Why Do People Get Hypersomnia? Explained By Neuropsychiatrist In Patna

19 Jun Why Do People Get Hypersomnia? Explained By Neuropsychiatrist In Patna

Do you often find yourself battling an overwhelming urge to sleep, even after a full night’s rest?

Or,

Perhaps you know someone who struggles with excessive daytime sleepiness that impacts their daily life?

You’re not alone.

Hypersomnia, as termed, is a sleeping disorder that relates to excessive daytime sleepiness, even after long hours of shut-eye during the night.

It influences heavily daily living, hindering activities, relationships, and general well-being.

In this blog, we’re diving deep into the “why do people get hypersomnia“, with insights from a leading neuropsychiatrist in Patna – Dr. Vivek Pratap Singh.

What is Hypersomnia?

Hypersomnia can be characterized as a sleep disorder where an individual tends to spend ample time sleeping at night, but still suffers from excessive daytime sleepiness.

Any individual suffering from this condition has difficulties keeping awake at almost every moment of the day, affecting their way of life and daily tasks.

Primary Characteristics of Hypersomnia:

• Excessive sleepiness that persists during the day despite getting a sufficient dose of sleep rest.
• The patient may wake up reluctantly in the morning or immediately after waking from naps.
• Sleep can extend to more than 10 hours over the night.
• Daytime napping does not bring relief or restoration due to tiredness.

Prevalence of Hypersomnia

Is Hypersomnia Common? Well, according to the studies, about 4% to 6% of the population is estimated to be affected, making it a common form of sleep mischief.

It could have both primary (idiopathic hypersomnia) forms and secondary hypersomnia, where it is attached to another illness or psychological condition.

Effect on Daily Living

Work and Academic Performance:

• It leads to decreased focus, memory problems, and inefficiency.
• Being perpetually sleepy would be a hindrance to accomplishing responsibilities in either work or school.

Mental Health Effects:

• People with hypersomnia usually suffer from depression, anxiety, and emotional lability.
• Chronic fatigue has led them to become demotivated and withdrawal from social activities.

Greater incidence of Accidents:

• Hypersomnia reduced reaction time of individuals, which might be the cause of their frequent involvement in road accidents or workplace injuries.
• People with hypersomnia tend to faint and fall asleep while driving or handling machines.

Why Does Depression Cause Hypersomnia?

Hypersomnia refers to having an increased amount of sleep or time spent in sleep, which is very prevalent with mental health problems and depression, especially in those who have major depressive disorder (MDD) as a result of distress.

Such people will sleep very much more than usual as a coping mechanism to deal with the emotional intensity of their life, as well as the fatigue that comes with major depressive disorder.

Main Points Linking Hypersomnia and Depression:

• Emotional Escape: Most people sleep a lot as means of escaping from their emotional pain that builds with time and stress.
• Unbalance of Neurotransmitters: The state of depression does not usually balance both such neurotransmitters as serotonin and dopamine that modulate mood and sleep.
• Energy Drain: Depression hypersomnia is related, unlike primary hypersomnia, to the presence of little motivation and hopelessness, not feeling well all the time.
• Altered Cycle of Sleep-Wake: Change in a normal cycle of sleep-wake may be secondary to the depression and result in insomnia or hypersomnia.

Types of Hypersomnia

Hypersomnia is a condition characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, even after getting a healthy amount of sleep at night.

It’s more than just feeling tired; it significantly impacts daily functioning and can manifest as difficulty staying awake during the day, unrefreshing naps, and difficulty waking up from sleep (sometimes called “sleep drunkenness“).

Hypersomnia is broadly categorized into two main types:

1: Primary Hypersomnia

It is the condition in which someone usually suffers from excessive sleep, better known as idiopathic hypersomnia, but without any medical disorder known.

It probably indicates a defect in the brain’s sleep-wake regulation, producing persistent sleepiness as its main effect.

Those with primary hypersomnia show a lot of sleepiness and have considerable difficulty waking up, so they will often show severe grogginess and confusion when awakening from a sleep period, a condition that is termed “sleep drunkenness.”

