Sleep disorders are becoming more and more common in todays' 'hurry-hurry, busy-busy' world. With so much to do, and so little time, sleep is starting to be seen as a luxury rather than a necessity. But your body disagrees wholeheartedly.
Sleep is absolutely necessary to your physical and emotional health, and when we don't pay attention to our bodys' need for our full 8 hours of sleep, there's a price to pay.
INSOMNIA
A dictionary definition of insomnia is... 'a prolonged and usually abnormal inability to obtain adequate sleep'. This could mean you have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep. You may climb into bed and then lie awake until 1am staring at the ceiling. Or maybe you fall asleep right away, but wake up at 1am....and again at 2am.... and again at 3:30am... you get the picture. You may even fall asleep, stay that way for a few hours and then wake at 4am and stay that way until your alarm clock goes off.
All these scenarios can be covered by the term 'insomnia', and this sleep disorder can have physical or emotional causes. When we're stressed to the max, or going through an emotional upheaval, it can interfere with our sleep patterns. Many cases of insomnia fall under the 'Transient Insomnia' heading, and can last for just a couple of nights, to one week. 'Short-term Insomnia' covers sleep disturbances lasting anywhere between one week and one month, while 'Chronic Insomnia' can go on indefinitely.
And it's not just adults that suffer from insomnia, increasing numbers of teenagers and younger children are also finding sleep difficult to come by. There are many approaches to treating insomnia, these include :
Improving your sleep hygiene and setting up a regular bedtime routine/sleep schedule
Paying close attention to your diet - certain drinks/foods/activities can make it more difficult to sleep well. It's also been found that other foods/drinks can increase your chances of getting a good nights' sleep
Reducing stress and anxiety levels with alternative remedies such as relaxation or hypnotherapy techniques, aromatherapy and more
SLEEP APNEA
This sleep disorders' name is derived from the Greek word 'apnoia', which simply translated, means 'without breath'. And that describes it pretty well. Sleep apnea sufferers literally stop breathing multiple times during sleep, and they may or may not, be aware of it! Excessive snoring, accompanied by snorting/grunting/gasping sounds, is the prime symptom of this disorder, and is often most easily recognized by the sufferers' sleeping partner or roommate. If you think you are getting a full nights' sleep, but feel constantly exhausted, sleep apnea may be be the culprit.
There are serious health issues which can result from untreated sleep apnea, in addition to chronic daytime sleepiness, these may include often waking up with a sore/dry throat, recurrent/persistent heartburn, frequent waking during the night with the feeling that you're gasping for breath, weight gain, high blood pressure, heart irregularities (such as palpitations or 'pounding') and more.
Luckily, sleep apnea is easily treated using CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). Sufferers wear a mask attached to a machine that provides a constant flow of air into their lungs while asleep. This keeps the airways open and prevents the episodes of apnea.
RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME
Also known as RLS, this sleep disorders' name is pretty self-explanatory. People with RLS experience an uncomfortable sensation in their legs (it can vary from person to person and has been described as a 'crawling/prickling/cramping feeling (and other similar terms).
This feeling makes it extremely uncomfortable, even impossible, to keep your legs still.... hence the name! Although scientists and researchers still have a lot to learn about this disorder, there are certain conditions and activities that they believe cause (or contribute to) Restless Leg Syndrome, they include ;
Being overweight or obese
Having ADHD
Hormonal fluctuations - such as during pregnancy, or menopause
Certain illnesses including anemia, arthritis, diabetes and others
There are a few medications that are available to treat RLS, but for many people finding (and eliminating) the 'trigger' behind their restless legs, and/or using massage, relaxation or exercise techniques are very effective.
SNORING
Researchers estimate that about half of all the adults in the US snore, and about 50% of them do so chronically (on a regular basis). Quite a number of children and teens also experience this. Although snoring is sometimes thought of as a bit of a joke, it's not funny to the sufferer and most definitely not amusing to his sleeping partner or room mate/s!
The most common causes of snoring are enlarged tonsils or adenoids, being overweight or obese, allergies and poor muscle tone in the throat due to smoking/alcohol/aging. There are also several others.
Figuring out what is causing you to snore is vital, and your doctor can help here. If your snoring is severe, or accompanied by gasping/snorting/coughing and so on, consider Sleep Apnea as a possibility.
There are all kinds of treatments for snoring, from losing weight or giving up alcohol, to dental appliances, minor surgery and more.
NARCOLEPSY
This sleep disorder is much less common than the ones mentioned above, but it is pretty disruptive and often scary for people who experience it.
