What Are the Causes of Excessive Sleepiness?

Excessive drowsiness during the day-This symptom is always present and usually the most obvious.

Drowsiness is a neurological disease that can cause unsuppressive sleep. Drowsiness is an excessive daytime sleep or sleep episode. These sleep stages occur frequently and are not prone to occur at appropriate times, such as when talking, eating, or driving. Although sleep can occur at any time, it most often occurs during periods of inactivity or monotonous, repetitive activity.

Lethargy symptoms

Excessive drowsiness during the day-This symptom is always present and usually the most obvious.

Lethargy Sudden fall-Sudden fall refers to the sudden or temporary loss of muscle mass, which causes paralysis of the head or body without loss of consciousness. It can last for seconds or minutes. Minor symptoms are vague language or stuttering, droopy eyelids, or weak fingers to hold things. Severe sudden falls can cause knees to bend and collapse. Laughs, excitement, or anger are typical causes of sudden collapse. The sudden relaxation of muscle mass may be the result of the brain suddenly entering REM sleep. Less than half of patients with narcolepsy have cataplexy.

Drowsiness sleep paralysis

The so-called sleep paralysis is when you cannot sleep or temporarily wake up. It only lasts a few minutes. Similar to cataplexy, sleep paralysis may be related to inadequate transitions between REM sleep and awake states. Sleep paralysis is associated with hallucinations.

Lethargy hypnosis

It refers to mental and dream-like images, which are usually terrifying, and often occur when falling asleep or before sleep paralysis.

Lethargy

About 90% of people diagnosed with drowsiness do not have at least one of these symptoms. Less than half have these four symptoms. These symptoms are usually not reported for adolescents or young adults until then. People with drowsiness complain of fatigue, poor performance in work, study, and social relationships. Excessive drowsiness during the day can incapacitate people and greatly reduce the quality of life. Loss of memory and visual impairment can be particularly disturbing.

More than half of people with drowsiness suffer from memory loss or memory disruption, which is caused by "microsleep" that breaks into awake states. During these stages they get overwhelmed when walking or driving, talking or nonsense, misplacing or hitting something. It is typical that they cannot control their behavior during these stages and cannot remember what happened afterwards.

Lethargy

Lethargy Drowsiness usually occurs at the age of 15-30 years old, but some people develop drowsiness earlier or later. Once drowsiness occurs, it will accompany you for life. Men and women are affected to the same extent. The first symptoms of drowsiness are usually severe drowsiness during the day. However, it may take several years for the patient to be diagnosed with the disease, as there are many other causes of the daytime sleepiness.

(1) Excessive sleep or sleep episodes during the day, sleep episodes cannot be explained by insufficient sleep time, and the transition time to full awake state is longer when awake

(2) This type of sleep disorder occurs every day and lasts for more than 1 month or repeated sleep episodes, causing significant distress or affecting work or family life.

(3) Excluding daytime sleepiness and narcolepsy caused by various organic diseases, the incidence of sleepiness is mostly related to psychological factors.

Causes of lethargy

1. Poor sleep at night, or short sleep time, or sleep apnea, that is, snoring while sleeping, and intermittent breathing, which affects the quality of sleep; longer time makes the biological clock disorder. Fatigue, drowsiness, dizziness, and unclear head may be a manifestation of early neurasthenia.

2. Inadequate nutrition can easily lead to sleepiness and sleepiness. Adding protein can make drowsiness better. Another type is narcolepsy, which usually develops after puberty. The main symptom is daytime drowsiness, which is manifested as sleepiness regardless of time and place. If you talk to guests or work, you will have sleep attacks , Narcolepsy does not generally cause other organic lesions.

3 Obesity and overweight in adolescents or young people can cause excessive sleepiness during the day.

4 Depression may be the main cause of excessive drowsiness during the day. Patients with depression are three times more likely to experience excessive drowsiness during the day than normal.

Lethargy (16 photos)

5. Diabetes and excessive drowsiness during the day are closely related to diabetes. Diabetes is nearly twice as likely to develop daytime sleepiness as others. Hypothyroidism. Due to low basal metabolism, thyroid patients often have drowsiness.

Lethargy pathology

Primary lethargy

This drowsiness can occur when the patient complains of excessive sleepiness for at least one month, prolonged sleep almost every day, or cannot help but want to sleep during the day. Moreover, this situation is not caused by not sleeping well the night before or lack of sleep, nor is it caused by the use of drugs or poor physical condition. At this time, it can be preliminarily determined as the primary lethargy.

