Do you get asleep during the day and even while eating? Don't get enough sleep after a long rest? Feeling stale and tired? You may have hypersomnia. Let's figure out what it is.
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a chronic neurological disorder in which patients constantly feel an irresistible need for daytime sleep (despite a full night's sleep).

According to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, the group of hypersomnias includes:

• narcolepsy - it is characterized by chronic daytime sleepiness in combination with loss of muscle tone (cataplexy). Sleep paralysis (complete immobility) may occur while falling asleep or waking up. The patient is conscious at this point. Gogol described this disorder in the story "Portrait": "Chartkov tried to scream - and felt that he had no voice, tried to move, make some movement - not moving members"
• Kleine-Levin syndrome (sleeping beauty syndrome) - the state of lethargic sleep can last for several days, months and even years. One of the hypotheses about the death of Gogol says that the writer was asleep lethargic and was buried alive.
• hypnagogic (at the time of falling asleep) and hypnapampic (at the time of awakening) hallucinations are visions similar to a dream, the so-called "waking dreams".

More often hypersomnia manifests itself in adolescence and adolescence. Patients can sleep up to 20 hours a day and have difficulty waking up. Secondary hypersomnia is when drowsiness is caused by other diseases/conditions, such as:

• fragmented sleep (intermittent), apnea (respiratory arrest in a dream)
• head injury
• Parkinson's disease
• taking certain groups of drugs, including opioids (narcotic analgesics), benzodiazepines (psychoactive substances with a hypnotic effect), neuroleptics (antipsychotics), antihistamines (antiallergic), etc.
• multiple sclerosis
• Depression

Why does hypersomnia appear

Today, little is known about the cause of the disease. Scientists believe that a certain role may be played by excessive production in the body of a molecule that acts as a sleeping pill. Although its exact composition has yet to be determined, it is already known that it interacts with gamma-amino acid. The latter takes part in the brain mechanisms that contribute to falling asleep.

Also, a genetic predisposition to the development of primary idiopathic hypersomnia is not excluded. Lethargic sleep is regarded by some researchers as a mental illness.

How to diagnose the disease

A mandatory criterion for diagnosis is the presence of daytime sleepiness for at least three months. The doctor-somnologist should also conduct a detailed study of the patient's life history, exclude violations of the circadian rhythms of sleep and deprivation (lack or complete absence of sleep). To do this, use a special sensor - an actigraph, which reads information about a person's sleep.

Characteristic symptoms

• irresistible daytime sleepiness, despite a full night's sleep - patients can sleep more than 11 hours a day
• "brokenness", staleness after waking up (feeling of lack of sleep)
• it's hard to wake up – multiple alarms can ring at once, but it doesn't help
• thinking clearly and performing simple tasks can be difficult
• work in the office / study becomes impossible, because patients fall asleep even in the workplace; many have to give up driving, as there is a risk of falling asleep at the wheel.

It is noteworthy that in 10-15% of patients, symptoms may disappear spontaneously.

Treatment of hypersomnia

The attending physician may refer to a psychotherapist for a course of cognitive behavioral therapy. This approach is aimed at stimulating signals for going to bed and weakening signals for wakefulness. The goals of therapy are to improve the quality of sleep, as well as to save the patient from thoughts that interfere with sleep. The effectiveness of this method of treatment is still unclear.

Drug treatment involves taking prescription analogues of amphetamine or methylphenidate. Another option is analeptic, which is used to treat drowsiness. The drug is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.