


Other causes of central apnea include neurologic disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gherigs disease or ALS) polio, or brain infections and brain tumors. Central apnea can also occur in healthy individualssleeping at very high altitudes. 


A recently recognized cause of excessive daytime sleepiness is “Shift Work Sleep Disorder” a circadian rhythm disorder experienced by people whose work hours cause them to be awake during normal sleep times. Characterized by insomnia alternating with periods of excessive sleepiness, the disorder has long been common knowledge among people whose work schedules required them to stay up all night, such as doctors, nurses, police officers and firefighters.  However, the recent inclusion of the disorder in the differential diagnoses of excessive daytime sleepiness is allowing sufferers to request and be assigned schedules to which they can more easily become acclimated. 


Finally, there are a number of psychiatric and physiologic conditions that affect an individual’s overall energy level and may result in excessive daytime sleepiness. Some of these are common, such as depression, chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, migraine headache, and iron deficiency anemia, and some are less so, for instance hypothyroidism, kidney failure and restless leg syndrome. Excessive fatigue can also be a symptom of cancer, heart disease, chronic infections or stroke. It is important to remember that despite our hectic life-style and the frenetic pace of American life, being sleepy all the time is not normal or desirable, and can lead to other serious consequences and health issues. Therefore, anyone who experiences excessive daytime sleepiness for no apparent reason should see his or her physician as soon as possible. 


It also would not hurt to sleep a bit more. A recent study by the National Sleep Foundation found that Americans get 20% less sleep than we did a century ago. That, unfortunately, is just not enough. 



‎ ‏Healing is the process of identifying,‭ ‬processing,‭ ‬accepting,‭ ‬and-finally-letting go of our suffering.‭ ‬Thus,‭ ‬as we search in our lives for healing and healing experiences,‭ ‬it is important that we look less for ways to end our suffering and more for the reasons behind the pain that we feel.

We suffer because we want things to be other than what they are.‭ ‬It is impossible to live in the moment and suffer,‭ ‬because suffering is by nature a function of either attachment to what once was‭ (‬loss‭) ‬or desire for what we wish would be‭ (‬yearning.‭) ‬In the moment we can and do feel pain,‭ ‬discomfort,‭ ‬confusion,‭ ‬longing...so many other things that remind us that we are sentient,‭ ‬emotional beings.‭ ‬In the moment‭  ‬we may feel saddness at the loss of love,‭ ‬loss of health,‭ ‬loss of companionship,‭ ‬loss of dreams and the terrible,‭ ‬heart rending pain of grief.‭ ‬But it is only when we forget to stay in the present–only when we allow ourselves to forget the‭  ‬truth that‭ "‬this too,‭ ‬shall pass‭" – ‬and that tomorrow will bring solace do we become overwhelmed with the terrible longing for something else.‭