Repetitive drowsiness

Repetitive lethargy

Recurrent drowsiness is more commonly associated with Kline-Gwen syndrome and recurrent premenstrual drowsiness.

Klein-Gwen syndrome is a disease that is more common in adolescents. Males are more common than females. Clinical symptoms are narcolepsy, accompanied by increased appetite and increased libido. Symptoms usually occur suddenly (within a few hours) or gradually (within a few days) with drowsiness and are accompanied by changes in mental state, especially restlessness. The duration of drowsiness can be as short as one day or as long as 30 days, but the typical typical manifestation is four to seven days. And recurrences occur at regular intervals, usually months. At the same time, the frequency of drowsiness decreases with age. The cause is not yet clear, and may be related to the abnormal function of the hypothalamus. The characteristic of repetitive premenstrual drowsiness is that the symptoms of drowsiness occur periodically. This symptom is related to women's menstrual cycle. After the menstrual period, the symptoms of drowsiness disappear. This condition must occur for at least 3 consecutive months before it can be diagnosed as premenstrual drowsiness. During the period of premenstrual drowsiness, a number of sleep physiological electroencephalogram examinations showed normal night sleep, but multiple sleep latency tests during the day revealed drowsiness.

Snooze

Sudden sleep ^[1] Sudden sleep is at least 3 months of irresistible sleep (mainly during the day) that occurs every day, and sudden falls. When a sudden onset of sleep occurs, the patient can usually realize what is happening. This is due to the strong emotions that cause the muscle tension on both sides of the body to disappear, so that the patient suddenly becomes soft and falls down. REM will happen soon after falling asleep during the day. Some people will have life-like hallucinations just before or immediately after the end of sleep, and some people will experience sleep paralysis (commonly known as "ghost press"). Sudden sleep patients often fall asleep when they experience sudden sleep during the day. Whether they are driving, watching a movie, or talking to others, they cannot stop the drowsiness. Dreaming will start within about 5 minutes after falling asleep (the average time required for a person to fall asleep to dream is about 90-120 minutes), and the duration ranges from several minutes to tens of minutes, and then the patient will wake up At this time, the spirit will feel better.

If you have the following conditions, you should consider whether you have a sudden sleep:

Even if I sleep a lot during the night, I still feel very sleepy during the day.

I fall asleep when I do nt want to or should nt sleep, like when I m eating dinner, driving, laughing or angry at work, surprised, shocked, my body suddenly becomes paralyzed, or my head muscles are weak and I ca nt support my head. unit.

When you are about to fall asleep or will wake up, you will find that you will be unable to speak or move your body.

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy

Paroxysmal drowsiness is a neurological disease that is caused by problems with the function of the sleep-wake center in the brainstem, resulting in four major symptoms such as excessive drowsiness, sudden collapse, sleep paralysis and hallucinatory hallucinations. Onset of excessive lethargy refers to falling asleep in inappropriate places during daily activities during the day, such as suddenly falling asleep while eating, driving and working. Such patients often experience traffic or work accidents. However, patients with narcolepsy often complain of insomnia at night. This may be due to intermittent sleep at night, which is caused by frequent hallucinatory hallucinations or sleep paralysis. Sleep at night. Although patients with narcolepsy always seem to be in a state of being confused and want to sleep, their total sleep hours 24 hours a day are not longer than normal people.

Drowsiness in the elderly

Drowsiness in old age

Drowsiness in old age First, environmental factors. If the elderly live a lonely, monotonous, lonely environment, coupled with poor physical strength, poor heart function, or suffering from osteoarthritis, the elderly often do not love activities and are prone to drowsiness. If you look for the cause, exclude pathological factors and environmental factors, you should pay attention to arrange daily life for the elderly, pay attention to appropriate activities suitable for the characteristics of the elderly, so that the elderly feel full and meaningful life. Remove loneliness and loneliness.

Second, physical factors. The elderly are physically weak, especially if they suffer from some systemic diseases, such as hypothyroidism or lung infections. The early symptoms are often debilitating and lethargy. Such as senile pneumonia, sometimes the main clinical manifestation is drowsiness and lethargy, while other symptoms such as fever, leukocytosis, etc., are not very obvious. Therefore, family members should pay attention to the medical conditions of the elderly, and should promptly seek medical examinations to prevent delays in treatment.

