People suffering from hypersomnolence, sleep an excessive amount of time at night, take long naps during the day, and generally feel drowsy and distracted when awake. This serious neurological sleep disorder can be permanent or temporary, yet it's often misdiagnosed. Hypersomnolence can be related to a genetic predisposition, caused by another health condition, or idiopathic, which means it has no known cause.
If you have hypersomnolence, you need far more sleep than normal people. You might sleep more than 10 hours every night, yet still require extended naps lasting longer than an hour throughout the day. Attempts at waking up, such as phone calls or alarms, are usually ineffective. Even with this much of your life spent sleeping, you won't feel refreshed or rested. Instead, your thinking and motor coordination might be bumbling, cloudy, or confused. If you exhibit these symptoms, make sure to get a proper diagnosis from your general physician or sleep expert.
When your body is recovering from an exhausting condition, like an infection, surgery, or mononucleosis, you can expect some degree of hypersomnolence as you fully heal. Other known causes include sleep apnea and periodic movement of your legs. During the night, those conditions create frequent disturbances in smooth, rejuvenating sleep without completely awaking you. Thus, during the day you may crave naps to make up for poor rest. A build-up of magnesium, a mineral some people take as a vitamin supplement, has been known to cause hypersomnolence. Depression has also been associated with daytime sluggishness.
Temporary hypersomnolence can usually be treated by addressing the underlying cause, such as sleep apnea or infection, until you can depend on a restful night of sleep. Periodic hypersomnolence, called Kleine-Levin syndrome, means you go through periods of normal sleep followed by excessive sleep. While it might be genetic, at this point doctors can only treat the symptoms by prescribing stimulants to keep you awake and alert during the day.
Hypersomnolence differs somewhat from other sleep disorders, such as insomnia or narcolepsy, yet people frequently confuse them. Insomnia, or the inability to sleep through the night, might create excessive exhaustion that in turn causes hypersomnolence. This variety could be only temporary. Narcolepsy is closely related to hypersomnolence in the sense that both make you fall asleep in the middle of the day. Narcoleptics experience REM sleep (which involves dreaming), whereas hypersomnolence sleep is non-REM sleep.
Nuvigil is just a newer version of Provigil. It is supposed to be longer acting. However, if you research NuVigil there is some interesting information on how drug companies "re-invent" certain medications. Such is the case with ProVigil and NuVigil. My doctor supplied me with samples until I see if Nuvigil will work properly.
- texlakegirl
14
I'm glad also to have found this site! I was diagnosed with severe hypersomnolence in 1992 and was told not to drink caffeine after 1 p.m. That's it!
A teacher of mine at the police academy confronted me one afternoon after about sleeping through his entire class. I was so embarrassed. I tried to make a joke of it by telling him "Don't take it personally, I sleep through all my classes." That's when I had my second MSLT and was again diagnosed with severe hypersomnolence but this time they prescribed Provigil.
I don't think I could live without it; I know I couldn't stay awake without it! The only problem I have had is the max allowable isn't enough.
I take 2 200mg every morning (5:30am) and it only lasts until 2 or 3 p.m. I also started taking Wellbutrin, which is time released, in the morning and it helps me get through mid-afternoon. I still end up fighting to stay awake past dinner time, though. This is the first I've heard of Nuvigil from anon64759. Anyone else know about it.
- gacpakhik
13
It is wonderful to hear from other people with similar sleeping problems. I have just recently been diagnosed with mild hypersomnolence and started taking Nuvigil.
I had to cut the dose in half because of severe depression and weird facial movements. I differ, however, because I have a long REM sleep. I dream every single night and they appear to end just as soon as my numerous alarm clocks go off.
I have tried music, not eating or drinking after six, lights on, lights off, and I still dream, dream, dream. I am exhausted in the morning because I feel like I have been everywhere during the night!
I have been like this all my life and it seems to be getting more extreme as I age (52). The doctor is hoping the Nuvigil will at least help me get going in the mornings but at a loss at the excessive dreams. I would love to just have a night with a "blank screen" in my head!
- anon64759
12
i have recently started having narcoleptic type episodes over the past seven months. I have fallen asleep at work and even on the road while driving.
I have gone for an EEG and that came back slightly abnormal, so they sent me for a over night polysomnogram which has now come back as possible hypersomnolence.
I have looked at the recommended medication but I am really afraid to take a stimulant (I have a history of drug abuse) and am currently taking lithium for bi-polar disorder. Can anyone relate?
- anon54847
11
I was on provigil for a short time. The only side effect I had was horrible depression. Back on ritalin.
I take three tablets of regular ritalin and three tablets of sustained release ritalin every day. This is a horrible sickness to have and what makes it worse is that people unfamiliar with it act like it's a joke. It's so frustrating.
