recently dx with sleep disorder..idiopathic hypersommulence. I have a high pressure sales job, studying for securities license and have fallen asleep while talking to people on the telephone. Now taking 400mg of provigil per day. Anyone with the same condition that can offer help about maintaining job and ability to drive car?

Hi and welcome to NeuroTalk, grammyto09. Sorry for your sudden and inconvenient naps.

I hope you are able to find help regarding your problem. Good luck in your pursuits -- I hope you are able to continue your job.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome.

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help. We are all here to assist each other as possible.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene

I don't have the same condition as you, but I'm another one who wants to welcome you to NeuroTalk.

Please make yourself at home and have a look around the site.

............

WHY are you falling asleep?

Are you on opiates?

What are your pulse ox levels? NOT at the doctor's office, but at home and at work.

When you fall asleep, are you ever moving around? Narcolepsy comes to mind, but if you are like me (when it happens to me) I am sitting, usually listening to someone. Embarrassing, but after I explain my detox off morphine they understand. In fact, my wife and a friend who is an RN have had to shake me, yell at me for up to 40 minutes and I still did not wake up. BUT I have severe respiratory problems that, God willing, you don't have.

Are your fingernails blue when you wake up?

If you have the money or good insurance, they can check your oxygen levels for a 24 hour period. Or you can shop around, like I did, and buy something like the SPO 7500, which records your oxygen levels for a period of time. They also provide software. The down side is they require batteries as there is not an AC power source.

Provigil caused me some problems, so I quit it. Also, while at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, CO last summer, they did an "echocardiagram" with agitated saline and found I needed a PFO. That was why my pulse ox levels were in the low 80s.

Good luck with it.

Not me, but a family member who additionally was diagnosed with an endocrine system disorder of unknown cause (idiopathic).

What helps that family member is better sleep architecture. How was that in your sleep study? Takes tryptophan and other supplements to help with sleep at night, although was also offered pharmaceuticals. Better hormone replacement also helps at night. Daytime... addition to provigil, some are helped by the stimulating, "brightening" effect of Wellbutrin. But that makes others anxious.

Jaspar

Thanks so much for the info. I did decide to seek a 2nd opinion and was told that the prior sleep studies were done incorrectly( didn't go off anti-depressents prior to test) and that perhaps the real problem was Narcolepsy. I had 2nd sleep studies done and I have Narcolepsy and 2 more sleep disorders. The easiest one to fix is the breathing disorder that you told me about. It was apparent on the first test but not picked up by the first doctor.

This forum is wonderful because we can share stories and provoke thought to seek other answers to our problems.

I wish you the best with your illness and sincerely thank you for the help in dx my illness and getting the right treatment for it.

This sounds like Narcolepsy to me. I have only known 2 people who had this, only one of whom was under treatment with Provigil. It seemed to work well for her, though. And she had the bravado to commute a considerable distance to work and to go on motorcycle trips, so I guess it did work well. Hopefully it is working well for you since your updated sleep study, or, if not, perhaps a dosage adjustment would be helpful. Some antidepressants are pretty sedating and make you WANT to dose off inappropriately, but these are primarily the tricyclics, not the SSRI's most take today. Welcome and good luck with your nap-time business lunches. billie

for me high stress was working at graveyard 12 midnite to 8 am with mean people. i once fell asleep and continued to do my job while sleepwalking. not good.

my advice, if wanting to keep licence, reduce stress and keep away from doctors. mine was misdiagnosed as epilepsy. i lost my licence for 6 months for a condition i did not even have. this increased my stress and symptoms and made my family stressed out too.

drugs they put me on to sleep kept me awake. i did much better on my own away from life wrecking doctors. i still have problems sleeping. what helps me is to put on a dvd and let that lull me to sleep, with a timer to turn off the tv after 120 minutes. doctors tell ypu not to do this. i just ignore them. because what they offer would cause me to fall asleep at the wheel and wreck the lives of people i hit. some things are just no brainers to me but doctors continue to preach the cookie cutter approach to medicine.

for me 5 hrs is a lot of sleep. i wish it could be more but i am horrified when it is less, because i am not in a position to be able to call in sick when this happens.