how to deal with sleep disorders

sleep disorders

It was shown in a recent poll carried out for the National Sleep Foundation that:

• 75% of those questioned stated that they frequently have sleep problems.



• As little as 1 out of 2 of those questioned stated that they normally slept without any difficulty.



• 25% of those questioned stated that problems sleeping affected their daily lives.

The poll also showed that:

• Just under two thirds of adult motorists said that they had driven while drowsy in the past twelve months. (4 % said that they had had an accident or near-accident through tiredness or having fallen asleep while they were driving.)



• People referenced 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 mistakes at work as a result of sleep-related issues in the previous three months.



• 3 out of 4 of individuals 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 could cause the other to lose, on average, about an hour of sleep each night.



• A quarter of individuals polled with partners report troubles in their sexual relationship as a result of tiredness. They enjoy sex less frequently or lose interest in sex as a result of tiredness. A large number of couples sleep apart because of sleeping problems.

Many of us have the odd sleepless night without any consequences. If, however, the occasional night now and again turns into a pattern of several nights in a row, you are looking at a sleeping problem.

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

Affecting as many as 12 million people in the US, this disorder leads to constant leg movement during the day and to sleeplessness at night.

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

Put simply, jet lag is a common sleep disorder endured by millions of travelers each day. It affects both individuals traveling on vacation and on business and, according to a recent survey of international business travelers, 1 in 4 of those questioned said that they suffered frequently from jet lag.

Jet lag affects individuals of all ages and, despite the fact that it varies widely from person to person, it tends to increase in severity the older you get.

Also, if you are already experiencing difficulty sleeping, you are likely to find that jet lag is more of a problem.

Jet lag also increases as you cross a growing number of time zones. If the difference in time between your point of departure and your destination is just an hour or two, then you're unlikely to 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 be more pronounced the bigger the time difference.

Finally, jet lag symptoms don't always appear right away and, for some individuals, it may well be two or three days before it hits.

Narcolepsy affects around 250,000 individuals in America. People with narcolepsy suffer frequent "sleep attacks" in the day, even if they get a normal amount of night-time sleep. Such attacks can last anything from just a few seconds to more than 30 minutes.

People with narcolepsy can also experience cataplexy (the 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 (rapid eye movement) sleep that appear during waking, which suggests that narcolepsy is a disorder of sleep regulation.

The symptoms of narcolepsy often appear in adolescence, although it normally takes years to obtain a correct diagnosis.

The disorder (or a predisposition for it) is usually hereditary, but it is from time to time linked to brain damage from a head injury or to neurological disease.

Once narcolepsy has been diagnosed, antidepressants, stimulatns, or other drugs can help control the symptoms and prevent the dangerous and embarrassing effects of falling asleep at inappropriate times. Naps at certain times of the day can also reduce the excessive sleepiness during the day.

It is considered that in excess of 35 million people in the United States suffer from a case of chronic insomnia (a difficulty in sleeping every night or most nights for a period of more than six months), with another 20 to 30 million people suffering shorter-term insomnia (a difficulty in sleeping well for between one and six months). As well, a large number of people suffer from insomnia over shorter periods (under 4 weeks) and this is commonly called transient insomnia.

Transient insomnia is often brought on by excitement (a child looking forward to an outing) or by stress (concern about making a long journey). It also often results from air travel (jet lag) and can be seen in individuals who take exercise late in the day, shortly before going to bed. It is also often associated with illness (colds/flu) and with some over-the-counter medications (for example, some medicines purchased for a cold or asthma).

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

Insomnia can be divided into three classes:

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



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



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

Insomnia can sometimes be quite simply the symptom of some underlying medical conditions which may require the advice of your doctor and medical care. Here it will be a case of treating the underlying medical problem, rather than the insomnia.

If, however, your lack of sleep results from a pattern of not sleeping, or your body and mind find it difficult to settle into a sufficiently relaxed state for sleep, then there are a variety of choices for achieving healthy sleep without turning to prescription drugs.

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