anxiety sleep disorder

sleep disorders

The publication of a recent National Sleep Foundation polls shows that:

• 75% of individuals questioned reported that they frequently have difficuly sleeping.



• As little as half of individuals questioned reported that they normally slept without any difficulty.



• 1 out of 4 of individuals questioned reported that problems sleeping impacted upon their daily lives.

The poll also revealed that:

• 60% of motorists polled reported driving while drowsy in the previous year. (4 % reported having an accident or near-accident as a result of tiredness or falling asleep while they were driving.)



• Those questioned cited sleep-related problems as the commonest reason for being late for work. Almost two thirds of working adults reported missing work, events/activities or making errors at work through sleep-related problems in the past 3 months.



• 75% of adults polled reported a sleep problem with their partner - snoring being the most common. Partnered adults, suffer doubly disruptive sleep difficulties, as one partner's sleep difficulty may cause the other to lose, on average, almost an hour of sleep a night.



• 1 out of 4 of adults polled with partners report troubles in their sexual relationship because of tiredness. They enjoy sex less often or lose interest in sex because of tiredness. Numerous couples sleep separately because of a sleep problem.

A large number of people experience the occasional night of sleeplessness without any consequences. Once, however, the occasional night once in a while becomes a pattern of several nights in a row, you are facing a sleeping problem.

Put simply, jet lag is a very common sleep disorder experienced by millions of travelers daily. It affects both those people traveling on business and for pleasure and, in a recent survey of international business travelers, 3/4 of those questioned said that they often suffered from jet lag.

Jet lag affects individuals of all ages and, though it varies widely from one individual to another, it tends to increase in severity the older you get.

In addition, if you already have sleeping difficulties, you may well find that jet lag is more of a problem.

Jet lag also increases as you cross an increasing number of time zones. If the time difference between your departure point and your destination is merely an hour or two, then you may not experience jet lag at all. But, if the time difference is three hours or more then jet lag will start to appear and its effects will become increasingly pronounced the greater the time difference.

Finally, jet lag symptoms do not always appear straight away and, for a few individuals, it could well be two or three days before it hits.

It is considered that over 35 million individuals in America suffer from chronic insomnia (problems sleeping every night or virtually all nights for six months or more), with a further 20 to 30 million suffering shorter-term insomnia (problems sleeping well for between one and six months). Additionally, many people suffer from insomnia over shorter periods (under 4 weeks) and this is ordinarily referred to as transient insomnia.

Transient insomnia is typically brought on by excitement (a child anticipating his birthday) or by stress (concern about making a long journey). It also often results from air travel (jet lag) and can be seen in people who exercise late in the day, shortly before going to bed. It is also often connected to illness (colds/flu) and with various over-the-counter medications (for example, some medicines purchased for colds or asthma).

Both sexes and all ages experience insomnia, but it is more often seen in women and in the elderly, especially after the menopause.

Insomnia can be split into three categories:

• "Initial" insomnia: where you have a difficulty in in falling asleep, usually taking 30 minutes or more to fall into a sleep state.



• "Middle" insomnia: where, after falling asleep, you have difficulties maintaining a state of sleep and frequently remain awake until the early hours of the morning.



• "Late" or "Terminal" insomnia: where you waken early in the morning after less than 6 hours of sleep.

Insomnia can occasionally be simply the symptom of an underlying medical conditions that could well require your doctor's advice and medical care. Here it is a matter of treating the underlying medical problem, rather than the insomnia.

If, however, your sleeplessness results from a pattern of not sleeping, or your brain and body find difficulty in settling into a sufficiently relaxed state for sleep, then there are various choices for achieving healthy sleep without making use of prescription drugs.

In addition to the alarm clock beside your bed, your wrist watch or the clock on your mantelpiece, all of which, if you are like me, govern your life to a great extent, you also possess an internal clock that dictates your body's rhythm.

Your internal clock governs many of the functions of your body, regulating such things as temperature and the release of hormones and, most especially, telling you when it is time to go to sleep and to get up.

Following the pattern of night and day (darkness and light) this internal clock tracks a pattern of close to 24 hours thereby giving your body a 24 hour rhythm or, to give it its full title, a circadian rhythm - from the Latin circa (about) dies (a day).

Whenever your body's circadian rhythm is disrupted as a result of shift work, you may suffer from temporary sleep disorders such as excessive daytime sleepiness or transient insomnia. Left untreated, transient sleep problems linked to a change in your work schedule might become chronic and in serious cases can even need medical intervention.

Shift work also places you at greater risk of chronic gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems. Heartburn, menstrual irregularities, weight gain, high blood pressure, flu, indigestion and colds are all encountered more amongst shift workers.

Narcolepsy affects close to 250,000 individuals in the US. People with narcolepsy get frequent "sleep attacks" during the day, even if they enjoy a normal amount of night-time sleep. These attacks can last anything from just seconds to over 30 minutes.

People with narcolepsy may also experience cataplexy (loss of muscle control in emotional situations), hallucinations, temporary paralysis when they wake up, and interrupted night-time sleep. These symptoms are features of REM sleep that appear during waking, suggesting that narcolepsy is a disorder of sleep regulation.

Narcolepsy symptoms usually appear in adolescence, though it normally takes years to obtain a correct diagnosis.

The disorder (or at least a predisposition to it) is usually hereditary, but it is now and again linked to brain damage from a head injury or to neurological disease.

Once diagnosed, stimulants, antidepressants, or other drugs can be used to control the symptoms and prevent the embarrassing and dangerous effects of falling asleep at inappropriate times. Naps at certain times of the day may also reduce the excessive sleepiness during the day.

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