Introduction

Often misdiagnosed, sleep disorders can be debilitating disorders with the primary characteristic being either sleeplessness or sleepiness. The inability to sleep or sleeping too much may be problematic for everyday functioning -- especially for the adult whose employment requires alertness.

Sleep disorders are classified into two categories: insomnia and hypersomnia. Insomnia includes all disorders associated with initiating or maintaining sleep and hypersomnia includes disorders of excessive sleepiness or total sleep.

  

The most known hypersomnia type sleep disorder is narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a disease associated with "excessive sleepiness and abnormalities of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep" (Aldrich, 1990, p.389). It affects about 1 in 2,000 Americans and is generally underdiagnosed (Lamberg, 1996).