Sleep Disorders

Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders are a part of more than 40 million American's lives.

It is estimated that 60 percent of adults have sleep problems at least a few nights a week and as a result more than 40 percent of adults experience mild to severe daytime sleepiness. Children also experience sleep troubles, with 69 percent of kids presenting problems several nights a week.

There are many variations of sleep disorders, including parasomnias.

A parasomnia is a disturbance in the sleep cycle that is characterized by physiological states and behaviors usually only presented in the waking state. Parasomnias have been noted as more frequent in children than adults and are often associated with stress and depression in addition to biological factors. Many parasomnias can have serious consequences; the sleeper can potentially injure a bedmate or themselves, prevent others from sleeping, and even wake themselves up. Examples of parasomnias include sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and sleeptalking.

Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, happens during Stage 4 sleep and is a partial arousal in which the person is not in full consciousness. A sleepwalker might roam the building, change clothes, eat and even go to the bathroom. On rare occasions it has been reported that a sleepwalker drove during sleep. After most episodes of sleepwalking, the sleeper generally does not remember their actions.

Sleep terrors also occur during Stage 4 sleep. Sleep terrors are characterized by a piercing scream and extreme panic. The sleeper usually springs up with eyes open, sweating, rapid breathing, and heart rate raised to two or more times the norm. After about 5 to 15 minutes the person falls back to sleep. As many as 5 percent of children suffer from sleep terrors, and the rate decreases to only 1 percent in adulthood. Sleep terrors in adolescence are not necessarily alarming, however if episodes continue into adulthood a serious problem could be the cause. In adults, terrors are frequently a sign of extreme anxiety or other psychological disturbances, and should be discussed with a doctor.

Sleeptalking, or somniloquy, unlike sleep terrors or sleepwalking can occur during any stage of the sleep cycle. Similar to sleep terrors, somniloquy is more common in childhood than adulthood.

Words spoken by the sleeper are usually mumbled and not understandable to anyone who might be listening. Also, the sleeper would not be likely to answer any questions, and there is no evidence that what the sleeper says has any relation to a guilty conscious or any psychological problems.

In addition to parasomnias, there are also more serious sleep disorders, which can be major health risks. Among these are narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and insomnia, all of which can affect a person's whole life.

Narcolepsy, possibly the most disastrous of sleep disorders, is a severe sleep disorder that has no cure as of yet, but there are stimulant medications, which increase alertness during normal waking hours. The cause of narcolepsy is an irregularity in the division of the brain that normalizes sleep. There is some strong evidence of a genetic element causing this disorder. Those who are affected by narcolepsy experience extreme sleepiness during the day and sudden onsets of uncontrollable REM sleep. These episodes last approximately 10 to 20 minutes, and can be extremely dangerous. In America there are anywhere from 250,000 - 350,000 people who suffer from narcolepsy, each of which has extreme risk of accident at anytime and anywhere.

Insomnia, which is characterized by a difficulty with falling asleep, restless/poor sleep, or waking too early, can cause distress and impairment of ability to function. Chronic insomnia, a more severe form, can cause a person to experience "higher psychological distress [and] greater impairments of daytime functioning, are involved in more fatigue-related accidents, take more sick leave, and utilize health care resources more often than good sleepers" (Morin & Wooten, 1996, p.522).

Sleep disorders obviously affect a large amount of Americans everyday. Since my birth I have been among those who do. I suffer from parasomnias and insomnia, in addition to a possible disorder of my circadian rhythms, which controls our sleep/wake cycle with changing levels of hormones and neurochemicals. Several times a month I wake up the night screaming, experiencing a night terror. At least once a week I sleep