It's characterized by an overwhelming desire to sleep, and narcolepsy sufferers are at risk of falling asleep at any time whether they're working, driving or participating in any other daily activity. This is obviously a dangerous situation.
Other symptoms of narcolepsy sometimes include sudden muscle weakness or sleep paralysis, and vivid hallucination-like dreams which occur just as they fall asleep or wake up. Although there isn't a cure for narcolepsy just yet, there are various treatment options which are effective at controlling the symptoms so that sufferers can live their lives normally (and safely!).
Sleep is so important to the human body that you will actually die if you're deprived of sleep indefinitely. Even on a less dramatic scale, it's certainly very destructive to your health to go without adequate sleep on a regular basis.
If you are always exhausted, you're emotions are volatile, your patience/temper is short, you seem to be extra 'clumsy' or are always having minor accidents, if you frequently feel drowsy when driving............... or there are any other signs that you are not getting enough restful sleep, it's very important to see your doctor.
He/she will be able to find out what is causing the problem and prescribe treatment, or even refer you to a sleep lab or sleep clinic for further evaluation.
Kevin: I think it's going to be an awesome talk. And as many people out there know already, I like to get right into it. So let's start talking about sleep. I know you have some facts and you have some numbers. Let's start talking about them.
Dr. Breus: Oh yeah. Let's get right into it. One of the things that's really pretty fascinating, Kevin, is just how many people are reporting any symptom of a sleep problem. If you look back at the National Sleep Foundation data from 2000, you'll see that roughly sixty-two percent of the overall population was reporting a problem. But now in 2005, this is still data that's two years old, we're seeing that almost seventy-five percent of people are reporting a type of a sleep problem.
Kevin: Wow! So it's a thirteen percent increase.
Dr. Breus: Yeah. It's truly amazing. Right now, we're thinking that more than seventy million Americans are suffering from known sleep disorders. Almost fifty percent of people snore. The thing to remember here is snoring is not necessarily a sleep disorder, but it can be a sign or symptom of a sleep disorder called sleep Apnea.
Kevin: Um Hmm
Dr. Breus: Unfortunately, the medical community classify snoring as more of a social nuisance in terms of keeping other people awake. Here's another fascinating statistic is individuals who sleep with somebody who snores lose on average about one hour of sleep per night.
Kevin: Wow! That's incredible! [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: So it might not even be your sleep problem that's keeping you from getting a good night's rest. It could be your bed partner's.
Kevin: Wow.
Dr. Breus: Sleep deprivation affects things like creativity, productivity, memory, relationships and even sexual activity. So there almost isn't an area that sleep doesn't affect. Interestingly enough, it affects every single organ system available. And here's the thing that was kind of baffling to me when I first started getting into this field - I don't know if you know this, but there are eighty-eight different sleep disorders.
Kevin: No kidding!
Dr. Breus: Yeah. You wouldn't think that there would be so many. I mean you'd figure "Well, you know, I close my eyes, I go to sleep, how many things could go wrong?" Well, the truth of the matter is, there are literally eighty-eight different types of sleep disorders. Now some of them can be long-term, they have specific categories. And there are really four or five main sleep disorders that I [haven't seen to] to deal with them. I practice and also talk about them in my book. And those who fall into the category of insomnia, which could be "having a problem falling asleep" or "having a problem staying asleep" or either "waking too early". there's also a new category of insomnia that we should talk about just for a brief moment, which is called, it's not really called insufficient sleep, it's basically called "poor quality sleep"?
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: And so it's not about the number of minutes that you get but the quality of those minutes. So what's interesting here is that some people might sleep eight hours but they wake up, and they feel horrible.
Kevin: Right.
Dr. Breus: That's a whole new phenomena that we're just starting to learn more about and trying to investigate more about.
Kevin: Anything about the factors? What are some of the factors about?
Dr. Breus: Well, you know what? That's a good question as there could be multiple factors. It could be anything from stress, to caffeine, to other medical problems, to even medications or supplements that you could be taking that could be affecting your sleep.
Kevin: Mm Hmm.
Dr. Breus: So that's a lot of different things that could affect your sleep. The thing that people don't realize is - I'm kind of like, sort of an internal medicine doctor but, for the night time, if you will, simply because every single area, every single thing you do, can have a potential affect on your sleep. Now that doesn't mean that I want everybody to lock themselves in the room,
Kevin: [laughs]
Dr. Breus: You know, never drink coffee again,
Kevin: [laughs]
Dr. Breus: [Have a glass of wine] or anything like that, because that's just not me, number one. Number two is that's just not realistic. What I'm hoping to do today with this talk is to let people know, first of all, that this is a serious situation. Second, that there are a lot of different things that we'll be able to do. Very quickly, here even today, even notes that you'd be able to take today during this teleconference, that will allow you to sleep better tonight. And they're very realistic, and they're not, [say], going to change your life forever.
