Hypersomnia - The Cause for Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Hypersomnia means excessive sleepiness or being overly sleepy.

People with hypersomnia usually experience excessive sleep during the day.

This symptom is called excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS.

Causes of Hypersomnia

Inadequate nighttime sleep is the main cause of hypersomnia. For every 24 hours, our body requires a certain amount of sleep. For most people, that means about 8 hours of sleep. Your body tries to catch up on the sleep during the day when that sleep is not obtained at night.

The bigger question becomes, why is your body not getting enough sleep at night? Are you sleep-deprived because you are going to bed too late and getting up too early? Are you sleepy during the day because of problems with insomnia at night?

Sleep Disturbing Factors

• Sleep may be disturbed by particular sleep disorders such as sleep-disordered breathing, periodic limb movements in sleep, or narcolepsy.
• Certain medications also have the side effect of causing day time sleepiness or hypersomnia.
• Withdrawal from other medications such as caffeine also can cause sleepiness.
• Medical illness or psychiatric illness can also cause daytime sleepiness.

Hypersomnia can cause difficulties with memory and concentration, thus affecting overall performance. This can become particularly dangerous when poor performance resulting from sleepiness results in accidents.

The most frequent cause of fatal accidents in truck drivers is fatigue. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that about 200,000 traffic accidents each year are most likely a result of sleep problems and that of all drivers in the United States, 20% have dozed off at least once while driving.

It has been estimated that excessive daytime sleepiness is experienced by about 4% to 5% of the population. However, the true number is difficult to determine since many people believe it is normal to be sleepy during the day and thus do not report the EDS as a disorder.

Hypersomnia Treatment

You must first determine what is causing the sleepiness to treat hypersomnia.

• If sleep deprivation is the cause, the treatment may be as simple as sleeping more hours at night.
• If the hypersomnia is caused by illness, then that illness must be addressed by your doctor.
• If medication is the cause of sleepiness, then your doctor may adjust the dose and time of day the medication is taken.