Excessive Sleepiness

Excessive Sleepiness

Introduction

Imagine your day completely under the influence of a very sleepy: it is difficult to focus and maintain interest in any activity that is attempted, from a phone call to a movie or drive home. Although excessive sleepiness is a sleep disorder rare, its impact on a person's life is dramatic. Moreover, a person suffering from this disease but do not count on diagnosis and treatment can live his life unable to perform normally or put at risk the existence of those around him.

Recent advances in research in sleep medicine, scientific research, medical technology and pharmacology have allowed the design of appropriate treatment for the patient, and while there is still no cure for narcolepsy, the patient under treatment can lead a normal life. It is a disorder whose main feature is excessive daytime sleepiness, with a tendency to sleep at inappropriate times (Verster, et. al., 2008).

Discussion

Excessive daytime sleepiness

The most common cause of excessive daytime sleepiness in our society is the chronic sleep deprivation (sleep 20% less than our ancestors a century ago), voluntary and generally determined by social or economic factors; responsible for this dysfunction may be habits incorrect behavior such as consumption of caffeine, vitamin C, alcohol, nicotine, the use-abuse of hypnotics, the "afternoon nap", working late, doing sports during evening hours, emotional stress and mental ruminations previous sleep , an evening meal or abundant intake of excessive amounts of liquids before bedtime. Other causes of this imbalance may be the desynchronization of hours reading, the use of TV and radio as hypnotics, anxiety, insomnia, numbness in the habit of ritual wrong [staying in bed in case of insomnia, reading "trigger "bedtime hour before the moment of sleep, etc.] (Pfeiffer & Bodis-Wollner, 2005). In addition to behavioral factors are also involved in the imbalance factors such as environmental noise (road noise or neighbors, snoring partner, children in neonatal), lights and ambient light from anticipation of the morning light (increased susceptibility in the spring- summer).   

But in the absence of sleep deprivation, a problem of daytime sleepiness should be taken seriously because it could be a symptom of a serious disease and worthy of identification and treatment. Among the pathological causes of hypersomnia include the Ostruttuve in Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) and motor disorders during sleep. In these cases, daytime sleepiness is secondary to poor sleep quality in people suffering from these diseases. As regards instead the Narcolepsy, hypersomnia, daytime is one of the primary symptoms (Schenck, 2007).

Narcolepsy affects approximately 0.09% of the population and has a strong genetic component: about 90% of the affects presents the human lymphocyte antigen gene (HLA-DR15 DQ6 and HLA), which is found in less than 30% of the general population. The disease is characterized by sudden attacks of sleep during the day, to which the subject cannot resist, they occur especially in moments of relaxation or monotonous and can last from minutes to over an hour. Despite the ease of falling asleep, often these patients have a sleep interrupted by frequent awakenings. Moreover, during the day, sudden losses can occur in muscle tone (cataplexy), ...