The woman who couldn't wake up : hypersomnia and the science of sleepiness
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages [263]-299) and index (pages [301]-308).

"Sleep was taking over Anna's life. Despite powerful amphetamine stimulants and multiple alarm clocks, the 29-year-old Atlanta lawyer could sleep for 30 or even 50 hours at a stretch. Forced to stop working, she was losing weight because she didn't stay awake long enough to eat. Doctors didn't know how to help Anna, until they discovered that her spinal fluid contained a substance that acted chemically like sedatives. Her doctors called it "sleepy juice," but had only hints about what it was. The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up is a medical and neuroscience detective story centered on idiopathic hypersomnia (IH), the "shadow sibling" of narcolepsy. Emerging research on IH and narcolepsy has surprisingly wide-ranging implications for how our brains function, day and night. Anna's experience, which was featured on the Today Show and in the Wall Street Journal in 2012, begins the book. Her successful treatment planted a seed, which has grown into an international community. The book will tell the story of how this unusual community came together, and the far-reaching consequences of their actions: the first clinical trials for the condition are currently underway as a result of the patients' banding together. Imaging studies can show that patients' patterns of brain activity are different in IH, compared to narcolepsy. IH also looks different from sleep deprivation, which is helpful for diagnosis and for demonstrating that IH is "real." A number of drugs are currently being tested to manage IH symptoms. At the same time, people with IH appear to have imbalances in REM sleep and deep sleep; examining these deficiencies naturally leads to topics such as non-pharmaceutical modes of enhancing sleep with light and sounds. The book concludes with an exploration of what the IH community can learn from other under-recognized diseases, the evolving sense of IH community, and the involvement of patients in steering clinical trials"--Provided by publisher.