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Sleep is absolutely essential for normal, healthy daily life functions. However, the lack of restful sleep is a constant and sometimes dangerous problem that affects over 70 million Americans of which approximately 80% are still undiagnosed. More than 100 known sleep disorders can disrupt your sleep quantity/quality and leave you with excessive daytime sleepiness. Even when enough time was spent in bed to be considered well rested. For many people, having a sleep disorder is a chronic, nightly problem that can affect daytime behavior, cognitive behavior, mental health, relationships and daily activities at work or school. A sleep disorder can worsen and make the treatment of existing medical conditions more difficult and it can also lead to new medical problems.
The most common sleep disorders are:
Additional sleep problems include:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Loud, constant snoring can indicate a potentially life-threatening disorder called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). During normal sleep, the throat is clear and open, allowing air to flow freely to and from the lungs. OSA is when tissues at the back of the throat collapse and block airflow, despite efforts to breathe. This causes the tissues to vibrate, creating that all too familiar snoring sound. People with OSA are unaware that they stop breathing repeatedly while sleeping, anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 minutes, making it impossible to get a restful night’s sleep.
Because people who have OSA frequently arouse from deeper sleep stages to lighter sleep during the night, they rarely spend enough time in deep, restorative stages of sleep. They are therefore often excessively sleepy during the day. Such sleepiness is thought to lead to mood and behavior problems, including depression, and more than triples the risk of being in a traffic or work related accident. The many brief drops in blood-oxygen levels can be associated with morning headaches and decreased ability to concentrate, think properly, learn and remember. With OSA, the combination of the intermittent oxygen drops and reduced sleep quality triggers the release of stress hormones. These hormones in turn raise your blood pressure and heart rate and boost the risk of heart attack, stroke, irregular heart beats, and congestive heart failure. In addition, untreated OSA can lead to altered energy metabolism that increases the risk for developing obesity and diabetes.
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Insomnia
Insomnia is defined as having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or as having unrefreshing sleep despite an ample opportunity to sleep. Life is filled with events that occasionally cause insomnia for a short time. Such temporary insomnia is common and is often brought on by stressful situations such as work, family pressures or a traumatic event. Chronic insomnia is defined as having symptoms at least 3 nights per week for more than 1 month. About 30–40 percent of adults say they have some symptoms of insomnia within any given year, and about 10–15 percent of adults say they have chronic insomnia.
Insomnia often causes problems during the day, such as excessive sleepiness, fatigue, a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, depressed mood, and irritability. Due to all of these potential consequences, untreated insomnia can impair quality of life as much as, or more than, other chronic medical problems.
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Narcolepsy
The main characteristic of narcolepsy is excessive and overwhelming daytime sleepiness, even after adequate nighttime sleep. With narcolepsy, the usually sharp distinctions between being asleep and awake are blurred. A person with narcolepsy is likely to become drowsy or to fall asleep, often at inappropriate times and places. Daytime “sleep attacks” that can last from seconds to more than one-half hour, can occur without warning, and may cause injury. People who have narcolepsy tend to fall directly into dream-filled REM sleep, rather than enter REM sleep gradually after passing through the non-REM sleep stages first. These embarrassing sleep spells can also make it difficult to work and to maintain normal personal or social relationships.
Narcolepsy can develop at any age, but the symptoms tend to appear first during adolescence or early adulthood. About 1 of every 10 people who have narcolepsy has a close family member who has the disorder, suggesting that one can inherit a tendency to develop narcolepsy.
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Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder in which patients experience irrepressible sensations in the legs or arms while sitting or lying still. Terms used to describe RLS may include creepy, crawly, pulling, tingling, itching or gnawing. These sensations create a need to stretch or move to get rid of the uncomfortable or painful feelings. As a result, a person may have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. These sensations can also occur with lying down or sitting for prolonged periods of time, such as while at a desk, riding in a car, or watching a movie.
RLS affects 5–15 percent of Americans, and its prevalence increases with age. RLS occurs more often in women than men. One study found that RLS accounted for one-third of the insomnia seen in patients older than age 60. Children also can have RLS, but it can be difficult to diagnose and it often is confused with hyperactivity or “growing pains.” Pregnancy, kidney failure, and anemia related to iron or vitamin deficiency can trigger or worsen RLS symptoms. Doctors may also ask people who have RLS to spend a night in a sleep lab where they are monitored to rule out other sleep disorders and to document the excessive limb movements.
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Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD)
PLMD is also known as Nocturnal Myoclonus and involves disruptive movements of the legs and arms. Although RLS (Restless Legs Syndrome) and PLMD (Periodic Limb Movement Disorder) both affect the limbs and both affect a person’s ability to sleep at night and function normally during the day – they are two different disorders. The movements of RLS occur most often when a person is awake and are a voluntary response to uncomfortable or painful feelings in the legs. The movements of PLMD occur most often when a person is asleep and are involuntary (not consciously controlled).
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Parasomnia
Parasomnia is a broad term used to describe various uncommon disruptive sleep-related disorders. They are intense, infrequent physical acts that occur during sleep. Some common parasomnias include sleep walking, sleep talking, sleep terrors, nightmares and teethgrinding. Most of these disorders are more common in children, who tend to outgrow them once they become adults. People who are sleep-deprived also may experience some of these disorders. If you or a family member has persistent parsomnia episodes, talk with your doctor.
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Hypersomnia
Hypersomnia is characterized by recurrent episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged nighttime sleep. Different from feeling tired due to lack of or interrupted sleep at night, persons with Hypersomnia are compelled to nap repeatedly during the day, often at inappropriate times such as at work, during a meal, or during a conversation. These daytime naps usually provide no relief from symptoms. Other symptoms may include anxiety, increased irritation, decreased energy, restlessness, slow thinking, slow speech, loss of appetite, hallucinations, and memory difficulty.
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Snoring
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Sexual Dysfunction
Sexual Dysfunction refers to a problem during any phase of the sexual response cycle that prevents the individual or couple from experiencing satisfaction from the sexual activity, such as erectile dysfunction and decreased libido. Sexual Dysfunction has been linked to both men and women that have been diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
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