association of sleep disorder

sleep disorders

In a recent poll carried out on behalf of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF):

• 75% of people questioned reported that they often suffer from difficulties in sleeping.



• Only 50% of people questioned reported that they normally slept quite well.



• A quarter of people questioned reported that sleeping difficulties impacted upon their daily lives.

The poll also demonstrated that:

• 60% of motorists reported driving while drowsy in the past year. (4 % said that they had had an accident or near-accident as a result of tiredness or having fallen asleep while they were driving.)



• Those polled named sleep-related issues as the most common reason for being late for work. Almost 30% of working adults reported missing work, events/activities or making mistakes at work through sleep-related issues in the previous three months.



• Three quarters of adults reported a sleep problem with their partner - snoring being the commonest. Partnered adults, suffer doubly disruptive sleep problems, as one partner's sleep problem can cause the other to lose, on average, almost an hour of sleep nightly.



• 1 out of 4 of adults with partners report troubles in their sexual relationship as a result of tiredness. They enjoy sex less often or lose interest in having sex because of tiredness. A lot of couples sleep separately because of sleeping difficulties.

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

Narcolepsy affects in the region of 250,000 individuals in the USA. People with narcolepsy have frequent "sleep attacks" during the day, even when they get a normal amount of night-time sleep. These "sleep attacks" can last anywhere from a number of seconds to over half an hour.

Individuals with narcolepsy can also experience cataplexy (loss of muscle control in an emotional situation), hallucinations, temporary paralysis when they wake up, and disrupted night-time sleep. These symptoms seem to be features of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep which appear during waking, suggesting that narcolepsy is a sleep regulation disorder.

The symptoms of narcolepsy normally appear during adolescence, although it frequently takes years to get a correct diagnosis.

The disorder (or at least a predisposition for it) is typically hereditary, but it is sometimes linked to brain damage from a head injury or to neurological disease.

Once narcolepsy has been 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.

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

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

Following the pattern of night and day (darkness and light) this internal clock tracks a pattern of approximately 24 hours thus giving your body a 24 hour rhythm or, more correctly, a circadian rhythm - from the Latin circa (about) dies (a day).

If disruption to the body's circadian rhythm occurs as a result of shift work, you may suffer from temporary sleep disorders such as transient insomnia or excessive daytime sleepiness. Without treatment, transient sleep problems associated with a change in your work schedule may become chronic and in serious cases can even require medical intervention.

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

Restless leg syndrome (RLS), a familial disorder inducing unpleasant prickling, tingling, or crawling sensations in the legs and feet and impulse to move them for relief, is emerging as one of the more common sleep disorders, especially among the elderly.

Affecting as many as 12 million individuals in the US, RLS leads to continual leg movement during the day and insomnia at night.

Severe RLS is most commonly seen in elderly people, although symptoms might well come on at any age. In some cases, it may be linked to other conditions such as pregancy, anemia, or diabetes.

It is estimated that in excess of 35 million Americans are suffering from chronic insomnia (problems sleeping each night or on the majority of nights for at least, or in excess of, six months), with an added 20 to 30 million people suffering shorter-term insomnia (problems sleeping well for a period of one to six months). Also, a large number of people suffer from insomnia over shorter periods (under 4 weeks) and this is normally called transient insomnia.

Transient insomnia is ordinarily brought on by excitement (a child anticipating his birthday) or by stress (worrying about an important meeting). It also often results from long distance travel (jet lag) and can be seen in people who take exercise late in the day, shortly before going to bed. It is also often associated with illness (colds/flu) and with various over-the-counter medications (for example, some medicines bought for asthma or colds).

Both sexes and all ages suffer from insomnia, but it is more frequently seen in women and in the elderly, particularly after the menopause.

Insomnia can be divided into three categories:

• "Initial" insomnia: where you have problems in falling asleep, typically taking 30 minutes or longer to fall asleep.



• "Middle" insomnia: where, having fallen asleep, you have difficulty maintaining a sleep state and typically remain awake until the early morning hours.



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

Insomnia can often be quite simply the symptom of an underlying medical conditions which may well require a visit to your doctor and medical care. Here it is a matter of treating the cause, rather than the insomnia.

If, however, your lack of sleep 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 a variety of choices for achieving healthy sleep without the need to use prescription drugs.

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