September 19, 2023 : A Case of Idiopathic Hypersomnia
© 安岡喜晴 (JoyShine)
Today I came across a case of idiopathic hypersomnia.
He was referred to a sleep clinic by his doctor and is now on medication for idiopathic hypersomnia.
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness despite adequate sleep hours and is characterized by normal or prolonged sleep at night
and a tendency to take longer naps during the day, but not feeling refreshed upon awakening.
Sleep duration tends to be long, more than 10 hours, and the patient often does not feel refreshed upon awakening and repeatedly falls asleep because of drowsiness.
The person I met today is not sleepy during the day and does not feel sleepy when he wakes up.
He said he sleeps about six hours and about seven hours on his days off.
When I asked him if his symptoms occur on his days off, he said that they do not occur on his days off.
In other words, his symptoms only occur when he is working.
The above episodes did not seem typical of idiopathic hypersomnia.
When I checked his prescription, I found that the drug is effective for both narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia,
and he said that the frequency had decreased dramatically since he started taking the drug.
So maybe there is no doubt that it is either narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia.
Well, if the prescription is working, I don't think there's any need to strictly differentiate between the two, and I felt it was okay.