What Is Hypersomnia?
Hypersomnia, which refers to either excessive daytime sleepiness or excessive time spent sleeping, is a condition that makes it hard to stay awake during the day. When you have it, you might fall asleep at any time – like at work or while you’re driving. You may have other sleep-related problems, too, including lack of energy and trouble thinking clearly. Hypersomnia can make it hard to stay awake at work. (Photo credit: E+/Getty Images) According to the National Sleep Foundation, up to 40% of people have some symptoms of hypersomnia from time to time.
Primary hypersomnia
This type of hypersomnia is when you don’t have another medical condition causing your condition. There are four conditions of this type: Narcolepsy type 1 is a type of hypersomnia caused by having low levels of a chemical in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid called hypocretin (orexin). Your brain can’t control when you sleep and when you’re awake the way it should. When you have narcolepsy type 1, a daytime nap is usually short and helps you feel more refreshed, which isn’t true for other types of hypersomnia. This type of narcolepsy is also called narcolepsy with cataplexy, which means it can cause sudden muscle weakness when you feel emotion.
Narcolepsy type 2 has milder symptoms than narcolepsy type 1. You have normal levels of hypocretin and don’t have cataplexy.
Idiopathic hypersomnia is hypersomnia without a cause that doctors can find. Idiopathic means “no known cause.”
Kleine-Levin syndrome is rare, and it happens mostly in teenagers assigned male at birth. It causes extreme bouts of hypersomnia. When you have it, you may sleep as many as 20 hours in a day. Episodes of extreme hypersomnia may last from a few days to a few weeks. Doctors think these episodes are related to a malfunction of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls appetite, and thalamus, the part of the brain that controls sleep.
Secondary hypersomnia
This type of hypersomnia is caused by something else. Maybe you deal with excessive sleepiness because of physical or mental health conditions, drugs […]
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