Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSymptomsCausesDiagnosisOther ConditionsTreatment
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Symptoms
Causes
Diagnosis
Other Conditions
Treatment
Hypersomnia is excessive sleepiness when wakefulness is expected. It’s also known asexcessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Hypersomnia can be a symptom of depression. However, there are a number of other causes of hypersomnia, including breathing disorders, neurological conditions, and certain medications.
This article lists the symptoms of hypersomnia and hypersomnolence, explains the causes, and addresses diagnosis. It also gives examples of other conditions that present symptoms similar to hypersomnia and hypersomnolence and discusses the treatment options for these conditions.
What Are theSymptoms of Hypersomnia and Hypersomnolence?
If you experience excessive sleepiness or if you feel sleep-deprived even after getting 10 or more hours of sleep per day, you may have hypersomnia. It can begin during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood.
Some of the symptoms of hypersomnia help you recognize that it is a sleep problem, such as sleepiness during the day or falling asleep for prolonged periods. However, other symptoms of the condition may not be so obviously related to sleep.
Common symptoms of hypersomnia (and hypersomnolence) include:
If you have hypersomnia, these problems can persist for several consecutive months or even longer. Over time, you may begin to accept these symptoms, and you may not recognize that they signal a medical condition.
For this reason, many people do not seek medical attention for hypersomnia. However, it’s best to make a point of discussing these issues with your healthcare provider—most of the causes are treatable.
Is Falling Asleep Too Fast a Health Issue?
Causes of Hypersomnia and Hypersomnolence
There are a number of causes of excessive sleepiness. Hypersomnolence is considered the cause of hypersomnia when no medical explanation is identified. Certain rare medical conditions directly affect the sleep cycles in the brain, causing hypersomnolence.
The following are common causes of hypersomnia:
Diagnosing Hypersomnia and Hypersomnolence
If you have symptoms of hypersomnia, your healthcare provider will work with you to identify the root cause of your symptoms.
Why Am I Always Sleepy?
Personal History
Your own observations and the observations of anyone sleeping in your room with you are key aspects of your diagnostic evaluation. If you regularly share a bed or a bedroom with a spouse, partner, sibling, or roommate, this person’s description of your sleeping pattern at night can be helpful.
Another person who is with you while you sleep may notice alterations in your breathing pattern, episodes of movement, or waking up at night that you may not be aware of.
Important things for you to keep track of include how long you have had excessive daytime sleepiness, how much you sleep at night and during the day, how fast you fall asleep, and how easily you wake up.
Other questions you’ll want to address include whether you experience restlessness,sweating, or other symptoms when you are trying to sleep.
It’s also useful to be observant about your daytime symptoms, such as changes in mood, concentration, appetite, and weight.
Sleep Scales
There are a few well-established sleepiness assessments that are based on self-report questionnaires. TheEpworth Sleepiness Scaleand the Stanford Sleepiness Scale are among the most commonly used measures of sleepiness. Your healthcare provider may ask you to fill out the questions in order to evaluate the changes in your sleepiness over time.
Blood Tests
Since there are a number of health issues that can make you sleepy, blood tests are often needed to help identify or rule out medical conditions.
Polysomnogram (Sleep Study)
Apolysomnogram(PSG) is a non-invasive sleep test that measures the brain rhythm with an electroencephalogram (EEG), as well as measuring muscle movements with electromyography (EMG), eye movements, breathing rate, heart rate, and oxygen levels.
A PSG can recordsleep latency(how quickly you fall asleep) as well as which sleep stages you experience throughout a period of sleep. Features such as short sleep latency (falling into a deep sleep too quickly) and increased sleep efficiency are common in hypersomnolence.
Imaging Tests
You may need an imaging test to evaluate the structure of your brain orthyroid glandif there is a concern about an illness affecting these regions.
Conditions Similar to Hypersomnia and Hypersomnolence
If you are experiencing hypersomnia, your healthcare provider will want to rule out more common causes of excessive daytime sleepiness before diagnosing you with hypersomnolence.
When there is no identified explanation for excessive sleepiness, it is described either as idiopathic or primary hypersomnia, or idiopathic or primary hypersomnolence. Hypersomnolence, however, is often confused with other similar medical conditions.
Sleep Deprivation
It can be difficult to distinguish hypersomnolence fromsleep deprivation. If you don’t sleep well at night or if your sleep is periodically disrupted, you might not notice the brief episodes of waking because they generally last for only seconds or minutes at a time. Nevertheless, brief sleep disruptions can have an effect on whether you achieved enough restorative sleep at night.
Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnealiterally means a lack of breathing during sleep—it is the most common cause of excessive daytime sleepiness.Obstructive sleep apneais the most common type of sleep apnea. It occurs when your airway becomes temporarily blocked during sleep, briefly interrupting your breathing for a few seconds. This is usually associated with weight gain and snoring.
