Do you always feel tired no matter how long you sleep? Then you might be suffering from idiopathic hypersomnia.
Scientists from the American Academy of Neurology studied idiopathic hypersomnia and recently published their findings. The researchers said the symptoms of idiopathic hypersomnia include being “very sleepy during the day” as well as “sleeping excessive amounts of time, having difficulty waking up, and waking up disoriented.”
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This makes it difficult to complete day-to-day activities, decreasing a person’s quality of life. It differs from narcolepsy.
The Mayo Clinic explains that the condition often develops gradually. Diagnosing idiopathic hypersomnia requires ruling out more-common sleep disorders. The aim of treatment is to control symptoms with medication.
“It has been difficult to determine the prevalence of idiopathic hypersomnia because expensive and time-consuming sleep testing is required to make a diagnosis,” said study author David T. Plante, MD, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “We examined data from a large sleep study and found that this condition is much more common than previous estimates, and as prevalent as some other common neurologic and psychiatric conditions such as epilepsy, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.”
The researchers examined sleep data for 792 people with an average age of 59. All participants completed an overnight sleep study and a daytime nap study, which measures how fast someone falls asleep over a course of four or five naps. Participants were also surveyed about daytime sleepiness, fatigue, the amount of time napping, and how many hours of sleep they get on a worknight and a nonwork night.
Researchers determined that 12 people had probable cases of idiopathic hypersomnia, for a prevalence of 1.5%. People with the disorder had more severe sleepiness, despite similar or longer sleep times.
“Our results demonstrate that idiopathic hypersomnia is relatively common, more prevalent than generally assumed, so there is likely a sizable difference between the number of people with this disorder and those who seek treatment,” said Plante. “Further efforts to identify, diagnose and treat those impaired by idiopathic hypersomnia are needed. Additional research may also clarify the causes of idiopathic hypersomnia and lead to new treatments.”
The American Academy of Neurology is the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with over 40,000 members. The AAN is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