2: Secondary Hypersomnia:

This type of hypersomnia is a symptom or consequence of another underlying health condition, medication, or lifestyle factor.

Some common examples of secondary hypersomnia include:

• Sleep Apnea – Continuous stoppage of breathing while asleep results in excess tiredness.
• Narcolepsy – Having many episodes of sudden uncontrollable sleeping while awake.
• Neurological Disorders – Conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
• Substance Abuse – Alcohol use as well as sedatives or withdrawal symptoms from stimulants.
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS – Defined as persistent and unexplained fatigue.

Management Approach: Treatment for secondary hypersomnia usually happens along with treating the cause. For example, using a CPAP machine can help with sleep apnea. Treating brain disorders can also help reduce symptoms.

Differences Between Hypersomnia And Other Sleep Disorders

Hypersomnia, broadly defined as excessive daytime sleepiness, is a type of sleep disorder itself, but it’s crucial to understand how it differs from other specific sleep disorders.

The key distinctions often lie in the primary symptom, underlying cause, and specific associated features.

Here’s a breakdown of the differences between hypersomnia (particularly primary hypersomnias like Idiopathic Hypersomnia) and other common sleep disorders:

1. Hypersomnia vs. Narcolepsy

Both conditions share the key feature of involving excessive sleepiness in the day; however, sudden sleep incidents are brought about by narcolepsy, not hypersomnia.

Hypersomnia is usually seen as extended sleep duration during the night while those affected by narcolepsy can have a prolonged or short duration of sleep.

Aside from these, people affected by narcolepsy can have cataplexy or sudden loss of muscle tone and can have hallucination-like episodes in their sleep where these are not features of hypersomnia.

2. Hypersomnia vs sleep apnea

Sleep apnea causes breathing stops during sleep, making sleep uneven and leading to daytime sleepiness.

Most of this sleepiness comes from hypersomnia, which is feeling sleepy after too much sleep.

Symptoms of sleep apnea include loud breathing or snoring, waking up because of trouble breathing, and sometimes pauses in breathing, which are different from the symptoms of hypersomnia.

3. Insomnia vs Hypersomnia

Insomnia and Hypersomnia – Insomnia is characterized by difficulty falling or staying asleep, leading to insufficient nighttime sleep and subsequent daytime fatigue.

In contrast, hypersomnia involves excessive daytime sleepiness despite getting adequate or even prolonged sleep at night.

While insomnia centers on a lack of sleep, hypersomnia is about an overwhelming need to sleep.

Insomniacs struggle to sleep when they want to, whereas hypersomniacs struggle to stay awake when they don’t want to.

Essentially, one is about not enough sleep, the other is about too much, or an unrefreshing quality of, sleep.

What Are The Warning Signs Of Hypersomnia?

Hypersomnia is a chronic neurological condition characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged nighttime sleep that is not fully relieved by napping or increased sleep time.

If you’re frequently asking yourself, “Why do I have hypersomnia?” or “How to know if I have hypersomnia?“, understanding the common symptoms is the first step.

Here are the key hypersomnia symptoms:

• Daytime sleepiness: It’s characterized by enormous napping in the daytime even after an entire sleep at night.
• Long periods of sleep at night: A record of sleeping for 10 hours or counting more at night and feels still humanly unrefreshed.
• Difficulty waking up in the morning: With a lot of difficulty in getting out of bed, feels darn groggy, and usually a little disoriented.
• Infrequent naps, often unsatisfactory: Refreshing brief naps taken during the whole day and do not relieve tiredness.
• Brain fog, confusion, or memory issues: An impairment in concentrating and remembering jobs.
• Irritable and moody: change in attitude or practice. It mostly causes increased nuisance, anxiousness, and mood swings.
• Low energy Levels: Usually tired, even after much sleeping time.

These all create a disturbance to work performance, studies, and interpersonal relations, so it becomes critical to diagnosing the causal agent and treatment.

How Hypersomnia Is Caused?

Hypersomnia can occur due to various medical, psychological as well as lifestyle reasons.

Understanding why hypersomnia occur and why hypersomnia happen involves exploring a range of underlying causes, which can be broadly categorized as primary (central nervous system dysfunction) or secondary (due to another medical condition).

