Excessive daytime sleepiness Excessive daytime sleepiness Excessive daytime sleepiness Excessive daytime sleepiness

Abstract

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is an important clinical symptom with many obnoxious consequences both on individual and society levels. EDS in healthy people in most of cases results from night sleep shortage while in ill and elderly people is EDS caused by fragmentation of nocturnal sleep and just a small group is formed by patients suffering from central hypersomnias.

This paper describes measurement of a tendency to fall asleep, EDS epidemiology and its after-effects including common clinical practice. Brief overview of treatment procedures is also included.

Keywords

• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• sleep deprivation
• sleep apnoea
• narcolepsy