- anon53421
10
I have had hypersomnolence since 2007 and I have been on Provigil 200mg/2 times a day for since that time. Without it I would be sound asleep within 3 minutes of closing my eyes. (and that was during the MLST) I have no apnea, no narcolepsy. I still am very tired. I also have trouble at night with nightmares (because I take other medications for borderline personality). I am happy on the provigil, actually. I wouldn't be able to hold a job without it. I couldn't even drive at my worst.
Does anyone else have trouble with nightmares? --mew
- anon44371
9
anon152505 You sound just like i did when i was in school. My mom had a friend who was a RN. All the doctors testing for it. Try Epstein Barr. it happens to be in the family as mononucleosis and i believe can be a virus. When I had it I was so overly tired I would fall asleep in school, almost standing up. Everyone thought since I was a teenager I was just up late. Until I had been diagnosed. It would come and go when I got older. But I have been told it can also lie dormant in your system.
- anon37937
8
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia one year ago (had it for three) and early this year was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnolence as I can fall asleep within one minute if I let myself.
I have been taking legal dexamphetamine (30mg a day - 5 tablets taken at intervals during the day). So far they seem to be working. They are not accumulative so you feel the effect straight away and, according to my doctor, they have no extreme side effects.
You can work out when you need to take your tablets. For example I started with 2 in the morning, 2 at 11am and one in mid afternoon but found that 3 in the morning and 2 at 11 or 12 works better for me.
It's worth a try if other drugs aren't agreeing with you. good luck everyone.
- anon33965
7
I have been diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnolence for over 6 years now. I stared on Provigil, which was great until my hair started falling out and my legs now have permanent swelling.
Has anyone else heard of these symptoms? I now take 4 Ritalin a day, at a higher dose than is legal. I have to get a prescription each month and take it into the drugstore each month. I still have "bad" days.
- anon27994
6
I've been diagnosed with Hypersomnolence and have started to take Provigil. It's helping me during the daytime. I was wondering if anyone knows how Hypersomnolence affects night time sleep? I feel as if I'm sleeping all night long, but still exhausted when I wake up.
- gacpakhik
5
I've worked graveyard shift for many years and lately I've been falling asleep during work, after work sooner than usual, and having almost an immediate sleep response to the sun going down to sleep. Could it be hyersomnolence or Narcolepsy?
- anon19204
4
I have always been a very sleepy person, I always slept from 9 to 12 hours per day, but when I was going through adolescence my schedule changed and I slept only 6 to 8 hours at night and I had to take long naps (4hours) to be awake, and also I was going through periods where i felt extremely tired, and I had low pressure, the lowest was 60, but when I would go to the doctor the exams said that everything was ok with me. I had to live with that but now that I'm 19 years old, those periods almost disappeared, I have them only 3 or 4 times in a year but I still don't know what it is, if it is Kleine Levin Syndrome or not. Please help me. --Marianela, Bolivia
- anon15205
3
I recently underwent a overnight polysomnogrpahy and multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) and was not diagnosed with narcolepsy but with severe hypersomnolence because during my MSLT there was only one instance of REM. My doctor prescribed me with Provigil 2 200mg pill/day. I was experiencing headaches and feeling dazed/looking through a window or zombie like all day and experiencing soreness in my eyes so I moved down to 1 200mg pill/day and it seems to be working okay with only occasional problems, but I have not been super regimented on taking it every morning.
I am glad I finally mentioned the problem to my doctor to get diagnosed. I was lucky there hasn't been any fatal accidents. If you are experiencing problems with sleeping you should definitely seek professional help, even if it is determined to be poor sleep habits!
- anon11420
2
I was diagnossedwith Narcolepsy about 3 months ago and my original diagnosis was severe hypersomnolence.
The main difference for me, from what I understand, is that I go into REM in about 5-10 minutes.
Provigil has helped me incredibly. I am currently on 2 pills of 200mg a day.
I always thought it was just me not getting enough sleep. My problem started back in my early high school days.
I highly recommend getting tested if you have ANY problems with sleeping or staying awake. I hate hearing stories of family of friends that have died or been seriously injured due to someone falling asleep.
Be safe,
Eddie
- anon5366
1
I have just recently been diagnosed with hypersomnolence. I went through the MSLT and regular sleep study and my results came back that I didn't have narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, or abnormal oxygen levels. So, my doctor wanted to experiment with Provigil.
I have been on Provigil for about 3 months now and it has helped so much. I went from one tab/day(200mg) to 2tab/day(400mg) and am currently on 1.5 tab/day(300mg). I realized the 200mg wasn't helping enough and the 400mg caused some heart palpitations so I dropped back down to 300mg. I also had bad headaches for the first few months and had to take a lot of ibuprofen but I currently am very happy with the medication. I recommend trying it out, but give it time to work itself into your system.
