Common Sleep Disorders
Insomnia is defined as difficulty initiating, or maintaining sleep at least 3 nights per week, in addition to complaints of sleep related daytime impairment. Sufficient and restful sleep is a human necessity. The average adult needs slightly more than 8 hours of sleep a day, but only 35% of American adults consistently get this amount of rest.
Insomnia is often separated into three types. Transient insomnia occurs when symptoms last from a few days to a few weeks. Acute or short-term insomnia is when symptoms last for several weeks. Chronic insomnia is characterized by insomnia that lasts for months and years.
People with insomnia tend to experience one or more of the following sleep disturbances:
- Difficulty falling asleep at night
- Waking too early in the morning
- Waking frequently throughout the night
- Sleep that is chronically nonrestorative or poor
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder defined by constant sleepiness and a tendency to sleep at inappropriate times. Typically, a person with narcolepsy suffers sleep attacks as well as continual sleepiness and a feeling of tiredness that is not completely relieved by any amount of sleep.
Some symptoms people with narcolepsy may experience are:
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Cataplexy (sudden, brief losses of muscle strength)
- Sleep paralysis
- Hypnagogic hallucinataions (vivid dreams that occur when a person is drowsy)
The term 'parasomnia" is used in refernce to a wide range of disruptive sleep- related events. These behaviors and experiences generally occur during sleep, and in most cases are infrequent and mild. At times they may occur often enough or become bothersome that medical attention is needed.
Parasomnias are very common in young children, and do not usually indicate significant psychiatric or psychological problems. Such disorders tend to run in families and can be more severe when a child is overly tired, has a fever, or is taking certain medications. They may occur during periods of stress, and may increase or decrease with "good" and "bad" weeks.
Some forms of parasomnias are:
- Confusional Arousals
- Sleepwalking
- Sleep-related Eating
- Sleep Terrors
The Greek word "apnea" literally means "without breath."
Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a persons breathing is interrupted during sleep. People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour.
This chronic sleep deprivation results in daytime sleepiness, slow reflexes, poor concentration, and an increased risk of accidents. Sleep apnea can also lead to serious health problems over time, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and weight gain.
Types of Sleep Apnea:
- Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of sleep apnea. It occurs when the soft tissue in the back of your throat relaxes during sleep, causing a blockage of the airway (as well as loud snoring).
- Central sleep apnea is a much less common type of sleep apnea that involves the central nervous system, rather than an airway obstruction. It occurs when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing. People with central sleep apnea seldom snore.
- Complex sleep apnea is a combination of obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.
RLS often appears in otherwise healthy people, and is not related to emotional or psychological disorders. Another disorder that affects the limbs as well as a person's ability to sleep at night and function normally during the day is periodic limb movement disorders (PLMD). While the movements of RLS are a voluntary response to uncomfortable feelings in the limbs when a person is awake, the movements of PLMD occur most often when a person is asleep and are involuntary.
People who experience RLS describe it in many different ways, but all describe some sort of unpleasant "creepy, crawly" sensations that occur in their legs when they are sitting or lying still. The uncomfortable feelings or RLS appear most often in the calves and are temporarily relieved by stretching or moving the legs.
People with PLMD are often not aware of these movements, although on rare occasions they may notice the involuntary movements while they are still awake. Most people with RLS have PLMD but people with PLMD often do not have RLS.
Sleep Walking
Sleepwalking, formally known as somnambulism, is a behavior disorder that originates during deep sleep and results in walking or performing other complex behaviors while asleep. It is much more common in children than adults and is more likely to occur if a person is sleep deprived. Repeated episodes of rising from bed during sleep and walking about, usually occurring during the first third of the major sleep episode.
While sleepwalking, the person has a blank, staring face, is relatively unresponsive to the efforts of others to communicate with him or her, and can be awakened only with great difficulty.
On awakening (either from the sleepwalking episode or the next morning), the person has amnesia for the episode.Within several minutes after awakening from the sleepwalking episode, there is no impairment of mental activity or behavior (although there may initially be a short period of confusion or disorientation).
The sleepwalking causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
The term bruxism is defined as: "to grind the teeth, a clenching of the teeth, associated with forceful jaw movements, resulting in rubbing, gritting, or grinding together of the teeth, usually during sleep."
Sleep Bruxism is a stereotyped movement disorder characterized by grinding or clenching of the teeth during sleep. The disorder has also been identified as nocturnal bruxism, nocturnal tooth-grinding and nocturnal tooth-clenching.
The symptoms of Sleep Bruxism are tooth-grinding or tooth-clenching during sleep that may cause
- Abnormal wear of the teeth
- Sounds associated with bruxism (It's about as pleasant as fingernails on a chalkboard!)
- Jaw muscle discomfort
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes pain, stiffness, and tenderness of the muscles, tendons, and joints. Fibromyalgia is also characterized by restless sleep, awakening feeling tired, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, and disturbances in bowel function. Fibromyalgia is sometimes referred to as fibromyalgia syndrome and abbreviated FMS. Fibromyalgia was formerly known as fibrositis.
Hypersomnia
Those who suffer from hypersomnia have recurring episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) which is different from feeling tired due to lack of or interrupted sleep at night. They are compelled to nap repeatedly during the day, often at inappropriate times such as at work, during a meal, or in conversation. These daytime naps usually provide no relief from symptoms.
Patients with hypersomnia also often experience prolonged sleep at night and have difficulty waking from long sleep, feeling disoriented upon doing so. Other symptoms may include anxiety, increased irritation, decreased energy, restlessness, slow thinking, slow speech, loss of appetite, hallucinations, and memory difficulty. Some patients lose the ability to function in family, social, occupational or other settings. Typically, hypersomnia is first recognized in adolescence or young adulthood
Cataplexy
A cataplexy is weakness or paralysis of the muscles. In narcoleptic patients, it may be triggered by tiredness and intense emotions and may be accompanied by short, sudden episodes of laughter or anger. When cataplexy occurs, persons who are standing may fall down.
Sleep Paralysis
People who have sleep paralysis experience the inability to move the arms, legs, or entire body that occurs when a person is falling asleep or waking up. It usually lasts a very brief period of time. People who experience sleep paralysis may become very anxious and often regain movement only if they hear a loud noise or another stimulus.
Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Pre-sleep dreams, are dream-like hallucinations that occur in the transition between being awake and being asleep. Often, they are very vivid, frightening dreams.
Nocturnia
Nocturia is a health condition, which is characterized by a frequent need to urinate within a 24 hr period. This urinary problem wakes one up while sleeping just to urinate at night. For those with severe urination problems, they could awake five or six times throughout the night. The elderly are more likely to suffer from this problem, simply because as we age, our anti-diuretic hormone levels decline, making us less able to hold fluid.
