Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a neurological sleep disorder characterized by chronic, excessive attacks of drowsiness during the day - excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) - despite adequate or long sleep amounts. Other hallmark features include non-restorative sleep and extreme difficulty awakening from sleep despite sleeping for 10-11 hours per night which is typical for people with IH.

Misdiagnosis or underdiagnosis of IH is common since sleepiness is a central feature of multiple disorders, secondary symptoms of IH can be seen in other disorders, and because there is no validated biomarker for IH diagnosis. Considerations for differential diagnosis of IH include clinical features of insufficient sleep syndrome, narcolepsy type 1 and 2, delayed sleep phase syndrome, hypersomnia associated with psychiatric disorders, and hypersomnia due to medical disorders.

What are some of the key questions you ask patients to accurately diagnose their sleep disorder? What other approaches, tools, or tests do you use to diagnose idiopathic hypersomnia from other sleep disorders?

_{Trotti (2017) Sleep Medicine Clinics 12(3):331-344}

Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a neurological sleep disorder characterized by chronic, excessive attacks of drowsiness during the day - excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) - despite adequate or long sleep amounts. Other hallmark features include non-restorative sleep and extreme difficulty awakening from sleep despite sleeping for 10-11 hours per night which is typical for people with IH.



Misdiagnosis or underdiagnosis of IH is common since sleepiness is a central feature of multiple disorders, secondary symptoms of IH can be seen in other disorders, and because there is no validated biomarker for IH diagnosis. Considerations for differential diagnosis of IH include clinical features of insufficient sleep syndrome, narcolepsy type 1 and 2, delayed sleep phase syndrome, hypersomnia associated with psychiatric disorders, and hypersomnia due to medical disorders.



What are some of the key questions you ask patients to accurately diagnose their sleep disorder? What other approaches, tools, or tests do you use to diagnose idiopathic hypersomnia from other sleep disorders?

_{Trotti (2017) Sleep Medicine Clinics 12(3):331-344}

Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a neurological sleep disorder characterized by chronic, excessive attacks of drowsiness during the day - excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) - despite adequate or long sleep amounts. Other hallmark features include non-restorative sleep and extreme difficulty awakening from sleep despite sleeping for 10-11 hours per night which is typical for people with IH.



Misdiagnosis or underdiagnosis of IH is common since sleepiness is a central feature of multiple disorders, secondary symptoms of IH can be seen in other disorders, and because there is no validated biomarker for IH diagnosis. Considerations for differential diagnosis of IH include clinical features of insufficient sleep syndrome, narcolepsy type 1 and 2, delayed sleep phase syndrome, hypersomnia associated with psychiatric disorders, and hypersomnia due to medical disorders.



What are some of the key questions you ask patients to accurately diagnose their sleep disorder? What other approaches, tools, or tests do you use to diagnose idiopathic hypersomnia from other sleep disorders?

_{Trotti (2017) Sleep Medicine Clinics 12(3):331-344}