Managing Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Poor sleep quality is a warning sign of damaged mental health. Lack of sleep at nighttime causes excessive daytime sleepiness. The sleepiness during waking hours leads to sleep disorders, hypersomnia, insomnia or daytime somnolence. The sleep disorders whether it is lack of sleep or excessive sleepiness affect your overall health. Excessive daytime sleepiness is not dealt with as a disorder in the medical field but it is a serious thing to some extent. Its remedy is necessary as it can affect your health and life quality as well. Recognizing signs of excessive daytime sleepiness can help deal with it properly so that you may get rid of this condition.

What is Excessive Daytime Sleepiness?

Excessive daytime sleepiness is the condition that makes you sleepy and dull during working hours of the day. Extreme desire to fall asleep during daytime is known as excessive daytime sleepiness. Sedentary lifestyle and inactive  routine life is another cause of dizziness during working hours. If you feel sleepiness during waking hours because you did not fall asleep properly last night due to any reason, it is a normal thing but if it happens repeatedly you should take notice. Because repeated attacks of daytime sleepiness are clear indicators of excessive daytime sleepiness disorder. The condition becomes serious if it lasts for three months consecutively. 

However, sleepiness sometimes is confused with fatigue because both conditions affect your energy levels. Fatigue and sleepiness are characterized by a drop in overall energy and often experienced after waking for longer periods. But one thing makes a difference between the both. Fatigue causes awakening for a longer duration. Although fatigued people become dull and lazy, they continue to stay awake for extended periods while sleepiness has the opposite effects. Therefore, you feel difficulty in staying awake and alert. In some cases, excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue both attack a person and cause serious mental health problems. No doubt different  sleep hygiene affects your sleep quality. Appropriate care decisions can help you amend your sleep cycle and stop the prevalence of sleepiness during waking hours.

In this article you will learn about the symptoms, causes and effective ways to manage excessive daytime sleepiness. 

Symptoms of Excessive Sleepiness

Good sleep helps you regain you and restore your memory and immunity each day. All vital processes in and out of your body depend on a healthy body and mind. A sound body and mind perform more efficiently than a dull or lazy one. Deep sleep makes you feel fresh and alert after waking up. Peaceful sleep is not only a source of ultimate relaxation but it also prevents several diseases that can be caused by lack of sleep and excessive awakening. 

Similarly, lack of sleep is considered as the host of conditions that usually are not connected to sleep disorder . but after some time, the diagnosis shows that the actual cause is lack of sleep.

Studies show that when you don’t feel sleepy at the time of sleep, it may be the sign of excessive sleepiness. Other symptoms of excessive daytime sleepiness include:

• Difficulty making decisions.
• React slowly.
• Irritating feelings.
• Difficulty staying alert and active.
• Loss of memory.
• Focusing problems.
• Abrupt and odd behaviors.

Effects of Daytime Sleepiness

Experiencing sleepiness during daytime affects different areas of your life. First of all it affects your health, secondly, it disturbs your daily life. It also:

• Increases the risk of accidents.
• Causes relationship problems.
• Cruises low quality of life.
• Causes mood swings.
• Creates problems in emotion handling.
• Decreases academic performance or work productivity.

Studies show that young adults are the common prey of excessive sleepiness disorder. But people who drive for extended periods, shift workers, and medical staff also complain that they are suffering from excessive sleepiness during waking hours. Another study discovered that lack of sleep is associated with some chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Children are also affected by daytime sleepiness. Their mental development and physical growth is affected badly. Children suffer from cognitive impairment, earlier mortality and memory loss due to excessive daytime sleepiness.

Causes of Excessive Sleepiness during Daytime

You often come across top different conditions that affect your optimal quality and quantity of sleep. These conditions lead to lack of sleep that ultimately causes excessive sleepiness. Experiencing daytime sleepiness is the general symptom  that confirms your bad sleep hygiene but restlessness, snoring and kicking while you’re sleeping are other signs that show your disrupted sleep. Often your room partner first observes your condition and tells you about your restlessness during sleep hours. 

Studies show that all causes of excessive sleepiness are not associated with disrupted sleep-wake cycles. Sometimes it is related to cancer or thyroid disease. 

More causes of excessive sleepiness include:

Sleep Apnea

This is a serious health condition that causes repeated stop and start breathing during sleep at night. This thing affects your sleep quality and quantity. More signs of sleep apnea are:

• A headache and sore throat upon waking up.
• Irritability throughout the day.
• Concentration problems.
• Difficulty being attentive.
• Loud snoring.
• Gasping for more air while sleeping.

These symptoms lead to severe health conditions, including:

• Obesity.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• High blood pressure.
• Heart problems.

Thus sleep apnea is the major cause that keeps you from getting a good quality sleep. Common types of sleep apnea that can affect you, are:

Obstructive Sleep Apnea: This condition is caused when your throat tissues get relaxed and covers your airways creating narrower paths for air exchange.

This condition causes disruption in sending signals from the brain to your muscles and organs that are associated with breathing.

Restless Legs Syndrome

An uncontrollable desire to move your one or both legs while you’re lying down for sleep, is known as restless legs syndrome. In this condition. You may experience an uncomfortable urge to leave the bed and walk. Sometimes, people fight with this urge to get up and continue lying down but then they feel a throbbing sensation in their legs. This condition makes it difficult to have a deep sleep, leading to waking up at night and experiencing sleepiness the next day. The cause of restless legs syndrome is still not rediscovered but a small number of people are suffering from it. Some studies claim that low levels of iron and an unknown genetic component may be the cause of this condition. According to some experts, the roots of RLS also attach to problems in the structure or function of your brain’s basal ganglia. This is the region that controls your muscle movements. Disturbance in this area of rain can lead to RLS. 

