Brief history: 34-year old female, 5ft 4in, 115 pounds. For 5 years have suffered excessive daytime sleepiness. Was previously very active, have a masters degree, now cannot stay awake for more than 4 hours without the aid of a prescription stimulant, cannot come up with appropriate words to use in conversation, fighting off sleep or excess fatigue all day but often takes longer than normal to fall asleep and sometimes can't stay asleep, wake up feeling exhausted. I've had every test possible and I do see a psychiatrist who ruled out psychological cause and prescribes me Adderall for fatigue. (He's also prescribed me a few things to help me sleep, but sleep aids seem to cause me to wake up feeling even more exhausted).
I recently had a sleep study and the results didn't point to anything. Based on a pre-study survey my Epworth sleepiness score was 15. The report showed total AHI of 5.2, which I realize is barely above the threshold. The percentages of time for each sleep stage were close to normal, and no PLMs. Sleep latency was 65 min, Stage R latency was above normal at 220 min, WASO 39 minutes. 76% sleep efficiency-not horrendous, but less than optimal. Arousal index was 32/hour of sleep.
I'm confused how is it that the board certified sleep physician who reviewed my report signed off that it was a "normal sleep study" and indicated no further suggestions? When my primary received the results she told me my sleep is fine and gave me no suggestions for how to proceed. Admittedly I don't know if the prolonged REM latency, etc, means anything at all, but I feel that considering my complaints, particularly the arousal index should have raised some alarms.
I don't know what to do now. I can't continue to take Adderall all day to keep me just barely awake and just go through every day this way. I know there is something that is not normal here, but if even a board certified sleep medicine professional thinks my sleep is "normal," what else can I do?