Why Do You Suffer From Sleep Disorders and Sleeplessness?

Don’t let sleeplessness ruin your long term health.

Everybody has had problems falling asleep and staying asleep in order to get a good night’s rest, especially during stressful times. This can be infrequent and may altogether stop when your stress level drops. If your problem becomes a concern, lasts for more than a month, and is the reason for not functioning properly, you could be diagnosed as having a sleep disorder.

Poor night’s rest, getting too much sleep, having trouble to maintain a regular sleep pattern are considered to be sleep disorders. Other variations of sleep disorders include rare disturbances during sleep, i.e., sleepwalking and nightmares. Most sleep disorders are linked to stress, psychological conflicts, unhealthy lifestyles, and/or medications.

Insomnia, an original Latin word, is a condition where a person finds difficulty going to sleep and/or remaining asleep. Insomnia is a common sleep disorder. This is when a person has trouble falling asleep or they may not get enough sleep. When it is time for sleep people with insomnia worry about the circumstances of their life and give themselves a tense feeling. Some of the types of insomnia’s are symptoms of other sleep disorders for example., massive depression, bipolarism, and anxiety disorders.

People that awake frequently from nightmares are frightened and have provoked intense anxiety. People awake suddenly form this disorder. Nightmares are triggered from stressful situations, trauma, or emotional problems. Post-traumatic stress can be associated with some nightmares, and is a disorder that affects many soldiers who have seen live combat.

“Sleep terrors” are another type of sleep disorder Somebody with these sleep disorders awakes suddenly in confusion and panic and can scream and thrash. They usually do not remember doing so.

Another sleep disorder is sleepwalking this type of sleep disorder allows a person to carry out activities but while being in an unresponsive state. People have been known to eat, go to the bathroom, gone outside, gone for walks, some people have even tried to drive! The sleepwalker can see and manages to haphazardly navigate.

Each night if you sleep soundly anywhere between six to nine hours, chances are you don’t have any sleep disorder.

If you care much about your personal health, then don’t let sleepnessness ruin it.

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This post was written by admin on July 26, 2009

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WhatYou Want Know About Sleep Apnea

When breathing of a person during sleep is reduced or stops, this condition could be diagnosed as sleep apnea.Routine visits to the doctor, however, are usually not enough to detect sleep apnea and this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Most patients would not know if they have sleep apnea because it only happens to them while sleeping. This problem could only surface if a patient’s bed partner or family member notices the condition.

Diagnosis may reveal any of three types of sleep apnea. These apnea types include central apnea, obstructive apnea, and a combination of the two.

Central apnea occurs when the brain of a person asleep fails to activate the muscles for breathing. Obstructive apnea, on the other hand, happens when the person’s airway collapses during sleep. This is the most common type of sleep apnea and occurs mostly in overweight patients. There are several complications of obstructive apnea. These include heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, daytime sleepiness, difficulty in concentration and thinking which could result in accidents while driving. To diagnose and evaluate obstructive sleep apnea, a patient will undergo physical examination and polysomnography. If you think you might be suffering from sleep apnea you should see a doctor for sleep apnea treatments.

Seeking treatment is very crucial for a patient diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. It is tempting for most people afflicted with this disorder to forego treatment. The treatment may involve the inconvenience of wearing dental appliances and masks nightly. Using a dental appliance for sleep apnea is uncomfortable at first but you can get used to it. A sleep apnea chin strap is slightly less uncomfortable, but is very unattractive. There’s surgery, but it’s painful and there is no guarantee for successful treatment.For these discouraging reasons on surgery and personal appliances, only 10% of sleep apnea patients have been estimated to have undergone treatment.

It is therefore important to educate the rest of the 90% of those patients of the consequences of non-treatment of their disorder.r In addition to putting themselves at risk, they likewise pose risk to others particularly when driving. To the patient, the non-treatment of obstructive sleep apnea carries the increased risk of strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, poor work productivity, reduced attentiveness, and in extreme cases, untimely death.

Persons with obstructive sleep apnea should discuss treatment with their doctor right away. Other than surgery, wearing mask and dental appliances, there are more palatable treatments of patients. These include behavioral therapy, continuous positive airway pressure, auto-titrating continuous positive airway pressure, and bi-level positive airway pressure.

Changing a patient’s lifestyle could also help treat sleep apnea. These include refraining from taking alcoholic drinks or muscle relaxants, weight reduction and stopping smoking. Having the body at a 30-degree elevation while sleeping to prevent airway collapse due to gravity could also help in apnea treatment. Sleeping on a sideways position may also beneficial in reducing the gravitational cause of sleep apnea.

There are several surgical procedures for those patients who elect surgery. Procedures that may be suggested include, nasal surgery, tongue reduction surgery, palate implants, bariatric surgery, maxi-mandibular advancement and uvulopapatopahryngoplasty.

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This post was written by admin on June 21, 2009

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Sleep Apnea and Weight Issues

Sleep apnea is the condition where there are pauses in breathing during sleep. These are defined by medical terminology when an individual literally stops breathing. Sleep apnea treatments are important as this disorder is a serious one, especially for patients with a weight issue.