Third, the drug factor . Mainly refers to the side effects of sleeping pills, because some sleeping pills have a longer duration of action, and if the elderly have chronic renal failure or hypoalbuminemia, the after effects of sleeping pills are prone to occur, and the after effects are manifested as poor mentality after waking up the next day , Tired and lethargic. Therefore, when examining the elderly in sleepiness, it is found that the medications taken and the use of sleeping pills have a certain relationship with sleepiness, and they should be discontinued, used or reduced.

Fourth, brain factors . When the elderly are drowsy, the first thing to consider is whether there is brain disease. Inflammation of the brain, brain tumors, brain atrophy, cerebral arteriosclerosis, and cerebrovascular disease, etc., can cause sleepiness. If you suspect drowsiness caused by a brain disease, you should go to the hospital for a detailed examination in time for early diagnosis.

Clinical diagnosis of drowsiness

Drowsiness can be diagnosed through the development of typical stages and the results of sleep studies performed overnight during multi-level sleep latency tests. Sleep studies have verified other causes of daytime drowsiness, such as sleep deprivation, sleep apnea, and depression.

The tests were performed at the Sleep Institute, where researchers used a multi-sleep device to electronically control brain waves, eye movements, muscle activity, heartbeat, blood oxygen levels, and breathing. The multi-level sleep latency test is usually performed after getting sufficient night's sleep, so the results are clearer.

Usually it is done after a sleep study. The multi-level sleep latency test includes four 20-minute nap opportunities that are evenly spaced throughout the day by two hours. People who are sleepy can fall asleep in about five minutes or less, and transition to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep occurs at least twice in four nap times. In contrast, normal people generally need 12-14 minutes to fall asleep, and will not enter the REM sleep stage.

Drowsiness treatment

Method 1: Tactile stimulation

Lethargy When you are sleepy and sleepy, brush your teeth and gargle with aromatic toothpaste, and wash your face with cold water to increase the excitement of the nervous system of the body, thereby achieving the purpose of dissolving the spring sleepiness.

Method 2: Visual stimulation

Step outside and look out to the countryside, the lake, the spring, the seashore, and the mountains. If you are indoors for a long time, you can also add some colorful and vibrant ornaments and flowers and plants in the room to give people a pleasing look; good visual stimulation is conducive to eliminating drowsiness.

Method 3: Taste stimulation

Eat some bitter and spicy food, and also make a cup of strong tea or coffee to relieve the difficulty.

Method 4: Olfactory stimulation

When you are drowsy, you can smell wind oil essence, cool oil, toilet water and lit sanitary scent, which can dispel sleepiness and refresh your spirits. If you can adapt to local conditions, planting some aromatic and refreshing seasonal flowers and plants in the room, balcony or courtyard will also help alleviate the lack of interest.

Method 5: Auditory stimulation

When you are drowsy, you often listen to music or songs with beautiful and lively tunes, which are exciting and inspiring, in order to delight your body and mind, or enjoy some comic dialogues, sketches, jokes, comedy movies, etc. In the laughter, you are excited and dispelled.

Method 6: Hand Massage

Massaging the acupuncture points of the hand in time will help to restore vitality and boost the spirit. Here are two hand acupuncture massages to quickly get rid of sleepy worms and avoid crowds in public. A. Massage the reflex area of the brain, reduce headaches and discomfort caused by fatigue, and help refresh the brain.

1. The thumb and index finger of the right hand gently clamp the depressions on both sides of the nails of the thumb of the left hand, and gently knead the acupuncture point in a vertical manner. The main massage point is on the index finger.

2. Slowly knead, do not use brute force, press left hand, then right hand.

B. Massage the reflex area of the spleen, enhance the function of the spleen and stomach, and avoid lethargy.

1. Pressing the thumb of the right hand under the bone of the thumb of the left hand, the area raised like a chicken leg is called the big fish, and it is also the reflection area of the spleen. Press your left hand and then your right hand.

2. The massage method is very simple. After pressing the thumb, rub each place lightly, rub the area that feels more painful.

