Narcolepsy Forum Posting

Posted by Linda on August 19, 1999 at 20:06:53:

In Reply to: Is this a symptom.... posted by Dee on August 18, 1999 at 20:30:33:

Of course you need a medical evaluation to diagnose your condition. However, what you describe is very characteristic of the sleep disorder I have, idiopathic hypersomnia. This disorder is very similar to narcolepsy but also differs in that the sleep periods are usually quite a bit longer than those of narcoleptics. From what I understand, narcoleptic sleep attacks are more often 10-20 mins. in duration, whereas we hypersomniacs can easily sleep for an hour or two at a time, despite having had a good night's sleep. You describe feeling better after the nap, which is less usual for hypersomniacs--for us, naps are usually not restorative. Driving, esp. highway driving for a period of time, is a major trigger for sleep attacks for me, and also for my father who suffers from hypersomnia as well. Hypersomnia, I think, is less common than narcolepsy (or maybe just accurately diagnosed less frequently) but can be just as disabling. Without medication, I would sleep most of the day and night too, with only brief intervals of wakefulness in between 1-2 hour sleep attacks. If your primary care doc finds no clearcut medical problem, I would go to a sleep clinic for further assessment. Most primary care docs, even good ones, are clueless about hypersomnia and will miss the diagnosis, ruling out narcolepsy (due to absence of both cataplexy and disturbed nighttime sleep) and looking no further. Good luck and feel free to ask additional questions if you like.

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