Everybody has experienced nights where they just can’t seem to fall or stay asleep. Whether the cause be from anxiety for a big test the next day or just a full night of tossing and turning, someone who has a night like this can often feel groggy and exhausted the next day. Luckily for most people, this is just called a bad night of sleep and might only happen once in awhile. Some people are not so lucky.
People who suffer from long term sleeping disorders can have problems functioning through their daily lives because of the effects of these disorders. Although sleeping disorders are typically not life threatening, they can create long term effects on mental and physical health on an individual if not treated properly.
Common Sleeping Disorders
It is reported that roughly 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from some form of sleep disorder (Sleep disorders, 1994). Although there are 100 recognized various forms of sleeping disorders, patients who seek medical attention typically fall into one of four categories: Insomnia, circadian rhythm disruptions, parasomnia, and hypersomnia (Mahowald & Schenck, 2005).
Insomnia
Insomnia is the most common form of sleeping disorders, and is classified as an inability to obtain proper sleep in order to feel fully rested the next day. Insomnia can be developed through environmental pressures, such as stress, diet, anxiety and behavior (American, 2010). It can also be developed by psychological problems, medical conditions, or an imbalance of hormones such as estrogen. Treatments for insomnia can range from medication such as sleep aids to lifestyle changes like a reduction of caffeine or exercising regularly.
Circadian Rhythmic Disorders
The human body possesses an internal clock referred to as circadian clock, which regulates bodily functions over a 24 hour period including sleep and wakefulness. When this so-called molecular clock is thrown off, an inability to sleep during desired regular times becomes difficult. There are two divisions of this circadian rhythm sleep disorder: primary and secondary. The primary division is hard to diagnose, and can be firstly viewed as a form of insomnia or hypersomnia. The secondary division is easier to identify, as this occurs mostly in people who do shift work or those who travel and obtain jet lag (Mahowald & Schenck, 2005).
There are two forms of treatments commonly used on the imbalance of the biological clock: chronotherapy and phototherapy. Chronotherapy is a gradual process, having a set sleeptime of the number of hours until the desired time and amount of sleep is reached. Phototherapy is an exposure of the body to a bright light strategically given at exact times of setting during a wake/sleep cycle (American, 2010).
Parasomnia
The third type of common sleep disorders are referred to as parasomnia, or unwanted behaviors and actions during the sleep cycle. This group of disorders include well known phenomenons such as sleepwalking and night terrors, and can be unpleasant to those who experience this form of sleep disturbance. However, research has shown that forms of parasomnia are a mixture of waking and the NREM sleep stage, and the person who has any form of parasomnia has no memory of the events that occur during sleep. That is why they are referred to as “dissociated sleep states” (Mahowald & Schenck, 2005). Causes of this category of sleep disorders are thought to be genetic factors since they often run in families, and treatments mostly include drug therapies.
Hypersomnia
The fourth and final category of common sleep disorders is hypersomnia. Hypersomnia is a group of disorders that cause excessive tiredness and create sleep deprivation. Sometimes, a person may have impulsive sleep episodes at inappropriate times, like those who have narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is the most well known disorder in hypersomnia, and is a chronic neurological condition (American, 2010). Treatments of narcolepsy include drug therapies. Other times, hypersomnia is caused simply by a person failing to get a sufficient amount of sleep, which can be caused by a busy schedule and fixed by creating a regular sleep schedule.
Conclusion
Sleep disorders can affect the way a person deals with day to day life, and if not treated properly can have long term physical and mental effects. Sleep disorders can range from being a common disorder to a rare case. There are four main categories that are common for sleep disorders including forms of hypersomnia, insomnia, circadian rhythm imbalances, and parasomnia.