Are You Suffering From a Sleep Disorder?

Do you have difficulties in falling asleep, or experience disrupted sleep, nightmares or daytime drowsiness? If you do, you could be suffering from a sleep disorder that needs to be treated.

Any persistent irregularity in your sleep pattern could be the symptom of a sleep disorder. Sleep disorders may vary from mild sleeping problems like an occasional nightmare, to severe ones that could damage your health.

A recent study has revealed that about 95% of the people suffering from a sleep disorder are not even aware that they have a problem, and hence do not seek or get any treatment.

There are several kinds of sleep disorders that are medically recognized, and they can be broadly classified as given below.

Insomnia: An occasional occurrence of sleeplessness due to stress or work overload may not be a serious problem, but if it persists for a month or more, it could lead to serious health concerns.

Without proper and sufficient rest at night, a person suffering from insomnia would experience daytime drowsiness and would not be able to concentrate on his routines or do his tasks efficiently.

A person suffering from lack of sleep is often very irritable, and may complain of fatigue or blurred vision.

Disrupted Sleep: Disrupted sleep is the condition wherein your sleep does not follow the normal pattern or a sleep cycle does not last as long as it should.

This means that a person suffering from disrupted sleep is unable to experience deep sleep and hence will not feel sufficiently rested and energetic in the morning.

Hypersomnia: This is a condition in which a person sleeps sufficiently at night, and sometimes more than required, and yet experiences daytime drowsiness, lack of concentration etc.

Hypersomnia can be treated by altering the person’s lifestyle habits, medication or schedules.

Sleep disorders in Women and Children: It is observed that women are doubly prone to sleep disorders as compared to men. Pregnant women and women in the menopausal stage are likely to experience difficulties in their sleep pattern mainly due to the hormonal changes.

In general, women are believed to be twice as likely to experience difficulties in falling and staying asleep as men. Stress is one of the most common reasons for sleep disorder in women.

The symptoms include difficulty in falling asleep, disturbed sleep, daytime drowsiness etc.

Children also face sleep disorders of a slightly different kind than adults. The symptoms they show are also not similar to that experienced by adults.

However since they may not even be aware that they have a sleep related problem, it is difficult to diagnose and treat such disorders in children. They may also be unable to accurately describe the difficulties.

Frequent nightmares, bedwetting etc. are some of the common symptoms of sleep disorder in children.

Sleep is very important to overall health, and if you are unable to take rest for days on end, it could lead to problems like hypertension, heart disease etc.

If you feel that you could be suffering from one of these symptoms, it is perhaps time you sought medical help.