If you have a difficult time staying awake and alert during the day, you may be experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness. Dr. Virend Somers, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist with a focus on sleep medicine, explains the difference between being tired and being sleepy and how excessive daytime sleepiness can have a negative effect on the heart.
Needing to rest your body after a great workout or after a long day of work are examples of being tired — which is different than being sleepy.
“Being excessively sleepy during the daytime is, in a sense, falling asleep very quickly, having a very short period between the time you lay down or the time you sit down and actually falling asleep, and having no clear, obvious cause for being sleepy, or a cause related to a sleep disorder,” said Somers.
While there are many causes, the bottom line is excessive daytime sleepiness means you’re not getting enough quality restorative sleep.