What's Causing Your Sleepiness? - Hypersomnolence disorder
Hello, I'm Smith kim. I am a psychiatrist live in south korea.
This time, I'm going to talk about Hypersomnolence disorder.
It is a neurological disorder of excessive time spent sleeping or excessive sleepiness.
In south korea, all psychiatric diagnoses are based on the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). All the diseases I'm talking about are also based on that book. Here are the diagnostic criteria for Hypersomnolence disorder.
Diagnostic criteria (DSM-5 and ICSD-2)
The specific DSM-5 criteria for hypersomnolence disorder are as follows:
• Self-reported excessive sleepiness (hypersomnolence) despite a main sleep period of at least 7 hours, with at least one of the following symptoms: 1) Recurrent periods of sleep or lapses into sleep within the same day; 2) A prolonged main sleep episode of more than 9 hours per day that is nonrestorative; 3) Difficulty being fully awake after abrupt awakening.
• The hypersomnolence occurs at least three times per week for at least 3 months.
• The hypersomnolence causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other areas of functioning.
• The hypersomnolence cannot be explained by the effects drug abuse or medication.
• The nightmares cannot be attributed to another sleep disorder (i.e., narcolelpsy, breathing-related sleep disorder, circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder, or parasomnia).
• A coexisting mental disorder or medical condition does not adequately explain the hypersomnolence.
Of course, Every items must be satisfied to diagnose the Hypersomnolence disorder.
The symptoms should be tired enough to make daily life difficult enough, once a week for at least 3 months.
In summary,
Even if someone sleep well enough, he(or she) should have symptoms that are tired enough to make daily life difficult. The symptoms should be at least once a week for at least three months. And he(or she) doesn't have any other diseases that increase sleep.
There are other features that can be seen in the Hypersomnolence disorder.
Some would have family history... Some suffer from Raynaud's phenomenon(It is a medical condition in which spasm of arteries cause episodes of reduced blood flow.)
Some people who have hypersomnolence disorder suffer from fainting.
They are not able to stay awake during the day, even if they sleep long enough, unlike the long sleeper. Some patients sleep 20 hours a day. Of course they cannot adapt to everyday life... Of those who deal with machinery, the risk of an accident is great. So they often use 'stimulants'.
Then, What causes Hypersomnolence disorder?
Although more research is still needed, about 10% of patients with Hypersomnolence disorders experienced viral infections. Hypersomnolence disorder can occur even after suffering head trauma and It can also be caused by genetic reason(autosomal dominant inheritance).
So how many people suffer from Hypersomnolence disorder?
Only about 1% of the population in the United States suffers from "an overexpression of sleepiness."
It is obvious that the number of patients who meet the diagnostic criteria is far less than that.
I have been in Hospital for five years, but I met only one suspicious patient. Even he didn't meet all of the diagnostic criteria ... it's a rare disease. Rather, I meet more patients with Narcolepsy, a rare disease I will describe next ... Prevalence of narcolepsy is 0.02% to 0.04% of the general population.
Could you roughly understand what the hypersomnolence disorder is?
If you think that you are sleeping a lot, you might be a long sleeper, Not hypersomnolence disorder.
If.... you think you are really suffering from this disease,
DO NOT TRY TO OVERCOME IT YOURSELF AND ASK FOR HELP!