Obstructive sleep apnea is one type of apnea that is a common problem among the elderly and morbidly obese. It may require them to wear an oxygen mask so they can breathe. In the people who are excessively overweight, this is often due to their weight bearing down on their chest and crushing their rib cage and lungs.

Medical reports suggest the population at risk are obese middle-aged males since physiology doesn’t make women potential sufferers of sleep apnea. People who fall asleep with sleep apnea go through brief periods where others think they’re not going to wake up. This is a serious disorder and potentially life threatening if not properly diagnosed. People suffering with obesity constantly have to deal with frequent episodes of paused breathing. Snoring is a common problem with people who are overweight and constant gasping for air while sleeping is another problem. Obstructive Sleep Apnea can be dangerous to the heart because of the deprivation of oxygen that keeps the circulation of oxygen flowing efficiently.

Other symptoms may include:

  • Headaches
  • Irritability
  • Moodiness
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Noctoria (getting up in the middle of the night to urinate)
  • Increased urination
  • Decreased sexual drive
  • Increased heart rate
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Esophageal reflux (acid reflux disease)
  • Profuse heavy sweating at night.

Individuals born with Down’s Syndrome are likely to develop obstructive sleep apnea since 50% of the population that have this genetic condition have an enlarged head, adenoids, tonsils, tongue, and narrowing of the nasopharnyx.

Pharyngeal flap surgery has also caused sleep apnea in some patients because of the obstruction in the breathing pattern after surgery which if not monitored can be life threatening. There are different treatments for people with sleep apnea and doctors and ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) specialists take the following into consideration for designing a treatment plan for those who are diagnosed with this condition.

The factors that are considered are an individual’s medical history, severity of the disorder, and the specific cause for the obstruction. Some treatments also incorporate a lifestyle change, such as avoiding medications and alcohol that can relax the nervous system.

Other lifestyle changes can be made, such as losing weight and quitting smoking. Other considerations to incorporate are suggestions like elevating oneself while sleeping so that breathing is easier.

If someone is suffering from sleep apnea and they are overweight then a weight reduction plan should be implemented along with suitable sleep programs. Usually they will find within a short period of time of losing weight their condition will improve. Maintaining the weight loss to improve sleep and breathing patterns comes with monitoring the food consumption and the exercise program.

 

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This post was written by admin on June 1, 2009

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Sleep Apnea Is Both An Extremely Common and Occasionally Fatal Sleep Disorder

Sleep apnea is probably the most commonly seen of all sleep disorders and affects nearly 18 million people in the United States. A sleeping disorder characterized by broken breathing during sleep, sleep apnea is also undoubtedly the most dangerous of all sleeping disorders as it starves the brain of crucial oxygen and can sometimes prove to be fatal.

There are two very different types of sleep apnea. Central sleep apnea is in essence a neurological disorder where breathing is broken as a result of signals sent out by the brain. Obstructive sleep apnea by contrast is basically a mechanical problem where the windpipe is obstructed either by too much tissue or by the unusual collapse or relaxation of the muscles in and around the windpipe. In both cases however the results are essentially identical with frequent interruptions to normal breathing that deprive the brain of oxygen and put the sufferer at greater risk from such things as high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack.

Sadly, diagnosing sleep apnea is not always easy because snoring, which is one of its commonest symptoms and frequently leads to sleep apnea being called the snoring disease, is also seen as a symptom of many other medical problems. Snoring is frequently seen in cases of sleep apnea as the brain reacts to a drop in oxygen by waking the sufferer sufficiently to restart breathing and this usually produces snoring.

This repeated awakening during the night also causes a very poor overall quality of sleep and it is not at all uncommon for sufferers to get up in the morning feeling more tired than they were when they went to bed. This also results in feelings of sheer exhaustion during the day and a great desire to sleep.

But, tiredness arising from poor quality sleep is only part of the problem and various other symptoms will also generally be present including headaches in the morning, forgetfulness and a problem in maintaining concentration.

Left untreated the growing tiredness from sleep apnea can lead to serious psychological problems starting with touchiness and progressing to depression with noticeable changes in behavior and mood.

Both central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea are treatable and, as long as the condition is caught early enough, this treatment is often relatively easy. For example, a minor case of obstructive sleep apnea caused by nasal congestion can usually be treated with little more than decongestants. In the same way, a lot of cases of sleep apnea which are not especially serious can be treated with the use of a mask that is worn while sleeping and which delivers a constant pressure of air to keep the airway open. Finally, in the most serious cases of sleep apnea surgery may be required and can be very effective, though it could also lead to various complications and has to be approached with caution.

Possibly the most important thing to remember when treating sleep apnea is that because it carries the potentially fatal risk of respiratory failure sufferers should not be tempted to take sleeping pills or to use other forms of artificial sleep enhancers without the approval of a doctor.

Natural sleep remedies unquestionably provide an effective complement to prescribed medication and herbs that are designed to improve both the quality and duration of sleep can be of assistance in the management of the excessive daytime sleepiness generally accompanying sleep apnea. Also, things like aromatherapy, chromatherapy and meditation and guided relaxation can help to combat the insomnia and anxiety that go together with sleep apnea.

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This post was written by admin on May 1, 2009

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