A 26-year-old woman, who feels tired and exhausted all the time was diagnosed with a rare condition called idiopathic hypersomnia.
According to the New York Times, a 26-year-old North Carolina resident was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia. She always found herself falling asleep at school and during dance classes, and she thought that she was not getting the required sleep. She reached doctors to get medical advice but, the doctors dismissed her by advising her to drink coffee and some doctors even called her lazy due to her condition.
Davis finds it quite challenging to avoid sleep. She always feels exhausted. The doctors were unable to find the issue until she took part in a clinical sleep study and was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia.
Davis told What’s The Jam, that it's like being trapped in the Groundhog Day movie, except instead of reliving the same day, she just relives the same exhaustion. She said that her condition clouds her thinking, and makes her to unable concentrate. She sleeps for 10, 12, and sometimes even 14 hours and wakes up feeling like she was awake all night.
Davis said she was always more tired than her family and friends and her condition affected her daily life and shortly her confidence too. Her symptoms started when she was a child and her condition increased in high school. Sometimes she even leaves the class to take a nap. She said that it was embarrassing and she didn't know what the issue was.
After consulting numerous doctors, who reportedly called her lazy and careless, she contacted a specialist, who asked her to take part in a sleep study. The sleep study requires her to sleep for 14 hours in one go. The results of the sleep study revealed that Davis's body never entered a deep state of sleep that's required for a proper test. Her condition was confirmed in 2017.
Davis said that she was practically bathing in coffee before she got an answer, and she felt like her struggles were seen as personal failings.
In 2021, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) authorized the first medicine for idiopathic hypersomnia for adult use. Now, Davis is in the process of experiencing another sleep study before she starts the treatment, and she is sharing her story to create awareness regarding the sleep disorder.
As per the Sleep Foundation, idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a rare sleep disorder, which is distinguished by feelings of excessive tiredness and difficulties getting up in the morning or after a nap. The IH is categorized under the broad group of central disorders of hypersomnolence. It is calculated that idiopathic hypersomnia may occur in about 20-50 out of every million people.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)