Kevin: Well, that's fantastic. I must get into that. [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: Absolutely. Some people like to know what are some of these big problems that everybody's talking about. So, first of all, about fifty-three percent of people say that they often wake up not feeling refreshed. Thirty-six percent of people say they have trouble falling back to sleep. And then just thirty-one percent of people say they just can't fall asleep in general, [just] that sleep on insomnia, what we call it. Again, kind of interesting but more often than not, people are saying it's not the falling asleep, even though a third of people have a problem with that, it's the staying asleep,
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: That seems to really get to them.
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: Now, the other thing that's kind of fascinating is looking at who has these problems. Believe it or not, women have a tendency to report sleep problems more than men do. Now, I think there're a couple of different reasons for that. One of the different reasons I feel is that women, first of all, they have a reasonably better in touch sense with their body. They know and understand their body. They listen to their bodies, but they also have a greater likelihood to talk about these issues.
Kevin: Sure.
Dr. Breus: Not necessarily just with their friends, but also with their physicians, their therapists, whoever happens to be speaking with them. And so, interestingly enough, eighty-three percent of the people who are talking about these are women.
Kevin: Guys are just like "I'm okay.". [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: Right, it's kind of like this bravado "Hey, I don't have any problems. All I need is five hours of sleep. Rrrr".
Kevin: [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: You know. And the truth of the matter is, that's just not the case. You know, I was with executives from Fortune 100 to Fortune 500 companies all over the world. And, you know, men, women, doesn't really matter. What I find is men come in and they say "You know, I'm tough, blah blah blah. But when you get them into room and you talk to them, they're in trouble. They're having a really tough time because they're not eating right, they're not exercising while they're on the road, and they're certainly not sleeping right. And that's affecting their performance not only at work, but at home.
Kevin: Right.
Dr. Breus: And that's a big deal. And we're also seeing, interestingly enough, there's sort of a bimodal distribution where we're seeing a lot of people between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four having sleep problems. But then also in my practice, I'm seeing people who are in their forty-five and up range having sleep problems as well. So it really seems to be the two distributions which probably speak to the fact there're two different types of sleep problems that are probably available in those groups.
Kevin: What do you speculate those to be?
Dr. Breus: I think the speculations would probably fall that the younger group - we're going to see more people with insomnia type problems?
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: And what I call disordered sleep.
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: See, there's a big difference between a sleep disorder which is a form of diagnosis like insomnia or [apnea] or [narcolepsy] and what I call disordered sleep, which is just wake up and "I don't feel so hot.".
Kevin: Right.
Dr. Breus: I think those insomnia and the disordered sleep fall in the eighteen to thirty-four range. When you start to get above forty-five, I think that's where we start to see a greater preponderance of sleep [apnea],
Kevin: Mm Hmm.
Dr. Breus: Most of us seem to go throughout any particular age range but restless life syndrome pops up huge in the older population.
Kevin: Okay. Is sleep apnea due to overweight, obesity?
Dr. Breus: Well, here's the interesting thing - is there're multiple factors for sleep apnea. Let's just go into, real quickly, what is sleep apnea.
Kevin: Mm Hmm.
Dr. Breus: Sleep apnea is where you stop breathing in your sleep. Okay. Generally speaking I like my patients to breathe,
Kevin: [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: Okay, and so it's good when they keep breathing all night long. Now the truth of the matter is this - you won't stop breathing in your sleep and not start back, okay. I had a funny time. I was sitting with a patient. I'm explaining her results, studying with her. And I sat down with her and I said "You know, Mrs XYZ, I want to let you know that you stopped breathing in your sleep over two hundred times last night.".
Kevin: Wow!
Dr. Breus: You know what she said to me? "Did I start back up?"
Kevin: [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: Now that's pretty classic. But that's the level of education that we have to get to here in teaching people what's going on. So the answer is - yes, she did start back up. And would you believe me if I told you that her sleep apnea was only moderate, and she stopped breathing over two hundred times a night?
Both Susan Koranki & Kevin Gianni are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Susan Koranki has sinced written about articles on various topics from Allergies, Puppies Dogs and Dog Breeds. To learn more about overcoming sleep disorders, and how to get a better nights' sleep, visit