Narcolepsy

Your brain is a complex structure. Its different parts are specified for performing different functions and controlling different functions in your body. Its one part is specified to control your sleep-wake cycle. Narcolepsy is a condition when the specified part doesn’t perform its function properly and causes disturbed sleep-wake cycle. This is a serious neurological disorder. It makes your brain fail in managing sleep-wake-cycle properly. If you’re a sufferer of narcolepsy, you may awake multiple times at night like insomnia. You may experience repeated episodes of daytime sleepiness at random times when you have to stay alert. Although this condition is not common and it affects very few people, the misdiagnosis makes its  symptoms severe. People often confuse it with psychiatric disorders. 

Depression

Depression affects your sleep routine. It is the major cause due to which people experience lack of sleep, as a result you feel sleepiness during the daytime. That’s why people have a more or less than usual routine. Sometimes, hopelessness, demise, lack of motivation or irritability also lead to depressive mood swings. Due to these emotional disturbances, you would fail to have a deep sleep last night. This thing makes you feel sleepy throughout the day when you have to perform different tasks for the day. However, sleep changes or change in  your sleep schedule is not the suggestion. Depression is also caused by some other potential reasons like traumatic events, problems in the part of the brain that manages your emotions and mood, or disturbance in the leeks of certain brain chemicals.

Side Effects of Medication

If you’re taking any medications to treat a health condition. You may experience excessive sleepiness while taking such medications. This is known as the side effects of those medications. The medications causing excessive sleepiness are usually associated with the treatment of:

• Anxiety.
• Depression.
• Epilepsy.
• High blood pressure.
• Nausea or vomiting.
• Nasal congestion.
• Psychosis.

Therefore, it is a noticeable thing, if you feel excessive sleepiness after taking any medication. Talk to your healthcare provider so that they may suggest a better option or prescribe the alternative dose that may not affect your sleep-wake cycle.

Ways to Fight Off Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Here, you will learn about the effective ways to manage your excessive daytime sleepiness.

A Caffeine Shot

A shot of caffeine works as an energy booster. The energy you require to do your jobs throughout the day is your basic need that helps you perform thorough work. Caffeine can vanish the sluggishness and laziness you experience due to excessive daytime sleepiness. You need an effective stimulant that not only promotes your nervous system functioning but also boosts your brain activity and caffeine can do this. It also promotes your mental performance and makes your thinking ability better. A caffeine shot is the most reliable way to get rid of your daytime sleepiness. So when you experience sleepiness during working hours, try to head over to the cafe for a shot of coffee or go for a short walk to a coffee shop near your workplace. 

But keep in mind, drinking too much caffeine or going overboard can overstimulate your nervous system and brain.

A Power Nap

Daytime sleepiness often dominates all your efforts to keep yourself awake. The only way it seems to be effective is a little bit of eye-shut. So it is the best solution to lay our head down on the desk to get rid of daytime sleepiness. You also can squeeze in a quick power nap during your lunch break. Having your own office is another way to get some relief by taking a power nap. A 20-30 minutes power nap not only refreshes you but also helps you fight off the sleepiness attacks during your remaining working hours. You can get enough energy to spend the day.  Keep remembering to set an alarm while going for a power nap because without setting an alarm you can not wake up at the right time.

A Light Lunch

If you are habitual of eating a heavy lunch, you will surely experience excessive daytime sleepiness. A heavy lunch makes you more sleepy and causes dizziness. Avoiding heavy lunches, like white pasta, white bread, sodas, or sugary snacks can help you revive your energy. Eating light lunch helps you keep your energy up. So, bring healthy but light foods with you a lunch, such as whole grains, vegetables, eggs, chicken or nuts.“

Brighter Workspace

Natural light plays a vital role in fighting off daytime sleepiness. If you have windows at your workplace, you’re lucky. Open the windows and enjoy the natural light.sunlight is the effective way to increase energy and alertness in your body.  But if you’re devoid of natural light at your workspace, bring a light box and keep it near your table. The light-box emojis are low energy ultraviolet radiations that help you maintain your sleep-awake cycle. It promotes energy and brain activity due to which you feel less sleepy and more alert.

Conclusion

Whenever you are hit by tiredness and dizziness during working hours, try to manage your daytime sleepiness by following a few tricks mentioned above. Sometimes, excessive sleepiness is a result of any underlying health problem.you can visit your healthcare provider to diagnose the cause of daytime sleepiness. Tiredness lasting longer than a few weeks is a sign of something wrong with your overall health. 

Feeling all-time tired needs a complete checkup because if it continues for a longer time, it can affect your day-to-day life. If it happens due to an underlying health issue, it can affect your mental or psyche health at some point. 

A visit to your doctor will help point out the reasons for excessive sleepiness. Your doctor will ask some questions from you and also from your sleep partner because your partner is the only person who can tell whether you snore, snore or move your body abruptly during your sleep. If a sleep disorder is diagnosed, some tests may run out to identify the actual cause. After knowing the cause of excessive sleepiness during the day,an effective treatment plan is executed to improve your sleep at night. A sound sleep at night is a guarantee of a refreshing and active morning routine.