On the eShelf: Tired

By Cara Passmore

                Tired? Want to go home and take a nap after the super long and boring day you had? I know most of the time I sit in class about to doze off as my economic teachers lecture about tradeoffs.  After a while all you hear is wah wah wah and your eyes start to close and it feels like a struggle to stay awake.  Or perhaps you think about how you totally forgot to study for chemistry class and you pull an all-nighter and all you can think about is wanting to curl up in a warm bed with a blanket.

Anyways how would you feel if you got plenty of sleep at night and you’re still utterly exhausted the rest of the day? Well there is a woman, Anna Sumner, who can sleep for what seems like forever, but never has the satisfaction of feeling wide-awake;  well feeling tired is in fact a disease called hypersomnolence. This story sounds similar to Sleeping Beauty except Anna Sumner didn’t have her finger pricked by an evil witch and prince charming can’t wake her up. Instead she says home and sleeps all day.

You’re probably thinking that sounds amazing right now since you’re sitting in Etymology class and are ready for a nap right after lunch. However, feeling like you’re going to fall asleep all the time would suck and never feeling satisfied with the amount of sleep you got.  Anna Sumner will only feel exhaustion and even slept for 53 hours straight. What day is it? How long have I been asleep for? What time is it? Those are the never ending questions that Anna Sumner feels when she wakes up. The only treatment to help her with this illness is given only by IV and only administered in hospitals. Sumner went to the FDA and tried to convince them to let her take medicine that she could take orally even though it was not approved yet. Somehow she got her wish and was able to receive the treatment needed to make her wake up. She also needed physical therapy because she muscle were so underused that she couldn’t go five minutes without feeling fatigue, so next time you think you never want to get out of bed you might want to reconsider. So one last question……ready for a nap? 

Article found here.