What is sleepiness?

Sleepiness is a normal urge or physiological state of inducing sleep, its effect gets normalized or reversed after an adequate amount of sleep is attained.

Facts about sleepiness:

1.A patient might refer to it as just fatigue being unaware of its root cause. Consult a doctor for a complete evaluation to avoid fatal accidental outcomes.
2.The doctor has to precisely evaluate sleep patterns, medical history, and other physiological symptoms to treat the root cause of sleepiness.
3.The neurology involved in sleepiness is still under research. However, different brain sections contribute together to control the state of sleepiness and wakefulness.
4.Several neurological disorders can also contribute to sleep disorders.

What is Excessive Daytime Sleepiness or EDS?

Every individual goes through fatigued or tired days and the reason can be any from the stressed work environment to late-night hangouts etc.

1.Being little off the sleep pattern once a while is not an issue.
2.Excessive drowsiness during the day can affect the daily routine chores or the life of any individual.
3.Several patients encounter sleep disorders. Several diseases like hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and insufficient sleep syndrome involve EDS as its essential feature.
4.Several other psychiatric or neurology related conditions are also associated with EDS.

Different things contribute towards an impaired sleepy state of the body. For example environmental factors like uncomfortable mattresses and pillows or even beds etc. But the most frequently encountered factor is insufficient sleep duration which triggers all the mess which causes EDS.

Excessive sleep during a day is further linked with routinely experienced symptoms like:

1.Extreme mood swings
2.Forgetfulness
3.Lack of attentiveness

A treatment approach can be received from a doctor. But this disorder must not be left untreated since it can be risky for life.

When to seek medical attention regarding EDS?

Below are a few clues which you can look for to understand that it a time to seek medical advice from a doctor:

1. Not getting rid of brain fog: Excessive daytime sleepiness can eventually lead to brain fog situations often, during which mind loses its quality of clarity over the things. Focusing on anything might appear difficult.
2. Frequently nodding off behind the wheel: This one imposes greater risk for life. Because nodding for just a few seconds of even being sleepy during driving can cause a fatal accident. Irrespective of the cause of tiredness or sleepiness while driving the vehicle must be taken off the road and seek help from your loved one and simply avoid driving. The inability to keep the eyes open during daily activities actually indicates a sleep disorder.
3.Decisions are not crystal clear: Brain fog or sleepiness or mood swings call it anything but actually all of those things affect the human mind’s ability to make decisions.
4. Memory troubles: Besides losing clarity of mind even short-term memory issues are bound to come across the way of a person going through EDS. Being forgetful is common for everyone at some point and time however, being forgetful frequently and about every other things are just not the right symptom. Troubles like sleep apnea are linked with memory issues as well.

A complete evaluation is the best even if being sleepy during daytime is the only symptom anyone comes across.

How does EDS impact body metabolism?

Several research studies have revealed that sleep deprivation or sleep disorders leave a major impact on the metabolism of the human body.

Metabolism is mainly an entire series of several biochemical processes. It is present in every living life. It consists of two main processes:

1. Anabolism (building up mechanism)
2. Catabolism (breaking down mechanism)

Few pointers to know about metabolism:

1.Metabolism is simply the daily energy in the form of calories. It is mandatory for the body to shed off or burn those calories via several mechanisms for survival.
2.Reduction in metabolic value tends to affect the bodyweight of the person adversely besides inviting several other diseases in the long run. 3.Metabolism is also linked with cell injury because of free radical production. So in a way, excessive sleeping during the day decreases normal metabolism.
4.Glucose levels also get impaired due to excess growth hormone production during abnormal metabolic functioning.
5.The nighttime adequate level of sleep is mandatory for efficient metabolism because that time allows repair of the injured cells.
6.EDS provides no time for repair of the injured cells and even the metabolism which has to happen during daytime is already compromised far below than its actual values due to sleepy state.

Several types of research studies have provided some data that if a person sleeps less than 6 hours per day or more than 10 hours per day then it ultimately impairs the metabolic rates of the body. It further leads to metabolic syndrome. The commonly seen symptoms of it include hypertension, excessive fat around the belly, low HDL/ good cholesterol, high blood sugar levels, and triglycerides, etc.

Takeaway:

Daytime sleepiness is dangerous as well as common to find across the globe.

Few pointers to keep in mind regarding sleep:

1.For those who exposed to heavy machinery around or either have to drive being sleepy is risky.
2.The risk of fatal outcomes is huge with respect to life in case of sleepiness during the day because it is already under-recognized as a threat.
3.Excessive daytime sleepiness can only contribute to a negative impact on a person’s quality of life.
4.In a person with excessive sleepiness during the day, there arises difficulty in concentrating, and even memory problems tend to appear so often that eventually the work performance gets remarkably affected.
5.While in continuation of suffering from all those things with constant fatigue it is suggested to consult a doctor and discuss the issues to receive a root cause treatment.

Although, a common cause of daytime sleepiness is inappropriate sleeping habits, however, several comfort factors also equally contribute to it. So opting for a comfortable place with comforting beddings, with superb bedtime herbal tea like chamomile tea, and soft soothing music, etc are some simple things to induce sleep.

Every individual possesses different preferences for night teas or music for sure. But besides all improving sleep habits, the best one is avoiding mobiles during sleep time as precautionary or measurably preventing sleep troubles.