Hypersomia or Excessive daytime sleepiness is condition where one has difficulty keeping him/herself wake during the daytime. This can lead to social, professional, emotional and psychological problem on a long run if untreated. Especially this leads to the road side accidents or other injuries to the self or others.
There are many reasons for the excessive daytime sleepiness like sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, drug related side effects, prior trauma, depression, narcolepsy. Medication side effects specially Pschy and seizure medication. There may be other neurological or Pschiatric disorders, substance abuse, sleep deprivation or other sleep disorder causing the hypersominia and associated chronic fatigue symptoms.
Sleep apnea is a medical disease where one stops breathing completely for at least 10 seconds or longer for more than 5 times/hour. It is medically diagnosed by sleep study only. Sleep apnea is a very important medical condition that needs to be evaluated if one has snoring, daytime sleepiness like falling asleep watching TV or reading a book or if there is witness apnea by family members and or history of hypertension. If the neck size is 17 inches or larger in men and 16 inches or larger in women then there is a high chance that one may have sleep apnea. If this is the symptoms then one needs the diagnostic polysomnography or called a diagnostic sleep study for the evaluation of the sleep apnea. If the diagnostic sleep study is positive then one needs the treatment with the CPAP machine. Also one may need the second sleep study called cpap study or cpap polysomnography for the titration of the cpap pressure. One will have to use the cpap as a treatment for the sleep apnea.
An Integrative Medical approach is better than just a pharmacological treatment. An Integrative approach may help in managing a complex disease. There is no one drug that can take care of problem as it is a very complex muti-system involvement problem. When Ayurvedic treatment regimen is added it takes time. It generally takes time to show improvement as Ayurveda works slowly but helps to rejuvenation of the body slowly. Just like anything disease the response is different from person to person. Yoga if one learns from Yoga instructor and does different relevant exercise and Pranayma or breathing exercise of Yoga may help alleviate the symptoms. It do takes months to improve so one needs to be patient and keep on having discipline of their diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, life style etc.
