Intrusive Sleep

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Anybody here experiencing "Intrusive Sleep"?

It's a state of mind where you can't focus anymore and start to fall asleep but really fast as if losing consciousness (you don't have to close your eyes but it's difficult to keep them open) and as soon as something interesting happens in your environment you're awake again (again, this happens within seconds).
This happens quiet often to me, at lectures, presentations, at work, while reading a book, watching a movie, a series,...etc.etc. I try hard to stay awake e.g. by drawing, scribbling, tapping a pencil, drumming my fingers, talking to someone,....and so on, but it's not ideal and hard to fight. Only something really interesting or relieving makes this sensation stop (immediately).

I've only found descriptions of this condition in relation to ADD:

Is there nobody who knows anything about this or has experienced something similar?

Sounds more like narcolepsy to me. Or maybe someone falling asleep because they're board. I can completely zone out and have hours fly by in minutes, but I'm always fully awake. I personally can't fall asleep without prescription pills. One time when I let myself run out, I was awake for over 72 hours. My brain is lit up like the forth of July 24/7.

I experience something similar, but am uncertain whether it is short sleep with abrupt awakening or a form of epileptic seizure (atonic) which also occurs very quickly and happens during times when I am under stress and have no way of coping with it. The "difference" I detect would be that in the case of "sudden onset sleep", I am immediately entering a dream state. In a seizure, I lose all body (muscle) tone and there is no sense of dreaming. I "come to" very abruptly and tend to be falling in circular motion in a seated position. I have been taking a medication (the generic for Topomax) for several months which seems to prevent me from totally losing consciousness or losing consciousness for long enough to fall. I used to believe these seizures occurred only while I was standing or in motion, but since taking the Topiramate it has become obvious to me that what I'd mistaken for occasional "spells" of extreme tiredness were often "seated seizures". This medication has to be increased by 25 mg increments every one to three months in order to keep working properly. I was originally prescribed it due to overwhelming emotions that accompanied PTSD, when someone persistently tormented me in a way that caused me to re-experienced old feelings of trauma I thought were no longer a problem. It was interesting that what I'd been dismissing as "clumsiness" and "inattentiveness" was actually a form of seizure that I might otherwise never have known about.

If I am sitting and a seizure occurs, I will wake up with my body swaying in a circular direction in the seat and my head is tilted toward the floor. I immediately go and lay down, because I know I'm at risk. If I am standing, I am able to grab on to something -- a chair, table or counter top, and even when I'm not fully conscious I'm able to stop myself from falling to the floor or to the ground. I go and lie down then, too -- even if I feel "okay", a seizure is not something to take lightly. "Sudden onset sleep" behaves differently, as mentioned. I enter REM sleep. My body motion is back and forth -- there is no swaying. I can and have curled up in a chair and taken a brief nap.

I DO have ADHD and take medication for this, but it does not prevent these "events" from happening. I was taking a much stronger medication that is more commonly prescribed than I have been for the past nearly three years, but even low doses of the previous medication felt very harsh and I learned that a part of it was neurotoxic. I asked my psychiatrist several times over the years to switch me to a medication that was NOT neurotoxic that should have been as effective and for about five years, he refused. I produced research which proved that the medication I would prefer to take would be as effective, although it might take several months for me to respond to it after taking the other med and proved that the med I found to be "too much" had a pretty bad reputation. The Psychiatrist finally, reluctantly, changed my prescription when I provided this proof and also explained that I understood that I might not "feel the effects" of the new medication for some time -- that I was prepared to cope with this interval. That is indeed what happened, but my brain and body adjusted and the non-nerotoxic medication has helped me to focus without giving me a lot of unpleasant side-effects.

When I took the neurotoxic med I did not experience "sudden onset sleep" as often, but I DID have the seizures more often -- without any awareness of what was happening, at the time. I take my ADHD medication in the early AM and my first dose of Topiramate in the early afternoon. I don't FEEL the Topiramate, exactly... I am calmer in general, yes, but it does not make me feel sleepy or dizzy or hyper or anything else I can quite identify. There have been some subtle changes in how food tastes, but nothing major thus far. I've had slight weight gain rather than weight loss. I'm about at the point where I believe the dosage needs to be increased by another 25 mg, because I've been getting too easily upset by certain people and there is a lot of change occurring in my life that is difficult and likely to become worse before it gets better.

I would be more specific about what's gong on with seizures versus sleep, but I've been waiting at least two months to get approval from my Insurance for referral to a neurologist for a CT Scan and I'll need to have a blood work up, as well.

I should mention that I developed asthma about ten years ago due to damage after a few bouts of viral or "walking" pneumonia and have had to use a "rescue inhaler" at various times ever since. Despite this, my oxygen levels are typically good, but you might want to have this checked. Even having your oxygen levels fall a couple of points below what are normal for you can cause you to feel tired and disoriented.

Another potential problem could be your blood sugar levels going low. People often will fill asleep after just eating a meal or a snack, even if they've had a lot of caffeine to drink. Our bodies become accustomed to being treated (and mistreated) and much as I do not like going to Doctors and being poked, prodded and tested, I'd really feel better knowing exactly what triggers a seizure rather than just guessing that it is stress alone. As for the sudden onset of sleep, it is quite weird to go from "apparently awake" into a dream...I'm wondering if this is what it is like to have Narcolepsy, although as far as I know the same medications are used to treat Attention Deficit and Narcolepsy, so what's a person to do if they end up with both? Interesting problem.
;

This is a bit involved, but it might have something that you can relate to?

http://www.de-poort.be/cgi-bin/Document.pl?id=374 - Shutdowns and Stress Instability in Autism

Thanks for your replies. Interesting accounts.
If anybody else wants to comment,..

Yes, I go drowsy on and off throughout the day but can stay awake if doing something I find really interesting.

When i did a little bit of going away to college when i was young i had this a lot due to lack of sleep, i'd literally dose/nod off in class.
I wasn't getting enough sleep to begin with though, too many all nighters. I'm too old to do it now..

i always thought of this as a coping mechanism; by putting my consiousness on the backburner while i dont need it (like, when i'm listening to a lecture, all i need is adio-absorbtion), i can be awake longer and even have energy left to try and socialize at the coffee machine, if i stay fully awake, there is no way for me to do that.
also, i have found that the low-consiousness state allows me to remember the lecture/story better then when i'm actively listening (this also counts for reading or watching, books, comedy, documentaries...). there is a great deal of random knowledge i have that i never intended to have, but just picked up during a half-vugue state.

I experience something similar. I can be awake one minute, and then all of a sudden I just can't stay awake no matter what I do. I usually end up 'napping' even if just for a few minutes, then suddenly I just wake up. I feel so refreshed after napping even for only a few minutes.