Advice To And From College

A Guide for Students, Supporters, and College Personnel

Living with the symptoms of idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) can be overbearing – physically, cognitively, and emotionally.  It can be even more so for those who have IH and are working to meet the academic expectations of college, often while learning to live away from home and/or are newly diagnosed.

Not all students who have IH need accommodations in college, but some do.  This guide is a resource for them as well as those not needing accommodations, their supporters, and the college personnel who work with them. This guide consists of three (3) Advice Guidebooks and three (3) Navigation Guidebooks. Both sets of guidebooks were created to ensure the best possible academic and campus experiences for students who have IH whether in need of accommodations or not.  The words “supporter” and “family” are used interchangeably throughout this Guide.

The Advice Guidebooks function as reference guides, thus the resources identified in the index of each guidebook are hyperlinked directly to their content in the guidebook. Each Advice Guidebook identifies and provides links to relevant resources and publications of the Hypersomnia Foundation. Because readers likely will link only to  those sections of relevance to them, there will be repeated information to ensure that the reader who needs it, sees it. We have tried to keep that to a minimum. The advice in each Advice Guidebook was summarized from extensive personal interviews, online focus groups or both, and derived from standard qualitative research methods.

• Advice Guidebook A:  Advice to College from Students and Supporters
• Advice Guidebook B:  Advice from College Personnel Who Understand Students Who Have IH
• Advice Guidebook C:  Advice from College to Students Who Have IH
• Navigation Guidebook A:  The Admissions Office
• Navigation Guidebook B:  Learning in Higher Education
• Navigation Guidebook C:  Counseling Services