Excessive Daytime Sleepiness By Catherine Friederich Murray, MNLM
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ost of us have had an occasional morning when we wake up thinking, “Just five more minutes. Please just let me sleep five more minutes.” We likely nonetheless drag ourselves out of bed and face the day in a groggy state. Perhaps we had stayed up binging on the latest Netflix series or maybe we have an infant or older parent who isn’t sleeping through the night. We may have struggled through the day in a fog not really thinking clearly, had trouble paying attention or making decisions, and been just a wee bit irritable. We may have dozed off during an important meeting or while watching a movie. Now imagine feeling this way every day almost all day for months or years on end—This symptoms is what is commonly referred to as "Excessive daytime sleepiness" and is a symptom of an underlying problem as we discuss later. Without medication to wake up or stay awake, most people with EDS are certainly not operating at optimal efficiency. 6 | Autumn 2021 | Daytime Sleepiness
THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF EDS EDS is pervasive. Researchers estimate the rates of EDS to be between 10% and 20% in children, 16% to 40% in adolescents, and between 16% and 33% in adults in the United States. A recently conducted research study in Switzerland identified factors related to sleepiness among more than 2,700 participants who filled out questionnaires and underwent a complete physical exam when the study began (at baseline) and five years later. Researchers performed overnight sleep testing (polysomnography) on 1,400 of the participants at baseline and again five years later. The researchers found that 11.3% of these adults had EDS at baseline, with 16% having severe sleepiness. Over the five-year study period, 5.1% of those who were not sleepy at baseline developed EDS. Risk factors that increased the likelihood of developing EDS included male sex and having depressive symptoms, moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and poor sleep quality.
