Prevalence and Course of Idiopathic Hypersomnia in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a CNS disorder of hypersomnolence of unknown etiology. Due to the requirement for objective sleep testing to diagnose the disorder, there are currently no population-based estimates of the prevalence of IH nor data regarding the longitudinal course of IH in naturalistic settings.

METHODS

Subjective and objective data from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort study were used to identify cases with probable IH from participants with polysomnography and multiple sleep latency test data. Demographic, polysomnographic, and symptom-level data were compared between those with and without IH. Longitudinal trajectories of daytime sleepiness among those with IH were assessed to evaluate symptom persistence or remission over time.

RESULTS

From 792 cohort study participants with available polysomnography and multiple sleep latency test data, 12 cases with probable IH were identified resulting in an estimated prevalence of IH of 1.5% (95% CI 0.7-2.5,

DISCUSSION

These results demonstrate IH is more common in the working population than generally assumed with a prevalence on par with other common neurologic and psychiatric conditions. Further efforts to identify and diagnose those impaired by unexplained daytime somnolence may help clarify the causes of IH and the mechanisms underlying symptomatic remission.