Hello everyone,
I have a strange issue going on and I was wondering if anyone here would know what it is.
Sometimes I'm doing something normal (lets say, eating lunch at the restaurant besides my home), everything is perfectly well, but then next thing I remember is me at my living room, very sleepy, and all I can do is go to bed. I don't remember a thing that happened between the restaurant and the living room. It happened in several situations already, and two of them a friend witnessed. In one, he said I asked him "when did you get here?" during the episode. I remember nothing. In one episode I left a restaurant without paying. The owner than told me later and I explained it to him. I act perfectly during the episodes. Walk normally, get my keys, open the doors...
Things in common to all episodes:
- The episodes lasts 3-5 minutes.
- After the episode, I always feel very sleepy and all I can do is go to bed.
- Its not gradual. I don't start feeling dizzy, or nauseated, or anything like that. It just happens out of nowhere.
- I never fall, break something, bite my thong, or anything like that.
I'm 35 years old, and the first of those episodes happened about 8 months ago. I just ignored. It was an isolated case. But about a month later another happened. Then 2 weeks later another happened, than a month later another, and so far about 9 or 10 happened in total.
It seems to me they're related to improper sleeping. I work from home, so I sleep in non-consistent hours and its always changing. Sometimes I sleep 8 hours a night, sometimes only 5. Sometimes I go to bed at 1AM, sometimes at 5AM. Since I always feel incredibly asleep after the episodes, even if it happened 30 minutes after I woke up from a 8-hour sleep, it seems to have a connection.
I went to a neurologist and he said it was Absence Seizure. But we did an electroencephalogram and nothing came up. Hyperventilation also triggers nothing. And overall its not consistent with Absence Seizure for a large number of reasons: My age, I don't halt (I move and act during the episodes), I always feel extremely sleepy after them (I don't continue my normal activities after the episodes as if nothing happened), and other reasons.
He then ordered a blood exam, and my cholesterol is very high. Its above all tolerable limits. He gave me a drug to help lower it, and I've cut on red meats and certain foods and I'm exercising a lot now to lower it. But overall, he just doesn't know what it is.
A fact that might be valuable is: Some days I have normal thoughts which brings me normal pleasure (lets say, I think of something I really really liked when I was a kid. Playing a new game on Nintendo for example). And then sometimes these thoughts give me like an injection of pleasure that keeps growing and growing and growing until it bursts and ends. All of it takes 10-15 seconds. Its not a normal sensation. It feels very good, but sometimes if it gets too strong it becomes a bad, fainting sensation and I have to take some deep breaths. And sometimes they don't start small and keep growing slowly. They come at once with the thought. I believe this could be triggering the episodes. And these sensations started also about 8 months ago. These sensations also happens mainly on days that I had a bad night of sleep.
If anyone have any idea of what this could be, I'd be very grateful. Any more information I can provide just ask.
Thanks for your time.