WHY YOU CAN’T STAY AWAKE: OTHER TYPES OF DOES – “SLEEP DRUNKENNESS” | BlogExactfindrx.com provides coverage of current health news.

I like to describe this condition as a “severe case of Monday morning, every day of the week.” Victims, mostly male, undergo a prolonged time of transition between sleeping and wakefulness. In some cases their feelings of sleepiness can last until noon or later. During that interval their movements may be clumsy or uncoordinated, their ability to make decisions is reduced, and the few judgments they do make are cloudy or inappropriate. Obviously such a pattern can impair one’s ability to function. I recently counseled a patient who was extremely distraught because she was fired from her job as a secretary after her boss publicly accused her of drinking on the job. A lifelong teetotaler and devoutly religious person, she had to cope with extreme feelings of shame, anger, and depression. Psychological and supportive counseling were called for; another strategy that proved helpful, she reported, was finding a split-shift job that allowed her to begin work at one in the afternoon. Unfortunately, her condition of delayed morning arousal still persists.

While there is insufficient research on this syndrome to understand it thoroughly, it appears to arise from a malfunction in the arousal mechanism of the brain, and it may be an inherited trait. The urine of a sleep-drunk patient often shows low levels of homovanillic acid, a by-product of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter involved in the arousal process. Experts interpret this finding to mean that victims of sleep drunkenness have reduced amounts of this crucial chemical. The problem is made worse if the victim is forced to awaken during Stage 3 or 4 of the sleep cycle. Sleep deprivation, physical fatigue, or use of some drugs can also compound the problem. Some victims find that abstaining from stimulants, including coffee can make it easier to stir in the morning.

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WHY YOU CAN’T STAY AWAKE: OTHER TYPES OF DOES – “SLEEP DRUNKENNESS”I like to describe this condition as a “severe case of Monday morning, every day of the week.” Victims, mostly male, undergo a prolonged time of transition between sleeping and wakefulness. In some cases their feelings of sleepiness can last until noon or later. During that interval their movements may be clumsy or uncoordinated, their ability to make decisions is reduced, and the few judgments they do make are cloudy or inappropriate. Obviously such a pattern can impair one’s ability to function. I recently counseled a patient who was extremely distraught because she was fired from her job as a secretary after her boss publicly accused her of drinking on the job. A lifelong teetotaler and devoutly religious person, she had to cope with extreme feelings of shame, anger, and depression. Psychological and supportive counseling were called for; another strategy that proved helpful, she reported, was finding a split-shift job that allowed her to begin work at one in the afternoon. Unfortunately, her condition of delayed morning arousal still persists.While there is insufficient research on this syndrome to understand it thoroughly, it appears to arise from a malfunction in the arousal mechanism of the brain, and it may be an inherited trait. The urine of a sleep-drunk patient often shows low levels of homovanillic acid, a by-product of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter involved in the arousal process. Experts interpret this finding to mean that victims of sleep drunkenness have reduced amounts of this crucial chemical. The problem is made worse if the victim is forced to awaken during Stage 3 or 4 of the sleep cycle. Sleep deprivation, physical fatigue, or use of some drugs can also compound the problem. Some victims find that abstaining from stimulants, including coffee can make it easier to stir in the morning.*159\226\8*

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