Before taking the drug, hypersomniacs performed as well as the extremely sleep-deprived or slightly inebriated on a test of alertness. They then tested flumenazil in the sleepy patients. In a petri dish, adding a drug called flumenazil, which revives patients who have overdosed on sedatives such as Valium, reversed the effects of the sleepy peoples' spinal fluid. The sleepy patients were producing a brain chemical that kept them half-sedated all of the time, Rye said. (Past research showed a link between GABA and sleep paralysis, or the phenomenon in which one wakes up while his or her muscles are still frozen.) The spinal fluid of the ultra-sleepy amplified the effects of GABA, making it bind much more often to the human cells. So the researchers added a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which helps the body shut down. When they put the spinal fluid in a dish with human cells, nothing happened. Because spinal fluid provides a snapshot of the chemicals floating around the brain, the team took spinal taps from 32 patients with the disease and 16 healthy subjects.
So Rye's team wondered whether brain chemicals could cause hypersomnia. Doctors often prescribe patients stimulants such as Ritalin or Adderall, but they don't usually work. While no one knows exactly how many people have this condition, Rye estimates that roughly 1 in 800 people might be afflicted. "You look for the typical causes, and then once you rule all those out, you're left with people who still sleep 12, 13, 14, 15 hours," Rye told LiveScience.įor obvious reasons, intense sleepiness can put a crimp in patients' work and social lives. Most people come to a diagnosis after conditions like depression, sleep apnea or thyroid problems have been ruled out, said study co-author David Rye, a sleep researcher at Emory University. When they are awake, they usually feel as if they've pulled an all-nighter, and describe it as walking around in a fog. People with hypersomnia need to sleep about 70 hours a week and have trouble rousing from sleep. 21 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, may provide relief for the people who sleep constantly and feel exhausted despite caffeine, other stimulants, and several alarm clocks. A new treatment may help people with a bizarre medical condition that makes them perpetually sleepy.
0 kommentar(er)