Drowsiness prevention

Once drowsiness occurs, it is not easy to eliminate. In most cases, these drowsiness can be successfully controlled through treatment, regular nap, and good sleep habits. There is currently no way to prevent drowsiness. Avoiding conditions that cause drowsiness may help reduce the frequency of drowsiness. If you have drowsiness and your symptoms cannot be controlled with medication, you should never drive or smoke to avoid injury. The main symptoms of drowsiness-excessive drowsiness during the day can be treated in several ways, such as taking stimulants like modafinil (Provigil), toluene (Ritalin and other brand names) or dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), and regular daytime Take a nap. Stalling and sleep paralysis can be treated with tricyclic antidepressants. Sudden falls can also be treated by taking sodium hydroxybutyrate, although the administration of this drug needs to be strictly controlled because it is abused by the entertainment industry. It is important to provide psychological counseling for issues related to self-esteem and emotional support, especially for those who are lethargic, because they cannot fully realize their potential and may be considered lazy and unwilling to move by their families and peers.

Method one: the rhythm of life

To overcome drowsiness, you must first grasp the rhythm of your life. Don't stay up all night for three days, two impulses, and study, and you should develop a more regular lifestyle.

Practice has proved that making appropriate adjustments to the living habits developed in the winter to gradually adapt the body to the climate with rising temperatures is a key part of lifting drowsiness. For example, to keep warm in winter, you usually close the door and close the house. In the spring, you must often open the windows and doors to make the indoor air flow; you must also pay attention to ensuring a certain amount of sleep. Getting enough sleep can help eliminate fatigue.

Method two: multiple exercises

The spring of the earth, when all things are recovering, you should step out of outdoor activities and carry out some appropriate fitness exercises, which can effectively improve physiological functions, increase the body's respiratory metabolic function, accelerate internal circulation, increase the oxygen supply of the brain, and lethargy Will ease. For example, walking early in the morning, doing exercises, running, and playing Tai Chi are very helpful for encouraging your spirit.

Sleepiness Health

Modern medical research believes that drowsiness is related to the lack of human protein, the body is in an acidic environment, and insufficient vitamin intake. Therefore, in the springtime sleepy diet, attention should be paid to increasing protein intake, such as appropriately increasing fish, eggs, milk, soybean products, pig Liver, chicken, peanuts and other foods.

"When spring, the taste should be reduced acid and sweet, so as to nourish the temper," so when spring comes, pay attention to eat more alkaline foods to neutralize acid products in the body and eliminate fatigue. Do not eat cold, greasy, sticky food, and do not drink too much. It's best to eat more fresh vegetables and fruits every day. Vegetables contain more alkali, and eating more fruits and vegetables is ideal for improving drowsiness.

Increase your vitamin intake. For example, vitamin C has the role of producing intercellular adhesion substances, which is very helpful for the repair and growth of human cells; B vitamins have the role of preventing nervous system dysfunction and eliminating mental stress. Therefore, eating more vitamin-rich foods and vegetables has a positive effect on relieving drowsiness.

Do not eat too much for three meals a day, it is best to eat three to five meals a day, otherwise the stomach will swell too much and people will easily become sleepy.

Many people do not eat breakfast in the morning, which causes insufficient sugar supply in the brain, difficulty in concentration and lethargy. In fact, a glass of milk and a few slices of bread for breakfast is a good choice. But milk is best not to drink on an empty stomach, must be combined with starchy foods.

Zinc deficiency affects the concentration of cognition and attention. Seafood products such as laver and kelp are rich in zinc. It is appropriate to eat such foods 1-2 times a week.

Drowsiness

First, environmental factors. If life is lonely, monotonous, and the environment is lonely, and because of poor physical strength, poor heart function, or suffering from osteoarthritis, etc., they often do not love activities and are prone to drowsiness.

Second, physical factors. Physical weakness, especially when suffering from some systemic diseases, such as hypothyroidism or lung infections, the early symptoms are often debilitating and lethargy. Such as senile pneumonia, sometimes the main clinical manifestation is drowsiness and lethargy, while other symptoms such as fever, leukocytosis, etc., are not very obvious.

Third, the drug factor. Mainly refers to the side effects of sleeping pills, because some sleeping pills have a longer duration of action, and if there is chronic renal failure or hypoalbuminemia, the after-effects of sleeping pills are prone to occur, and the after-effects manifest as poor mentality and tiredness after getting up the next day Lack of sleepiness.

Fourth, brain factors. When drowsiness occurs, the first thing to consider is whether there is brain disease. Inflammation of the brain, brain tumors, brain atrophy, cerebral arteriosclerosis, and cerebrovascular disease, etc., can cause sleepiness. If drowsiness caused by a brain disease is suspected, you should go to the hospital for a detailed examination in time for early diagnosis