Excessive Daytime Sleepiness is a condition in which a person experiences tiredness and a general lack of energy, even when having gotten a full night’s sleep.

A person with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, or EDS, often has to take many naps throughout the day. The sleepiness can come on at any time, similar to narcolepsy. Many people with this disorder are often mistaken for being intoxicated because of the deep sleepiness it causes while doing daily activities.

There are a few ways that doctors determine if one has EDS. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale is a questionnaire that asks many questions pertaining to the sleeping habits as well as the general feeling of wellness of a person. The results of this questionnaire range in number from zero to 24. Any score over a ten suggests that the patient consult a doctor on their problem.

Another test, which has been used since the 1970s is the Multiple Sleep Latency Test. This test measures the time in between a person taking a nap to when they start to experience excessive sleepiness.

EDS is considered a disorder, however many people think it is just a lack of motivation or willpower. Many family members and friends of a person afflicted with EDS have a hard time understanding what that person is going through. Oftentimes they just see someone that is constantly tired and usually come to the conclusion that the person should get more sleep or stop going out with peers.

There are many prescription medications that can be used to treat and help control the effects of EDS. With medication along with counseling, a person can overcome this disorder and go on to lead a normal life.

If you know someone that may be suffering from EDS, make sure you have them see a doctor to determine what the problem might be.

Many people suffer from Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and may not even know it. This disorder is characterized by constantly being tired even after getting a full nights sleep each night for over seven days. Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, or EDS, can affect a person’s social life as well, as many friends and family don’t understand this condition and may not react in a positive way.

People with EDS are often mistaken for being intoxicated. They have a tired look about them and are often seen with drooping eyes and bobbing heads while trying to stay awake. A person’s job can definitely be affected as this can cause poor performance as well as the inability to operate heavy machinery, such as a car.

One of the causes of EDS is being overweight. Studies have found that if you lose even as little as five pounds, symptoms of EDS can lessen. If you are overweight and have found that you have EDS, then it may be time to put yourself on the right diet plan so that you can lead a normal lifestyle again with EDS in your life.

Some medications can also cause EDS, so if you are taking medicine and notice that you are always sleepy, consult your doctor about possibly changing your dosage or even putting you on a different medicine altogether so that you don’t suffer from the effects of EDS.

If your friends and family don’t seem to understand your condition, sit them down and talk to them about it. They may think you are just generally lazy and don’t want to do anything, when in fact you are suffering from a common disorder. Talk to them and give them literature to read that explains your condition. Let them know that you are doing everything you can in order to get treatment for yourself.

There are many different reasons for excessive daytime sleepiness including physical issues, medication side effects, poor sleep hygiene and even cigarette smoking. If you have excessive daytime sleepiness your job performance suffers, you are a danger behind the wheel because sleepiness is just as bad as alcohol intoxication, and your personal life can suffer as well. As many as one third of fatal motor vehicle accidents can be attributed to sleepiness. Your health can be endangered in other ways as well such as on the work-related accidents. Clearly sleepiness is a problem with far reaching effects and is a major problem for many Americans.

Nearly all of us can recall nodding off during a boring lecture at school. But sleepiness that affects your school work can cause impaired learning, memory, perceptual skills; all of which can result in poor school performance

It’s thought that excessive sleepiness is caused by the central nervous system and can be connected with either normal or extended sleep episodes of non-REM sleep.

What Can Be Done To Help With Excessive Sleepiness?

Sometimes medication therapy is a viable solution. Correcting your sleep hygiene so that the bedroom is only used for sleep and intimate episodes and getting eight hours of solid sleep a night is important. A Sleep Study may be prescribed by your doctor to find out if medical issues such as sleep apnea could be causing your problem. Alcohol should be avoided. Examination of the medications that you are taking can sometimes reveal a culprit behind excessive sleepiness. Shift work should be avoided. Caffeine should be eliminated from one’s diet. Making a bed time ritual of gradually winding down from the day and relaxing with reading or a bit of television and then going to bed as soon as drowsiness sets in is one of the best habits to follow.

If you suffer from Excessive Sleep Disorder or suspect that you have this condition one way to determine the cause of your problem is with a comprehensive sleep study, also known as a polysomnogram. During a polysomnogram a sleep technologist records pertinent biological functions such as heart rhythm, brain wave activity, muscle tone, eye movement, and breathing using electrodes and monitors placed on your chest, head and legs. How much and how well you sleep are measured and the information can determine whether you have sleep problems and how severe they are.

Often times it doesn’t occur to people to talk to their doctors about their sleep because they aren’t aware of their movements and breathing during night time sleep. You should talk to your doctor if you are having problems during the day with sleepiness and if it’s becoming a problem in your life. Your partner can give important information about your nocturnal habits such as leg movement and snoring.

Sleep studies are used to diagnose:

Breathing disorders such as sleep apnea
Seizure disorders
Narcolepsy

After a full night’s sleep is recorded a technologist tabulates the data and it is presented by the overseeing physician for interpretation.

Important Questions to Ask Before Your Sleep Study

A sleep study can be conducted by an independent facility or they can be done in a hospital. Ask if the sleep lab is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). This accreditation shows that the facility adheres to the highest standards for patients with sleep disorders.

It may be important to be tested in a AASM accredited facility in order for your insurance to cover the cost of the test.

Also, be sure to ask if the technologist administering your study is a Registered Polysomnographic Technologist (RPSGT). A RPSGT is a fully trained specialist who has met rigorous requirements to gain his or her credentials.

