Worried about my girlfriend - weird symptoms.

[dnova]

Hello everyone, I'm new here, and I have this question.

I've just been noticing weird things about my girlfriend, and I'm wondering what might be wrong.

First of all, she used to have migraines very often - about once a week.  Now she almost doesn't have them at all, but still has frequent headaches. Sometimes she sleeps with her eyes halfway open with eyelid twitching.  She falls asleep almost instantly and she's very hard to wake up.  She could probably sleep through a fire alarm. So calling her during the night is completely uselsess.  Even if you shake her, she can still be asleep.  She can fall asleep in any position, even when working at a computer.  One time she's done that and fell on the floor. She can also fall asleep in the middle of a phone conversation without even finishing a sentence. This only happens late at night around bedtime and never during the day.  During the day she's completely fine and does not randomly fall asleep.  Oh, and if I do manage to wake her up at night, and talk to her, the next morning she does not remember anything.

Sometimes she throws up for absolutely no reason.  

I've asked her if she had any head injuries and she said she was in a car accident when she was young, and she was in a coma for two days.  

This really really worries me, but every time I ask her about all this, she says she's completely fine and gets a little bit upset.

So my question is, is this some sort of disorder and should I be worried as much as I am?  And if it is, what can I do to help her?

[dnova]

Thanks for your quick response!

She doesn't work long hours, but she's a college student.  And this never happens during the day, only around the bedtime; in fact sometimes she wants to take a nap during the day but cannot.

Is sleeping with your eyes halfway open, the eyeballs rolled up and the eyelids twitching normal?? It freaks me out when I see her sleep like that.

Again, I appreciate your response and thanks for the suggestion to go get her sleep study done.

[DrNoopurMD]

Hi,

Thanks for writing in.
It is difficult to tell if it is a medical problem without looking at the patient. As there is a possibility that she gets so tired during the day that she falls asleep anywhere.
Is she under some kind of physical stress or does she work for long hrs?
The normal sleep cycle consists of periods of REM sleep in which the person usually dreams and can be easily awaken and cycles of deep sleep from which it is difficult to wake a person.
I would suggest you to consult a sleep specialist and get her sleep study done. Only then it will be possible to conclude if there is a medical problem.
Hope this helps!