WHY YOU CAN’T STAY AWAKE: OTHER TYPES OF DOES – KLEINE-LEVIN SYNDROME
This rare cause of hypersomnia usually affects males, most often between the ages of ten and twenty-one. Victims experience bouts of extreme daytime sleepiness coupled with unusual eating patterns. The fact that victims alternate between periods of enormous appetite and near starvation leads some authorities to suspect that the cause of the syndrome lies in a malfunctioning appetite control center in the brain. Other behavior helps differentiate this syndrome: irritability, confusion, incoherent speech, delusions, social isolation, shyness, and apathy. Victims may demonstrate exceptionally aggressive or inappropriate sexual activity, such as exhibitionism. Metabolic disturbances can be detected through urinalysis. Victims experience earlier and shorter REM periods and less deep NREM sleep. After a period of time the condition enters a stage of remission that can last months or even years. Sleep during this time is normal. Diagnosis of this unusual condition is tricky, since some of these symptoms may appear to be just part of the transition from prepubes-cence to young adulthood. Indeed, there may be some connection to the rampaging hormonal activity of this stage of life. Treatment with lithium carbonate may prevent (but not eliminate) attacks; the condition usually resolves itself spontaneously before the age of forty.*161\226\8*
