[livingwith]

My 19 year son has had trouble sleeping for approx 5 yrs. He always stays up way too late and is very hard to wake during the day. He often is awake for 20 plus hours, sleeps for 12 hours when he does sleep, and can’t go to sleep at a normal 10 or 11 pm time. He actually crashed and totalled his car on the interstate Sept 1 because he fell asleep. It was 8:24 AM and he was within 6 miles of home. I am soooo worried about him. He has been referred to the Cleveland Clinic but refuses t...Read the full article

[RIGGS]

he may be suffering from a combination of insomnia and narcolepsy possibly even sleep apnea. You need to get him into a sleep center for an overnight observation. When I first started the process of finding out what was wrong with me it turned out not only did i have DSPS but also sleep apnea, those two combined are a very deadly combination due to the fact that I have deprived sleep on top of short rem sleep which is crucial in day to day functioning.

please get him to a sleep clinic ASAP and dont just take 'he has insomnia' or 'his symptoms appear to be' as an answer get some solid scientific documentation and go from there.

[mgovoni]

Hi, sorry to contact you so long after your post, but I know exactly what your son is going through. I have fallen asleep in the morning during class, driving, standing up and singing in choir and while taking the SAT. Though I have DSPS and not narcolepsy, I treat the daytime sleepiness just like narcolepsy. I take Adderall, a stimulent that is usually used to treat ADD and ADHD. It is an amphetamine, but I only take a small dose in the morning (people with ADD take it twice a day), and I've found that the side effects are minimal. However, after awhile it becomes less and less effective. It's never become so ineffective for me that I've fallen asleep doing something important (like driving or taking the SAT), but if I'm bored I might fall asleep. It is recommended that you stop taking it for two weeks every six months. I often spread that out much longer, as I can't take two weeks out of my life to allow myself to fall asleep during the day. There is a new drug, Provigil, which is supposed to help, but because it's new I'm guessing it's pretty expensive. If you have good health insurance, though, you should check that one out. I hope this helps!