almost fell asleep in my car and got in an accident

[guesseso]

been having problems with suddenly not being able to keep my eyes open. I can nap for say 10 minutes and be fine. Hit me in my car coming home from work in traffic. Almost caused an accident. After it got real close to an accident, my adrenaline woke me up. It literally came out of no where.

never, ever happened before. I am not that over weight and I am on a very healthy diet. I don't think it is sleep apnea, since it is not every day. I drink 2 cups of coffee in the morning out of fear of this. Tends to happen in afternoons. I eat extremely healthy, so it is not from heavy eating.

yeah I exercise. I am a 36 year old male.

[Dr Rajput]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Your history is suggestive of narcolepsy. In this condition there will be excessive daytime sleepiness. But in your case it seems milder form of it.  In this condition there will be “automatic behavior" such as driving past a highway exit or go into sleep or writing off a page, with no memory of the previous few minutes. Classical narcolepsy constitutes of Hypnagogic hallucinations, Sleep paralysis and Cataplexy which is not seen in your case.

You need to undergo tests like Polysomnography, Multiple Sleep Latency Test and CSF levels of Orexin/Hypocretin which help to substantiate the diagnosis.
Having regular nap for about 20 min during day will help to prevent sleep attacks.

Drugs like Modafinil, Methylphenidate and Amphetamines against prescription can help to increase the alertness during the day and they are esp. useful in excessive daytime sleepiness or increased sleep attack.

I suggest you to consult physician for further evaluation. Take care and regards.

[nav900]

BE relax while sleeping
Consume Warm Milk, or honey or potato, or banana half and hour before going to bed , for better sleep.

After lunch have a cat nap

Be cool and relaxed while driving

Practice Meditation

thanks
thanks

[Gina04]

I would have some 'routine' blood work done (CBC, glucose, etc.) and also have a sleep study done.  If you have sleep apnea, it means that you stop breathing while sleeping and thus your body wakes you up during the night.  It may be just a few seconds you are awake and so you wouldn't notice it.

When I got married almost six years ago, I told my husband that I was pretty sure he had sleep apnea.  He didn't think he did at first.  Then he said he might have it but that it was really mild if he did.  When he was tested, he found out that he would stop breathing 40 times an hour for an average of 15 seconds each time.  Waking up like this throughout the night can cause daytime drowsiness.

There is also the possibility of narcolepsy where you fall asleep doing various things throughout the day.  The best thing to do is to get tested to rule out anything major.