check if it’s hypersomnia
Excessive daytime sleepiness is different from feeling tired all the time. If you have hypersomnia, you may: regularly nap during the day and not feel refreshed. fall asleep during the day, often while eating or talking.
What causes lack of energy? Lack of energy can be a normal response to inadequate sleep, overexertion, overworking, stress, lack of exercise, or boredom. When part of a normal response, lack of energy often resolves with rest, adequate sleep, stress management, and good nutrition.
You Can Still Laugh Even When You Feel Empty Inside
Folks with depression can laugh, have fun and experience joy while depressed.
Hypersomnia is common during times of illness or stress, and a few days of hypersomnia are not generally cause for concern. However, chronic hypersomnia can interfere with a person’s ability to work, to take care of his/her children, to complete daily tasks, or to maintain social relationships.
The frequency of hypersomnia symptoms in SAD ranged from 67% to 76% across studies [2,48-52]. However, these studies used different diagnostic tools to assess sleep complaints.
Doctors use several tests to diagnose hypersomnia, including: sleep diary: You record sleep and awake times through the night to track sleeping patterns. Epworth Sleepiness Scale: You rate your sleepiness to determine the severity of the condition. multiple sleep latency test: You take a monitored nap during the day.
Parasomnias are disruptive sleep-related disorders. Abnormal movements, talk, emotions and actions happen while you’re sleeping although your bed partner might think you’re awake. Examples include sleep terrors, sleepwalking, nightmare disorder, sleep-related eating disorder and sleep paralysis.
Cataplexy. This sudden loss of muscle tone while a person is awake leads to weakness and a loss of voluntary muscle control. It is often triggered by sudden, strong emotions such as laughter, fear, anger, stress, or excitement. The symptoms of cataplexy may appear weeks or even years after the onset of EDS.