Insomnia
- a consistent difficulty in falling or staying asleep
- one of the most common sleep disorders in the world
- many factors can contribute to insomnia\
- this includes age, drug use, exercise, mental status, or bedtime routines.
Symptoms
- People with insomnia may experience:
- long delays between going to bed and falling asleep.
- waking up several times during the night only to find that they have difficulty of getting back to sleep
- increased levels of anxiety
- feelings of tiredness
- symptoms of depression
Treatment
- Some treatment approaches may include:
- limiting use of stimulant drugs (eg. caffeine)
- increasing amount of physical exercise during the day
- using OTC or prescribed medications
- should be used sparingly as dependence can alter the nature of the sleep cycle
- in turn, it may eventually increase insomnia over time.
- consult a professional for psychotherapy
- cognitive-behavioral therapy often helps on cognitive processes and problematic behaviors
- this may include stress management and changes in behaviors that contribute to insomnia
Tips in Maintaining a Healthy Sleep
- Stick to a sleep schedule even during weekends.
- This keeps our biological clock in sync which makes our body a habit of sleeping every night.
- Avoid anything stimulating (eg. exercise or bright light) for an hour before bed.
- Exercise daily.
- Avoid naps
- Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, and heavy meals before bed.
- Alcohol disrupts REM sleep, leading to awakenings.
- Heavy meals may make you feel sleepy, but it can lead to gastric distress, which can lead to awakenings
- If you cannot fall asleep, leave the bed and do something until you feel tired again.
- This is to train your body to associate the bed with sleeping instead of other activities.
Parasomnia
- sleep disorders in which unwanted or disruptive motor activities or experiences occur during sleep.
- can occur during REM or NREM phases of sleep.
Sleepwalking
- also called somnambulism.
- sleeper engages in complex behaviors, ranging from wandering to driving a car
- during sleepwalking, sleepers have their eyes open
- however, they cannot respond nor communicate to you.
- occurs during slow-wave sleep
- may occur at any period in some affected individuals.
Treatment
- Sleepwalking had been treated with a varieties of pharmacotherapies
- These can range from benzodiazepines to antidepressants.
- Recent research find that the success rates of such treatments is questionable.
- However, treating sleep-related breathing problems on somnambulistic patients have proved to decrease sleepwalking experiences.
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)
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occurs when muscle paralysis that happen during REM sleep does not occur.
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they also experience high levels of physical activities during REM sleep, especially during disturbing dreams.
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these behaviors vary widely, but they can include:
- yelling
- kicking
- punching
- scratching
- behaving like an animal that has been frightened or attacked.
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people suffering in RBD can injure themselves or their sleeping partners when engaging in these behaviors.
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they can disrupt sleep but leave no memories of these behaviors ever occurring to affected individuals.
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RBD is associated with some neurodegenerative diseases (eg. Parkinson’s disease).
- This strong relationship between RBD and neurodegenerative diseases serves as potential aid in diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in the presence of RBD.
Treatment
- Anti-anxiety medication with sedative properties Clonazepam can be used to treat RBD.
- Melatonin may also be used in conjunction to it.
- The sleeping environment may also be modified to reduce possibility of injuries for people suffering from RBD
Restless Leg Syndrome
- persons with this disorder has uncomfortable sensations in the legs when trying to sleep.
- discomfort is relieved by deliberately moving the legs, which contributes to difficulty in falling or staying asleep
- associated with other diseases, such as chronic kidney disease and diabetes.
- it can be treated with benzodiazepines, opiates, and anticonvulsants.
Night Terrors
- persons with this condition result in a sense of panic
- it is often accompanied by screams and attempts to escape from the immediate escape from the environment.
- during terror attacks, individuals appears to be awake but attempts to console them proves to be ineffective.
- they will also have no memories of that ever happening
- they will also fall back asleep again after a short amount of time
- attacks often happen during the NREM sleep phase.
- treatment for night terrors is unnecessary unless underlying medical or psychological conditions is contributing to night terrors.
Sleep Apnea
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a condition where an individual experiences irregular disruptions in breathing during sleep
- episodes of breathing stops can last between 10-20 seconds or longer.
- often associated with brief periods of arousal.
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persons with this condition are often unaware of repeated disruptions in breathing during sleep.
- they may, however, experience increased levels of fatigue during the day.
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Sleep apnea is much more common in overweight people.
- It is also associated with loud snoring noises.
- It may also worsen effects of cardiovascular disease.
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People with undiagnosed sleep apnea may experience consequences of insufficient sleep, and may affect their performance in their careers.
Types
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- occurs when individual’s airway becomes blocked during sleep.
- Central Sleep Apnea
- disruption in brain signals that regulate breathing cause periods of interrupted breathing.
Treatment
- Common treatment involves use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device
- This is a mask that fits over the individual’s nose.
- It is connected to a pump that pumps air into the person’s airway to make them remain open.
- Some alternative treatment options are also explored.
- This is because continued compliance to CPAP devices pose a problem.
- EPAP (expiratory positive air pressure) devices is one such example, which have shown promising results in recent double-blind trials.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
- occurs when an infant stops breathing during sleep and dies.
Risk Factors
- Some risk factors include:
- infants younger than 12 months,
- infants assigned male at birth.
- infants born prematurely
- smoking within the home
- hyperthermia
- differences in brain structure and function
Prevention
- Substantial research had lead to aa number of recommendations for protection.
- Infants should be placed on their backs when they are put down.
- Cribs should not contain items that pose suffocation threats
- This includes pillows, blankets or padded crib cushions.
- Infants should not have caps on their head when put to sleep.
- People in the home should abstain from smoking in the home.
Narcolepsy
- a person with this condition cannot resist falling asleep at the most unfortunate/inconvenient times.
- often last from a minute to half an hour.
Symptoms
- often associated with cataplexy, also known as muscle weakness.
- some cases may involve complete paralysis of voluntary muscles.
- similar to the kind of paralysis experienced during REM sleep.
- may take on other features of REM sleep
- example: dream-like hallucinations during narcoleptic attacks
- feelings of being refreshed after a narcoleptic attack
Note
Symptoms of narcolepsy and effectiveness of treatment may vary between different patients.
Treatment
- it can be generally treated with psychomotor stimulant drugs like amphetamines.
- they can promote increased levels of neural activity.
- newer medications for treating narcolepsy may target the hypocretin system
- this is because narcolepsy is shown to have associated with reduced levels of hypocretin in some areas of the brain.