What are Sleeping Disorders?
For many people sleep is not a given, it is not something that they simply slip into each night with ease, but is rather a battle, something they fight to gain and hold. There are a number of different sleep disorders that can make getting to sleep and staying asleep problematic. These disorders cause a wide array of secondary symptoms that can range from the obvious, like tiredness and irritation, to the more concerning, such as hallucinations and weight gain.
Sleep is vital to our wellbeing, it is rejuvenating and refreshing, helping to recharge our batteries after a busy day. Yet for many people sleep is a struggle and they spend their days exhausted from lack of sleep or poor quality of sleep. There are numerous sleep disorders which can affect people, preventing them from getting to sleep or degrading the quality of their sleep. As sleep is so critical to our overall health and happiness, these sleep disorders can cause a wide range of serious symptoms that can have serious consequences.
A sleep disorder, referred to as somnipathy in the medical world, is a medical disorder in the sleep patterns of a person. These disorders can vary widely, from teeth grinding through to night terrors, from apnea to sleep walking, though they all have one thing in common, they interrupt or interfere with normal sleep patterns, degrading the recuperative value of sleep. While the causes of many sleep disorders can be identified there are many that cannot, these problems are labelled simply as insomnia, which can be read as an undiagnosable type of sleep disorder.
Many people are unaware that they have a sleep disorder or do not make the connection between their state of health and happiness and their quality of sleep. Part of the problem is that some of the sleep disorders are not noticeable to the sufferer as they are asleep and can only be recognised if the person shares a bed with another person. Other sleep disorders have very recognisable signs.
If you or someone you know has low energy levels, feels tired on a regular basis, has depression, suffers from memory loss, has poor motor skills or struggles to sleep well then the cause could be a sleep disorder. For some people the only way to find out if this is the case is to go and see a sleep expert who will often need to observe the patient while they sleep as this is the only time that the signs will manifest themselves.
Sleep disorders are more prevalent than many people think and experts believe they are at the heart of many problems that people struggle with in life.
- Sleep disorder can prevent people from falling asleep and can degrade the quality of their sleep.
- They can be hard for the sufferer to spot as they often occur while they are asleep.
- There are a number of different types of sleep disorder.
- They are believed to be the cause of many other illness and problems.
Sleep disorders compromise the quality and length of sleep, if you have been struggling with sleep you may have a sleep disorder, the best thing you can do is see a sleep expert or your GP.
