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Sleepiness is not normal

Michael H. Silber, Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (USA), brings the problem down to its essence: where there is sleepiness, there is a reason - and a way to prevent it.

World Sleep Forum · Monte Verità · Ascona, Switzerland · November 2025

Forty-five seconds, one message. Sleepiness is not normal: it is not normal to be sleepy all day. If it happens, there is always a reason - the simplest is sleep deprivation, not getting enough sleep at night. But it may also be medications or substances that make you sleepy, or a sleep disorder: sleep apnea, or rarer disorders such as narcolepsy.

In the full conversation Silber dwells on the most insidious case: people with obstructive sleep apnea snore heavily and wake up many times a night without being aware of it. They only know they are sleepy during the day, without knowing why. That is why, he explains, the unrecognised disorder is a contributing cause in a share of accidents - and why determining which accidents stem from falling asleep at the wheel requires a forensic analysis of what happened around the crash. This is Drive Awake's territory: the danger that leaves no sign.

The closing line is the heart of prevention: dozing at the wheel is not normal. If it happens, one should ask why - and what we can do to prevent it. Not a judgement: a question anyone can ask before driving.

Sleepiness is not normal, and dozing at the wheel is not normal.