Instead, it was an effective treatment for narcolepsy, a disorder marked by excessive daytime sleepiness.

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For disruptive snoring it was 42%, daytime sleepiness 45%, restless legs 54% and legs jerking 60%.

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"It makes sense that daytime sleepiness would be associated with depression, " says James Gangwisch, Ph.

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Of course, the vast majority of people with excessive daytime sleepiness don't have hypersomnia most just don't get enough sleep at night.

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Take, for instance, ProVigil, which is used to treat excessive daytime sleepiness.

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The figures took into consideration other factors, such as smoking and obesity, which can also increase the risk of snoring and daytime sleepiness.

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Daytime sleepiness appears to be the new normal for adolescents.

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After all, if Xyrem got knocked by 20 out of 22 advisers to the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for pain, how could it be something regulators could OK just to ease some excessive daytime sleepiness?

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And when sleeping pills aren't enough to help patients stay alert, a wakefulness drug called Provigil is already approved for excessive daytime sleepiness caused by narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift-work sleep disorder--the exhaustion brought on in some people by working the night shift.

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This includes treatment for 80% of the 250, 000 to 350, 000 people who suffer from fatigue due to multiple sclerosis, and perhaps 200, 000 of the 12 million patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that causes a person to stop breathing during the night, but which also causes daytime sleepiness, says Cephalon spokeswoman Sheryl Williams.

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