Excessive daytime sleepiness affects millions of people. It is not just what you feel the morning after that bachelor party; excessive daytime sleepiness is a chronic condition characterized by the compulsion to sleep at inappropriate times during the day. Often this desire to sleep seems completely unrelated to the amount of sleep the person has gotten the night before. But excessive daytime sleepiness can in fact be related to a person’s other sleep disorders, even if he or she is unaware that there is another sleep disorder at the root of the problem.

Sleep apnea can result in excessive daytime sleepiness. This disorder is a result of pauses in your breathing while sleeping at night. These abnormal pauses interrupt your sleep, lessening the quality of your sleep and leaving you feeling tired and accumulating a sleep deficit. And yet many people are completely unaware that they suffer from sleep apnea. They do not remember having any difficulty breathing during the night, or waking up as a result of this difficulty. It isn’t until another symptom, like excessive daytime sleepiness, presents itself that they might suspect a problem.

Another sleep disorder related condition that can cause excessive daytime sleepiness symptoms is restless leg syndrome(RLS). Restless leg syndrome is the compulsion to move or twitch one’s limbs (the disorder isn’t confined to only legs) in response to random uncomfortable sensations. For many people who suffer from restless legs syndrome, nightime is the most severe time for experiencing the symptoms. The loss of sufficient sleep caused by restless leg syndrome can be significant, especially over time. A person may feel that the loss of sleep they are accumulating is nominal, but weeks or months of poor sleep–even if RLS is only keeping him or her awake a little longer than usual–can result in excessive daytime sleepiness.

If you suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness, you are probably accustomed to people making assumptions about your inability to stay awake during the day. They may assume you are staying up too late at night, or that you have a drug or alcohol problem. But you may know differently. Excessive daytime sleepiness is not always the result of staying awake at night to watch television or drinking too much the night before. There are a variety of less common causes that contribute to daytime sleepiness.

If you don’t know exactly what’s causing your excessive daytime sleepiness symptoms, it’s very important that you consult with a doctor on this issue. If you’re getting a solid night’s sleep every night, not drinking or indulging in recreational drugs, and know that your excessive daytime sleepiness is not the result of a prescription drug side effect, it’s important to identify the cause. Excessive daytime sleepiness can be a result of any number of more serious health problems that may need your and your doctor’s immediate attention.

And excessive daytime sleepiness itself can have serious consequences, so the cause needs to be addressed for that reason alone.

Clinical depression can be one cause of excessive daytime sleepiness. Many people are not fully aware that clinical depression can and does manifest with physical symptoms. But it does, and the uncontrollable compulsion to sleep at inappropriate times is one of the symptoms that may present themselves.

Anemia, or low levels of iron in the blood, can also result in excessive daytime sleepiness, as can other nutritional deficiencies.

Hormonal imbalances, blood glucose irregularities, and even growths and tumors can contribute to excessive daytime sleepiness as a symptom under certain conditions. All of these issues require medical attention and it is vital that you undergo a physical in order to find out what’s causing your EDS.

Excessive daytime sleepiness is the name of a condition which affects millions. It is the chronic, repeated compulsion to sleep during the day at inappropriate times. Sufferers may doze of at work, while driving, or in the middle of a meal or conversation, falling asleep in midsentence–or while running a red light.

If you find yourself compelled to take naps at the most inappropriate times, and this desire is irresistible–or resisting it impairs your functionality to the point that it mimics intoxication–you suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness. This is a serious problem, and not one that should be overlooked. It should be discussed with your doctor as soon as possible because the consequences of ignoring this symptom can be severe, both for your health and your overall well-being and quality of life.

How can dozing off be such a serious issue?

Well, there’s the danger of falling asleep during a time when you may put your life or the lives of others at risk. For those who suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness, this is a real danger. It’s not simply that you feel sleepy; it is that you are so sleepy you give in to the desire to sleep no matter what else is happening. This could be while cooking a meal, leaving a fire to start in your own home. Or while driving a vehicle, or operating other heavy machinery. Falling asleep while supervising children can also lead to terrible consequences.

There are also effects on your life and relationships. Excessive daytime sleepiness could result in being fired from your job, if you are caught sleeping at work, or because of carelessness that results from your excessive sleepiness. It can also damage relationships, as your loved ones may feel you are ignoring them or that they aren’t important to you.

“Excessive daytime sleepiness” doesn’t just describe the feeling you have when you stay up to watch the late-late show. It’s a recognized medical condition that affects millions of people during their daily lives. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a type of sleep disorder characterized by the strong compulsion to sleep during the day at inappropriate times.

These times include any situation under which you wouldn’t normally find it okay to take a nap. For example, sitting at your desk at work, in the middle of a meal at home or in a restaurant, or during a conversation. For those who suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness, this is not an occasional occurrence. Excessive daytime sleepiness is a chronic condition, marked by the fact that it reoccurs frequently if not daily.

The compulsion to sleep and the attending sleepiness that results can be so strong that sufferers of excessive daytime sleepiness may even appear intoxicated as they attempt to resist the onset of sleep during their daily tasks.

Excessive daytime sleepiness is usually a symptom of something else–there are a number of causes that can contribute to this condition. Often excessive daytime sleepiness is related to another sleep disorder. The person with excessive daytime sleepiness symptoms may suffer from insomnia or sleep apnea, or some other nighttime sleep disorder that interferes with his or her ability to get a sufficient amount of sleep nightly.

But sleep disorders aren’t the only root causes of excessive daytime sleepiness. There are a host of other physical or psychological causes that can result in the manifestation of excessive daytime sleepiness. Physical causes can include hormone or nutrition imbalances, anemia, or even a brain tumor. Psychological causes, like clinical depression, can also be contributing factors. Certain medications are also culprits of excessive daytime sleepiness in some people.