Central Hypersomnia in Multiple Sclerosis

Fatigue and sleepiness are major multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms that can be a frustration to properly treat and can lead to disability. Investigators conducted sleep studies of 44 patients with MS (19 with fatigue and sleepiness, 15 with fatigue alone) and 24 healthy controls.

Compared with controls, those with fatigue and sleepiness had higher percentages of rapid eye movement sleep (median, 20.5% vs. 18.1%), lower arousal indices (12.7 vs. 22.4), and shorter mean sleep latency (8.6 vs. 16.6 min) and more often had abnormal sleep latencies (42% vs. 9%). In 10 of the 19 patients with fatigue and sleepiness, testing identified central hypersomnia, defined as chronic sleepiness associated with an abnormally short sleep latency or excessively…