hypothesis for fibromyalgia and sleep disorders

sleep disorders

It was revealed in a recent poll conducted on behalf of the National Sleep Foundation that:

• Three quarters of people questioned said that they often suffer from difficulties in sleeping.



• Only half of people questioned said that they slept without difficulty on most nights.



• A quarter of people questioned said that difficulty in sleeping impacted upon their daily lives.

The poll also showed that:

• Just under two thirds of motorists reported having driven whilst drowsy within the past twelve months. (4 % reported having an accident or near-accident through tiredness or falling asleep while they were driving.)



• People polled referenced sleep-related issues as the most usual reason for being late for work. Almost two thirds of working adults reported missing work, events/activities or making mistakes at work because of sleep-related problems in the preceding three months.



• 75% of those questioned reported a sleep problem with their partner - with snoring being the commonest. Partnered adults, suffer doubly disruptive sleep difficulties, as one partner's sleep difficulty can cause the other to lose, on average, almost an hour of sleep nightly.



• 25% of those questioned with partners report troubles in their sexual relationship as a result of tiredness. They enjoy sex less frequently or lose interest in having sex because of tiredness. Numerous couples sleep separately because of sleeping difficulties.

Many people have the odd night of sleeplessness without any consequences. When, however, the odd night now and again becomes a pattern of several nights in a row, you are facing a sleeping problem.

Simply put, jet lag is a very common sleep disorder suffered by millions of travelers daily. It affects both those traveling on vacation and on business and, in a recent survey of international business travelers, 3/4 of those questioned said that they frequently suffered from jet lag.

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

As well, if you are already experiencing difficulty sleeping, 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 point of departure and your destination is merely an hour or two, then you might not experience jet lag at all. However, if the time difference is three hours or more then jet lag will begin to appear and its effects will become more and more pronounced the bigger the time difference.

Finally, jet lag symptoms do not always appear instantly and, for a few individuals, it may well be a couple of days before it hits.

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

Affecting as many as 12 million Americans, this disorder leads to continual movement of the legs during the day and insomnia at night.

Severe RLS is most often seen in elderly people, though symptoms may well appear at any age. In some cases, it may be associated with other conditions such as pregancy, anemia, or diabetes.

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

Your internal clock controls many of your body's functions, regulating such things as temperature and the release of hormones and, first and foremost, telling you when it is time to go to sleep and to get up.

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

When your body's circadian rhythm is disrupted due to shift work, you may suffer from temporary sleep disorders such as excessive daytime sleepiness or transient insomnia. Without treatment, transient sleep problems connected to a change in your work schedule can become chronic and in serious cases might even necessitate medical intervention.

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

Narcolepsy affects roughly 250,000 adults in the United States. People with narcolepsy endure frequent "sleep attacks" during the day, even if they experience a normal amount of night-time sleep. These attacks can last anywhere from just a few seconds to in excess of 30 minutes.

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

Narcolepsy symptoms usually appear during adolescence, though it frequently takes years to get a correct diagnosis.

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

Having been diagnosed, stimulants, antidepressants, or other drugs can help control the symptoms and prevent the embarrassing and dangerous effects of falling asleep at improper times. Naps at certain times of the day may also reduce the excessive daytime sleepiness.

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