Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Subscription Center
A medication currently used to treat drug overdoses appears to help patients regulate brain chemicals linked to hypersomnia
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
See what we're tweeting about
Deadline: Aug 31 2013
Reward: $100,000 USD
The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative (GBFAI) is launching the 2013 Geoffrey Beene Global NeuroDiscovery Challenge whose
Deadline: Jul 25 2013
Reward: Varies
This challenge provides an opportunity for Solvers to build a web-based or mobile “app” to explore data relationships in scholarly conte
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
2 Comments
Add CommentThis is fascinating -- it means the brains of these people synthesize some sort of endogenous tranquilizer, a sort of natural Valium. It raises the question of whether the same chemical can be found (at lower levels) in the brains of people who do not suffer from the condition.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOddly, I suffered from hypersomnia for a week. Since 1997 I've had a yet-to-be diagnosed problem where I feel mildly drunk all the time. After many tests and trying various things, my doctor asked me to take Paxil for at least three weeks. I couldn't do it. For the week I took it I slept eighteen to twenty hours every day. I'd wake about noon by 2 or 3 pm I was back to sleep. Then I'd wake again around 7 pm for about two hours. I couldn't work or do much of anything except sleep. It was horrible. I finally had to stop taking the medication.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've always wondered why it affected me that way, but not other people. I also wonder how that was related to what these hypersomniacs are suffering. Obviously mine was chemically induced by some sort of changes in my brain.