Here’s a detailed look into hypersomnia causes:

Neurological Disorders

Disorders of the brain’s functioning, for instance Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, or tumor of the brain, interfere with sleep regulations, and sleep inducing – drowsiness.

Sleep Disorders:

• Obstructive sleep apnea: Interrupted breath through sleep leads to poor quality sleep and causes sleepiness in the day.
• Restless leg syndrome: Discomfort in legs disturbs sleep leading to fatigue.
• Narcolepsy: Neurological disorder leading to episodes of sleep, sudden and uncontrollable.

Mental Health Conditions:

Hypersomnia is one common symptom in many illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.

Individuals who suffer from depression tend to sleep more as compared to those free from depression conditions.

Energy from an individual is made low, while emotional drain causes poor motivation for them to get up.

Insufficient Sleep (Chronic Sleep Deprivation):

This is perhaps the most common reason why hypersomnia occur. Many people simply do not get enough sleep due to lifestyle choices, work demands, or social activities.

While not true hypersomnia in the medical sense, it leads to significant daytime sleepiness that can mimic hypersomnia.

Substance Use:

Drugs falling under such categories are alcohol, sedatives, and other medications that induce sleeping, for example, antidepressants or antihistamines.

Withdrawal; drugs also have a tendency to hypersomnolence during the stage of adjustment.

Genetic Factors:

In some cases, there may be a genetic component that increases an individual’s susceptibility to hypersomnia, particularly in primary hypersomnias like narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia.

How Is Hypersomnia Diagnosed?

The diagnosis of hypersomnia relies on the assessment of the sleep habits and medical history of individuals, besides ruling out other causes.

This takes the test of a doctor who might then apply several tests and assessments on the individual towards establishing the cause of excessive daytime sleepiness.

Diagnosis Methods:

• History and Sleep Diary – Keeping records for several weeks would allow the doctor to suggest irregularities in sleep duration and quality during the night.
• Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) – A questionnaire aimed at measuring the daytime sleepiness levels and determining whether a person might have hyper-somnia.
• Polysomnography (Sleep Study) was done for One full night monitoring brain activity, heart rate, breathing, and movements of sleep. It is to detect other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea.
• Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) – Measures the time for an individual to fall asleep during the day; useful in hypersomnia or narcolepsy diagnosis.
• Blood Tested or Imaging – Rule out any medical conditions such as thyroid diseases or neurological or metabolic imbalances causing hypersomnia.

Diagnosis facilitates differentiating hypersomnia from other sleep disorders, hence arriving at the appropriate treatment.

Hypersomnia Treatments

How to treat hypersomnia? Some of the factors that would consider an individual in need of treatment are whether the case is a primary or idiopathic hypersomnia or secondary, for example, due to other health conditions.

Treatments can involve lifestyle changes, medication, and management of co-morbid health problems.

Lifestyle Alterations:

• Establish a set schedule for sleep-wake time: go to bed and awake at the same time each day for the body to send its mental clock to reset.
• There should be no caffeine, alcohol, and heavy meals before bedtime as these will degrade the quality of sleep and promote drowsiness during the following daytime.
• Exercise frequently: stimulates better sleep, it also increased energy.
• Comfortable sleep environment: the dark, quiet, cool space makes sleeping better quality and decreased morning fog.

Pharmacotherapy:

• Stimulants (Modafinil, Methylphenidate): Facilitate wakefulness and reduce excessive daytime sleep due to hypersomnia.
• Antidepressants: If hypersomnia is using depression, some antidepressants may regulate the sleeping pattern into something normal.
• Sodium Oxybate: This drug facilitates deep sleep cycles and is used extensively in the treatment of narcolepsy.
• Melatonin Supplements: These are given to patients whose hypersomnia possesses a circadian rhythm imbalance.

Treatment of the Underlying Condition:

Treatment of the underlying cause constitutes a very considerable improvement in symptoms in secondary hypersomnia.

