Lethargy

Introduction Drowsiness is a neurological disorder that causes irreversible sleep. Drowsiness is an excessive daytime sleep or sleep episode. These stages of sleep often occur and are prone to inappropriate times, such as when talking, eating, or driving. Although sleep can occur at any time, the most common occurrence is in the inactive or monotonous, repetitive activity phase. Many people do not eat breakfast in the morning, which will cause the brain to supply insufficient sugar, not easy to concentrate, drowsy. In fact, a cup of milk and a few slices of bread are a good choice. But milk is best not to drink on an empty stomach, must be combined with starchy foods.

Cause

First, environmental factors. If life is relatively lonely, monotonous, the environment is relatively lonely, plus due to poor physical strength, poor heart function, or suffering from osteoarthritis, often do not love activities, prone to lethargy.

Second, physical factors. Physical weakness, especially in some systemic diseases, such as hypothyroidism or lung infections, early symptoms are often wilting and lethargy. Such as senile pneumonia, sometimes the main clinical manifestations are burnout and lethargy, while other symptoms such as fever, leukocytosis, etc., are not obvious.

Third, the drug factor. Mainly refers to the side effects of sleeping pills, because some sleeping pills have a longer duration of action, and if there is chronic renal failure or hypoalbuminemia, it is prone to the aftereffect of sleeping pills, and the latter effect is that the spirit is not good after getting up the next day, tired Lack of sleepiness.

Fourth, brain factors. When you have a lethargy state, you should first consider whether there is a brain lesion. Drowsiness occurs in the brain's inflammation, brain tumors, brain atrophy, cerebral arteriosclerosis, and cerebrovascular diseases. If you suspect that it is caused by brain disease, you should go to the hospital for detailed examination in time for early diagnosis.

an examination

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Drowsiness can be diagnosed by the onset of a typical stage and the sleep study of a multi-level sleep latency test. Sleep studies have identified other causes of excessive sleepiness during the day, such as sleep deprivation, sleep apnea, and depression.

The test was conducted at the Sleep Institute, where the researchers electronically controlled brain waves, eye movements, muscle activity, heart beats, blood oxygen levels, and breathing conditions using a plethysmograph. Multi-level sleep latency testing is usually performed after a good night's sleep, so the results are clearer.

Usually it is done after sleep studies. The multi-level sleep latency test included four opportunities for a 20-minute nap that was evenly dispersed throughout the day between two hours. A sleepy person can fall asleep in about five minutes or less, and at least two of the four naps will transition to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. In contrast, normal people generally need 12-14 minutes to fall asleep and do not enter the REM sleep stage.

Differential diagnosis

If the symptoms of drowsiness meet the following characteristics, you can diagnose:

1. The prolonged transition time during the day when there is too much sleep or when the sleep is on or awake to reach the fully awakened state cannot be explained by insufficient sleep time.

2. Attacks almost every day for at least 1 month, or recurrent in a shorter period of time, causing obvious distress or affecting the patient's daily life.

3. Lack of clinical evidence of narcolepsy additional symptoms (stumble, sleep paralysis, pre-sleeping hallucinations) or sleep apnea (nighttime apnea, typical intermittent voice, etc.).

4. There are no organic factors that can cause this condition, such as neurology or other medical diseases, use of psychoactive substances, or taking certain drugs.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.