Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

What is it?
Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a disorder in which a person feels tired during periods when he wishes to stay awake. Individuals affected by excessive daytime sleepiness tend to doze off without warning in various situations. Examples include falling asleep while in conversation, reading or watching television, or even more seriously, while driving.

People that experience excessive daytime sleepiness suffer mostly short-term effects, such as poor self-esteem due to not being able to predict when they will get sleepy in certain social situations, and temporary poor job performance.

What are the causes?
Excessive daytime sleepiness is caused by not getting enough hours of sleep, or from a lack of enough quality hours of sleep. The average person needs eight continuous hours of sleep per day. If an individual does not stick to a normal sleep routine, he may be affected by this disorder.

Excessive daytime sleepiness may be caused by a more severe, underlying sleep disorder. These sleep disorders prevent a person from obtaining a quality night's sleep.

What are the signs and symptoms?
The main sign that an individual has excessive daytime sleepiness is that he cannot stay awake in situations when he should - or wants to - stay awake. People with excessive daytime sleepiness show a lack of energy during periods of alertness.

How is it diagnosed?
Excessive daytime sleepiness can be diagnosed after a routine physical and discussion with a doctor. Tests can be administered to analyze whether abnormal hormone levels in the thyroid could be causing excessive daytime sleepiness.

Tests conducted at Sleepcare Diagnostics can diagnose whether EDS is caused by an underlying sleep disorder.

How is it treated?
Excessive daytime sleepiness, if not caused by another sleep disorder, is treated by regulating the sleep cycle. A patient should make sure to get enough sleep on a daily basis and stick to the same sleep routine day after day.

If EDS is caused by an underlying sleep disorder, that disorder will be treated, and EDS should be eliminated or reduced.

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