Your Latest Buzzword is Hypersomnolence

You had a good night’s sleep, a full eight hours, but when the alarm goes off it is hard to wake up. It feels as if you could sleep for another eight hours, and often you could. As you go through the day, you are very tired, sloth-like, and may doze off doing your everyday activities. You never wake up feeling rested. If this is your story, you may be struggling with hypersomnolence.

Hypersomnolence is a type of imbalance in the sleep-wake cycle: it is easier to transition from wake to sleep but difficult to transition from sleep to wake. This causes a person to fall asleep when they should be awake or feel constant fatigue. It can be difficult to spot. Severity, frequency, and context of occurrence needs to be carefully assessed.

Symptoms can include falling asleep several times during the day, unremitting fatigue, brain fog, taking long naps to help the sleepiness but not waking up refreshed, sleeping more than 9-10 hours but not feeling rested, difficulty waking up from sleep, and feeling confused or combative while trying to wake up.

The good news is that there are treatments for hypersomnolence – with new potential options under development. With some lifestyle changes and medication quality of life with hypersomnolence can be improved. Consult your doctor if you suspect you suffer from hypersomnolence.

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