To feel refreshed, you may need to sleep for a longer period of time or take naps during the day. If you can’t get extra sleep due to your schedule and commitments, you might develop symptoms of hypersomnia such as irritability and trouble concentrating.
Thyroid Disease
Hypothyroidism(low thyroid hormone levels) is another common cause of sleepiness.If you have hypothyroidism, you may experience hypersomnia during the day, even if you have had enough sleep. Often, diagnosis and adequate treatment of thyroid disease can reduce sleepiness and fatigue.
Other conditions that are often confused with hypersomnolence include:
If you have insomnia, or a decreased ability to fall asleep at night due to restlessness, anxiety, jet lag, caffeine use, or physical discomfort, this can interfere with getting enough restorative sleep during the night. In turn, it can result in daytime sleepiness.
In addition, alcohol and some drugs can cause excessive sleepiness. This may affect some people differently than others. Some drugs, such as cocaine and other stimulants, can cause a person to be hyper-alert, interfering with sleep and possibly causing a “crash” of excessive sleepiness once the medication wears off.
Long Sleeper
You might actually be a person who needs to get more than the average amount of sleep. If you can function well on 10 to 13 hours of sleep, you might not necessarily have hypersomnia—you might just be what is referred to as a “long sleeper.”
Speak with your healthcare provider about how much sleep you get and how it affects you during the night as well as the next day.
How Do You Fix Hypersomnia and Hypersomnolence?
The treatment of your daytime sleepiness depends on the cause. If you are sleep-deprived, your healthcare providers may recommend changing your lifestyle habits. If you have a medical condition, such as kidney failure, your medical issues must be managed to help you have more energy and less sleepiness.
If you have hypersomnolence or idiopathic hypersomnia, there are some treatment approaches that your healthcare providers will recommend. Treatment for hypersomnia and hypersomnolence includesmodifying your sleeping habitsand potentially taking a prescription medication.
Consistent Sleep Habits
Maintaining regular sleep habits is often helpful if you have hypersomnia. In turn, these methods can help to prevent excessive tiredness.
Practicing good sleep hygiene can help you achieve more restful sleep:
Medications
A number of medications can be used for the treatment of narcolepsy and primary hypersomnolence. These medications are generally prescription stimulants and, while they can help keep you awake, they can also produce serious side effects including heart problems and psychiatric conditions.
Be aware that stimulants are often abused and misused, as many people view them as shortcuts to staying awake for a prolonged period of time or for losing weight. These medications have potentially serious side effects, even when they are used as directed for a medical reason.
In addition to the potentially serious health risks of heart attack, stroke, and psychosis, abuse and misuse of stimulants can result in legal consequences as well.
Summary
Hypersomnia, or excessive daytime sleepiness, can make you feel tired during your waking hours, even if you are getting enough sleep. It can have a number of causes including lifestyle habits, hypersomnolence, medical conditions, and medication.
Talk to a healthcare provider if you think you are experiencing hypersomnia. They can run tests to rule out other conditions that can cause similar symptoms and help you get the treatment you need so you can regain energy to participate in life.
How to Improve Sleep Efficiency
4 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Slater G, Steier J.Excessive daytime sleepiness in sleep disorders.J Thorac Dis. 2012;4(6):608–616. doi:10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.10.07National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Hypersomnia information page.SleepApnea.org.Obesity & sleep apnea.Bollu PC, Manjamalai S, Thakkar M, Sahota P.Hypersomnia.Mo Med. 2018;115(1):85-91.
4 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Slater G, Steier J.Excessive daytime sleepiness in sleep disorders.J Thorac Dis. 2012;4(6):608–616. doi:10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.10.07National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Hypersomnia information page.SleepApnea.org.Obesity & sleep apnea.Bollu PC, Manjamalai S, Thakkar M, Sahota P.Hypersomnia.Mo Med. 2018;115(1):85-91.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Slater G, Steier J.Excessive daytime sleepiness in sleep disorders.J Thorac Dis. 2012;4(6):608–616. doi:10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.10.07National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Hypersomnia information page.SleepApnea.org.Obesity & sleep apnea.Bollu PC, Manjamalai S, Thakkar M, Sahota P.Hypersomnia.Mo Med. 2018;115(1):85-91.
Slater G, Steier J.Excessive daytime sleepiness in sleep disorders.J Thorac Dis. 2012;4(6):608–616. doi:10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2012.10.07
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Hypersomnia information page.
SleepApnea.org.Obesity & sleep apnea.
Bollu PC, Manjamalai S, Thakkar M, Sahota P.Hypersomnia.Mo Med. 2018;115(1):85-91.
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