Professionals working with people who have hypersomnias

such as idiopathic hypersomnia, narcolepsy types 1 and 2, and Kleine-Levin syndrome

Our website offers resources for medical professionals and researchers who diagnose, treat, and work with people who have hypersomnias (central disorders of hypersomnolence). Our medical advisory board has reviewed and approved these resources.

Diagnosis, classification, symptoms, and causes of hypersomnias

Learn how hypersomnias are defined and classified, and review their symptoms. We’ve summarized the diagnostic criteria from the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3-TR), and we review some of the major challenges in diagnosing and differentiating the full spectrum of hypersomnia disorders. 

Learn more

Treating people who have idiopathic hypersomnia or narcolepsy

Learn about treating people with idiopathic hypersomnia or narcolepsy, including detailed information on medicines, managing co-morbidities and drug interactions, and non-medicine treatment options. Find out how to address hypersomnia medicines interacting with hormone medications (such as birth control, hormone replacement therapy, and gender-affirming therapy). 

Treatment options

Clinician planning for anesthesia, hospitalization, and medical emergencies

Learn how you can best help people with hypersomnias prepare for a hospitalization, anesthesia, and medical emergencies. On this page, we offer our PDF guide to what healthcare team members need to know about symptoms, common problems, and helpful accommodations. We also offer our care plan PDF that you can fill out together with your patients.  

Help patients plan

Clinician support for pregnancy and safe baby care

Learn how hypersomnias can affect pregnancy, nursing, adoption, and parenting babies, and how you can best help your patients who want to become pregnant or who are already parenting. You can help by becoming familiar with key questions like if hypersomnias are genetic, if symptoms will create difficulties during pregnancy, nursing, or child-rearing, and if hypersomnia medicines will affect the health of a fetus or nursing baby. 

Support your patients

Join our International Directory of Healthcare Professionals

If you’re a healthcare professional already caring for people with hypersomnias, we invite you to join our directory. The hypersomnia community depends on this popular resource to find experienced local hypersomnia professionals. There are many communities in need, so please take a minute or two to sign up!

Join today

Get continuing medical education (CME)

Find CME programs to get credits for learning about hypersomnias, including their differential diagnosis and treatment. Learn about World Sleep Academy, which provides accessible training in sleep medicine to healthcare workers, particularly those in communities underserved by sleep medicine specialists. 

View CME options

Resources for researchers and sleep study centers

We offer resources for researchers and sleep study centers that work with people with hypersomnias (PWH). Learn about the unique challenges when working with PWH. Learn best practices for planning, conducting, and reporting results in sleep studies, survey research, clinical trials, and other types of clinical, behavioral, or social science research that include PWH. 

Get resources