Did you ever experience a long tiring day at school or work? Your body may have been aching with pain and you laid down for a relaxing sleep. What a wonderful feeling that was! Most people enjoy the luxury of sleep without realizing that it isn’t always possible for many people to achieve this. Sleep helps us in more ways than we can imagine but it sometimes eludes people who don’t even know what they were missing.
Sometimes we take for granted the great benefits that are afforded to us from a restful nights sleep and we begin to abuse the privilege by staying up too late or “burning the midnight oil” a bit too much. The more we use our body, the more that we must load up on sleep. If we don’t catch up, our body starts to get confused and this can eventually lead to a sleep disorder. First we find ourselves irritable and slow. Then we lose our ability to fully relax and we are in for a much bigger problem down the road.
Common sleeping disorders often begin unnoticed. We might just be having signs of some minor problems but we don’t think too much of it. Then we may begin to have difficulty falling or staying asleep but think this is only a “passing phase”. Little do we know, we are already experiencing, what doctors would diagnose as insomnia, a sleep disorder that results to sleepiness at other times of the day. Insomnia is the most well-known sleep disorder but it is still undiagnosed in thousands of people. It causes slow reactions in our nervous system and poor mental concentration. These factors might just lead to accidents and lesser productivity throughout the day. Stress is also considered one of the major reasons why one out of three adults experiences some degree of insomnia at one time or another.
A less common but quite alarming case of insomnia is the chronic insomnia. This is known as a severe case of insomnia which is caused by too much stress and by our body’s chemistry and medical condition. This second case of insomnia is less common than the first but still quite common overall. It also tends to go undiagnosed in many people.
Sleepy people who experience a gradual loss of muscle tone (called cataplexy) may be experiencing another type of sleep disorder known as Narcolepsy. This is a sleep related disease that affects the NREM or “Non Rapid Eye Movement” sleep. Narcoleptic patients experience sudden muscle weakening which sometimes causes them to fall. They may fall into a NREM sleep phase almost instantly and this can be extremely dangerous. A simple act of happiness or laughter may trigger what is called a cataplectic attack where the person just falls asleep and tips over! A related disease called sleep paralysis is also alarming and can occur in narcoleptics where they lose control of their muscles especially when lying down before they go to bed.
Children commonly experience a sleep disorder familiarly known as “bedwetting” which is actually called Nocturnal Enursis. This ordinarily happens during NREM sleep as does talking in your sleep and sleep walking. These disorders are also common amongst children.
Sleep Apnea is a breathing disorder which is not understood by many people and which is therefore undiagnosed in many people. It is still quite common however and is caused by the muscle and tongue relaxation on the soft palate at the throat’s base. This is the part of the throat which allows an individuals air passage to collapse especially those with narrow airways. It creates a sleeping disorder somewhat similar to snoring but it is actually a lot more serious than just snoring. Sleep apnea causes a person to lose the much needed REM phase of their sleep and thereby depletes their energy and dangerously affects their brain chemistry. A person with sleep apnea is more prone to accidents and poor health as well as poor performance at work or school.
Sleeping disorders can be avoided if we raise our awareness about them and take preventive measures to stop them. We must make sleeping a daily habit and try to get a better night’s sleep all the time. If we make sure and do this, we will surely reap the benefits soon!
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