• Breathing Changes During Sleep: CPAP Therapy: Patients with sleep apnea employ continuing positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for improvement in breathing and sleeping condition.
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): It is a kind of therapy for sleep disorders as a result of a mental health condition like depression or anxiety.

How To Prevent Hypersomnia?

While there isn’t always a way to “prevent” hypersomnia, especially for primary forms where the cause is unknown, managing the condition and reducing its impact often involves a combination of lifestyle adjustments and, when necessary, medical treatments.

Here’s a breakdown of strategies to prevent or manage hypersomnia:

• Short Strategic Naps: A power nap of 10-20 minutes may relieve sleep inertia and boost sum alertness while accelerating its effectiveness to heighten concentration.
• Light Therapy: Intensive light exposure during the morning proved invaluable in resetting one’s internal clock to facilitate wakefulness during the day.
• Relaxation Techniques: Meditation; deep breathing exercises; and progressive muscle relaxation are techniques that will help improve sleep quality and/or diminish the effects of stress on fatigued individuals.
• Be Social Active: Prevent isolation, depression, and mental exhaustion induced by too much hypersomnia with actively joining Social Activities.
• Working with the organization: If the performance is substantially affected, clients can talk to their supervisors to receive such benefits as flexible work hours, scheduled breaks, or remote work options to cope with their drowsiness.

Conclusion

Hypersomnia is far more than just feeling tired; it’s a complex and often debilitating sleep disorder with various underlying causes.

They would include not just an increase then in the absence of a lifestyle, function, and well-being impairment; mental, physical, and emotional health are also subject to it.

Recognizing these, classify to determine what kinds of hypersomnia and what possible underlying causes are there that require what types of important treatments.

Life changes, medications, and other measures to address co-existing problems with hypersomnia could help in returning a quality of life and living better in all spheres.

As Dr. Vivek Pratap Singh, the top neuropsychiatrist in Patna, emphasizes, professional diagnosis and tailored treatment are essential to navigating hypersomnia effectively and significantly improving one’s quality of life.

If you or a loved one are experiencing persistent excessive sleepiness that impacts your daily life, we strongly recommend consulting Dr. Vivek Pratap Singh in Patna for expert evaluation and personalized care.

FAQs

1: Is Hypersomnia Dangerous Or Is Hypersomnia Harmful?

Yes, hypersomnia can indeed be dangerous.

The uncontrollable urge to sleep poses significant risks, particularly for activities like driving or operating machinery, potentially leading to serious accidents.

Beyond immediate dangers, it can severely impair daily functioning, making it difficult to concentrate at work or school, and even contribute to mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

2: Is Hypersomnia Rare?

Hypersomnia, generally defined as excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged sleep, affects a notable portion of the population.

While some forms, like “idiopathic hypersomnia” (where the cause is unknown), are considered rare, general hypersomnia linked to various factors is more common.

Estimates suggest it affects around 4-6% of the general population. It can also be a symptom of other conditions like sleep apnea or psychiatric disorders.

Therefore, while specific types are rare, the overarching symptom of excessive sleepiness is not uncommon.

3: Does Hypersomnia Go Away?

Whether hypersomnia “goes away” depends largely on its cause. If it’s secondary to another treatable condition like sleep apnea, addressing that underlying issue can resolve the hypersomnia.

However, primary hypersomnias, like idiopathic hypersomnia, are often chronic, meaning they persist long-term.

4: Is Hypersomnia Real?

Yes, hypersomnia is a very real medical condition recognized by healthcare professionals.

It’s characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness or abnormally prolonged nighttime sleep, which isn’t relieved by napping.

It can significantly impair daily functioning and quality of life, often impacting work, relationships, and safety.

Diagnosing hypersomnia involves thorough evaluation by sleep specialists to determine its specific cause, whether primary or secondary to another condition.

5: Does Exercise Help Hypersomnia?

Exercise can be a helpful tool in managing hypersomnia symptoms, though it’s not a standalone cure.

Regular physical activity can improve overall sleep quality and reduce daytime sleepiness for many individuals.

It may also help regulate circadian rhythms and boost energy levels. However, strenuous exercise too close to bedtime might interfere with sleep, so timing is key.