Logan Schneider, MD, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, discusses treatment with Xywav (low sodium oxybate) in patients with sleep disorders, narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia.
Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by an inability of the brain to control sleep-wake cycles. Patients with narcolepsy typically enter REM sleep more quickly, causing the boundaries between wakefulness and sleep to blur. This causes fragmented sleep at night as well as muscle weakness and dream activity while awake. Common symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations.
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a rare neurological sleep disorder characterized by chronic excessive daytime sleepiness. In addition to excessive daytime sleepiness, symptoms may include severe sleep inertia or sleep drunkenness (a core symptom of idiopathic hypersomnia), as well as prolonged, non-restorative nighttime sleep, cognitive impairment, and long and unrefreshing naps.
At SLEEP 2026, data was presented from a variety of studies evaluating Xywav oral solution in patients with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia. Xywav is a central nervous system depressant used to treat cataplexy and excessive daytime sleepiness in patients with sleep disorders. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2020 for patients 7 years and older with narcolepsy and was expanded to treat adults with idiopathic hypersomnia in August 2021.
As Dr. Schneider explains, the main takeaway from the abstracts presented was the importance of 24-hour management in patients with sleep disorders, citing a study that observed the treatment’s ability to make patients sleep at night which benefitted patients daytime symptoms. He further stressed that focusing on one aspect of disease in these patients is not enough and more robust treatment plans are necessary.
Another analysis showed the ability of Xywav to enable individualized treatment regimens with flexible dosing. Through a post-hoc analysis, it was observed that incremental dose adjustments can yield once- or twice-nightly regimens that can be uniquely tailored to patients.
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To learn more about other rare sleep disorders, visit https://checkrare.com/diseases/neurology-nervous-system-diseases/