Thank you for your question. There can be many reasons why someone would experience excessive daytime sleepiness. As the potential causes are varied and have been well-covered by both Dr Tze Yong and Dr Ethan, I shall not be repetitious.
One of the most common cause of excessive daytime sleepiness (if you do not have poor sleep habit, sleep deprivation, insomnia and medical problems or are on medications that disrupt sleep) is Obstructive Sleep Apnoea or OSA.
Dr Tze Yong gave a very good and thorough explanation on OSA, which essentially is a condition where you stop breathing or choke for a short period of time repetitively during sleep. Common symptoms of OSA include:
- Snoring
- Mouth breathing
- Witnessed choking or gasping episodes by your bed partner
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Morning headache
- Difficulty in waking up
- Poor concentration
- Frequent urination at night
If you have most of the symptoms listed above, you should consult an ENT Specialist or a Respiratory Physician/Neurologist with an interest in managing Sleep Disorders.
An ENT Specialist will likely assess your upper airway to look for possible sites of obstruction during sleep. However, you will need an overnight sleep study (a test whereby you sleep with sensors attached to different parts of your body to monitor the quality of your sleep and your body activity during sleep) to confirm the absence or presence of OSA.
Is this something I should worry about?
Yes! If you have OSA, you get less oxygen to your heart and brain as a result of the frequent “choking episodes” during sleep. Moderate and severe OSA have been shown to have the following complications:
- Heart complications (Higher risk of high blood pressure, irregular heart beat and sudden cardiac death)
- Brain complication (Higher risk of stroke)
- Metabolic complication (Higher risk of Diabetes)
- Higher risk of being involved in Road Traffic Accidents (RTA)
- Reduced concentration and memory
Hope this helps answer your question. Many thanks.
