• Sleeping a lot could be due to narcolepsy, which causes sudden bouts of sleepiness.
• Taking medications like antidepressants, pain meds, allergy meds, and more can also cause tiredness.

It’s normal to feel mild daytime sleepiness once in a while, but if you’re feeling excessive sleepiness suddenly or often that’s causing you to sleep more than the recommended 7-8 hours, this can cause concern.

Not to mention, feeling tired and worn out all the time can get in the way of your day-to-day and can even be dangerous when operating a car or other machinery.

Here are six reasons for excessive daytime sleepiness and how to treat it and get your life back on track.

1. Sleep debt

Sleep debt occurs when you aren’t getting enough sleep than what you typically get and need. For example, if a person who usually gets eight hours of sleep suddenly has only a few days of only six hours, they’ll go into sleep debt.

This debt builds up over time — the more sleep debt you accrue, the more sleepy you may feel and the longer it takes to return to your baseline.

Though sleep debt can occur simply because life has gotten in the way of getting a good night’s rest, it can also result from a health issue. Some medical conditions that can prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep are:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Cancer
• Depression
• Head injuries
• Intellectual disabilities
• Pregnancy
• Schizophrenia
• Stroke

Sleep debt can result from even one single night of insufficient sleep. It can take several days to recover.

Aside from excessive sleepiness, you may notice cognitive impairments such as:

• Trouble with memory
• Slower thinking
• Shorter attention span
• Irritability

Treatment: To recover from sleep debt, you need to get adequate sleep. Dimitriu says you should make sure you’re getting at least seven or eight hours of sleep per night and ideally going to sleep and waking up at around the exact times each night and morning.

It would help if you also avoided flip-flop sleep patterns where you continuously undersleep one night and oversleep the next night, says Dimitriu. Instead, aim for a consistent amount of sleep every night.

1. Drinking caffeine or alcohol

“Sleep quality is as important as sleep quantity. It’s important for the brain to go through the proper sleep stages at night, and many substances can disturb this,” says Dimitriu.

For example, he says that two common offenders are caffeine and alcohol:

• Caffeine can cause you to take longer to fall asleep, have lower quality sleep, and have shorter overall sleep time. A 2013 study found that having caffeine six hours before bed reduced total sleep time by over an hour.
• Alcohol can lead to lower quality sleep because it reduces the amount of REM sleep you get and can contribute to insomnia. A 2018 study found moderate alcohol intake reduced sleep quality by 24%, and high alcohol intake resulted in a 39.2% reduction.

Note: The CDC defines moderate drinking as two or fewer drinks per day for men and one or fewer drinks per day for women. Heavy drinking is considered eight or more drinks per week for a woman or 15 or more drinks per week for a man.

Treatment: Reducing your alcohol and caffeine intake, particularly closer to bedtime, can help improve your overall sleep quality, resulting in less daytime sleepiness.

Ideally, it would help if you stopped drinking caffeine six hours before bed and alcohol four hours before bed.

1. Medications

Various medications can cause excessive sleepiness, says Dimitriu. You may notice these side effects when you first start taking a pill.

Examples of medications that cause sleepiness are:

• Allergy medications
• Anti-anxiety medications
• Antidepressants
• Antipsychotics
• Anticonvulsants
• High blood pressure medication
• Muscle relaxants
• Pain meds

Treatment: Speak to your doctor if you think your prescriptions make you extra sleepy.

It’s possible that your body needs to adjust to the medication, or you may be able to take it at a different time of day that works better for you.

Do not stop taking medication as prescribed before talking to a medical professional.

1. Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a prevalent condition, affecting about 25% of men and 10% of women. It causes you to temporarily stop breathing throughout the night, resulting in sleep disturbances and lower sleep quality.

If you share a bed with someone, they may report that they hear you snore loudly or have witnessed you stop breathing at night, which can be telltale signs of sleep apnea.

Other symptoms of sleep apnea include:

• Trouble staying asleep
• Waking up with a dry mouth
• Headaches in the morning
• Irritability
• Trouble concentrating

You may be most at risk for sleep apnea if over 50 or overweight.

Treatment: If sleep tests determine that you have sleep apnea, treatment will depend on the severity of your condition.

Mild cases may respond to lifestyle changes, such as losing weight if you’re overweight. However, the most common treatment in moderate or severe cases is using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine to help keep your airways open.

If a CPAP machine isn’t suitable for you, oral appliances, like tongue-stabilizing devices, maybe another option.

1. Narcolepsy

If you are exhausted during the day — even falling asleep suddenly wherever you are, you might be experiencing narcolepsy.

The condition is relatively uncommon, affecting only around one in every 2,000 people in the US and Western Europe.

Narcolepsy is a condition where the brain has trouble controlling your sleep-wake cycles. Kryger says you may also experience symptoms such as:

• Hallucinations, particularly upon falling asleep or waking up.
• Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone that can result in weakness or collapse, typically upon feeling a strong emotion like anger or excitement.
• Sleep paralysis is when you temporarily can’t move or speak, usually around the time of falling asleep or waking up.

Treatment: Narcolepsy is typically lifelong, but medications can help prevent severe symptoms and help manage the condition. Treatment options include prescription medications such as:

• Stimulants
• Antidepressants
• Sodium oxybate (a potent sedative taken at night)

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1. Restless leg syndrome

The main symptom of restless leg syndrome is extreme discomfort in the legs, resulting in an irresistible urge to move them, says Kryger.

The sensation can range from achiness to feel like your skin is crawling, and giving in to the urge to move your legs can temporarily relieve the discomfort.

This phenomenon usually worsens when you’re resting and at nighttime, leading to trouble falling asleep and getting back to sleep upon waking up in the middle of the night. Since your sleep is disrupted, you may be excessively tired the next day.

Additionally, you may experience frequent leg cramps while you sleep. The decrease in sleep and sleep quality can lead to daytime sleepiness.

Treatment: In many cases, there isn’t a known cause for someone’s restless leg syndrome, but sometimes it can be due to an iron deficiency, Kryger says. In this case, iron supplementation may help treat the syndrome. In other scenarios, treatment includes various medications such as:

• Anti-seizure medications
• Medicines that raise dopamine levels (such as Neupro and Mirapex)
• Muscle relaxants
• Opioids

Insider’s takeaway

If excessive daytime sleepiness interferes with your day-to-day life, check in with your doctor or a sleep specialist to determine the cause.

Whether you need to get more sleep every night or take medication to manage a condition, a medical professional can get you on track to feeling more well-rested and alert.

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