The answer, of course, is yes.  However, it may not necessary feel like a problem to the sleepy person.  Why?  Because if you’re used to feeling a certain way during the day for years, and if there’s no pain or other immediately negative consequence involved, then that way feels tolerable for years and thus becomes normal–to you–because what feels normal is simply what you experience regularly and every day.

Here is a not-uncommon scenario in my clinic.  A man and his wife walk in.  I ask the gentleman if he feels sleepy during the day.  “Not at all,” he may tell me, or he may reply with a more vague “not any more than usual” or “not any more than anyone else.”  Does he tend to doze off if he’s in front of the TV, for example, I ask, or while reading at home?  “No, never,” he replies casually.  This is when the silent eye-rolling from his wife, who cajoled him for months into this visit, changes to an exasperated gasp.  The frustration now is just too much for her.  “He falls asleep all the time,” she tells me, much to the man’s annoyance.  “No I don’t!,” he exclaims, challenging her angrily with his eyes.  “You fall asleep at the dinner table!,” she returns.  “Every night!  Even when we have company!”  The exchange continues in its escalation, both voices now raised to the point in which they can be heard outside the clinic room.  There have been times in which I’ve had to intervene in a mounting spousal fight over this question of sleepiness.  It’s not like he thinks she’s deliberately lying.  He may believe she’s exaggerating, and may accuse her of being prone to exaggeration during this visit.  But the primary problem here is more inscrutable:  the manifestations of daytime sleepiness just don’t seem to be a problem to him like they are for her–what’s wrong with napping when you’re bored, after all–and therefore he doesn’t believe it signals the presence of a medical issue or something that needs to be acted upon or repaired.

There are several problems with this logic.  First, the tendency to drowse and fall asleep by accident, though not necessarily painful in and of itself, can in fact lead to things that are painful, like fall-asleep car crashes.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 100,000 police-reported car accidents occur in the United States annually due to or associated with driver fatigue or sleepiness.  I’ve seen patients who admitted to me that they’ve fallen asleep behind the wheel of their 18-wheelers, or while driving their motorcycles on the freeway.  Tell me how this is not a dangerous problem.  Secondly, the idea that it’s normal to fall asleep by accident just because you’re sedentary or bored is not based on fact.  If you get proper amounts of sleep regularly and if there are no sleep disorders, you generally shouldn’t be falling asleep easily during the day, even if you’re bored.  Finally, and importantly, the tendency to struggle to stay awake is a symptom of something, not necessarily the problem itself but an indicator that something is wrong, wrong with the quantity of your sleep, the quality of your sleep, or both.

Excessive daytime sleepiness is an incredibly prevalent problem with far-reaching implications.  In 2008 the National Sleep Foundation conducted a survey (called The 2008 Sleep in America Poll).  Of its respondents, 36% nodded off behind the wheel during the previous year; 29% fell asleep at work or drowsed substantially at work; 20% had sex less often or lost interest in sex due to sleepiness; 14% missed family events, work functions, and leisure activities because they were too sleepy or had sleep problems.

The most common cause of daytime sleepiness is simple sleep deprivation.  The vast majority of human adults require between 7.5 and 8 hours of sleep per night regularly to feel awake and alert consistently during the day.  However, as you are probably well aware, many of us tend to get less than that, and often much less than that.  In addition, there are many medical sleep disorders, ranging from obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movement disorder to narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, for which daytime somnolence is an important clinical feature.  If you are struggling to stay awake during the day despite proper amounts of sleep each night, perhaps a sleep disorder needs to be uncovered and managed.

Bottom line:  daytime sleepiness is in fact a real problem, one that can directly and indirectly impact your quality of life.  Consider doing something about it.

Have a great week, everybody!  Cheers!