Archive for Sleep Disorder
Tired but Can’t Sleep? 5 Tips to Falling Asleep Faster
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You are tired after a long hard day at work. You almost fell asleep while brushing your teeth, yet can’t get to sleep when you hit the bed. Toss, turn, yawn, stretch, shift, toss some more – but you just can’t seem to fall asleep.
You are still wide-awake when your bedside clock shows 1:00 am. If this is a regular problem, you may have insomnia. There could a variety of reasons for your sleep disorder. Some common causes for trouble sleeping are:
Feeling depressed, anxious or having obsessive thoughts, your mind just doesn’t shut down enough to allow sleep. If you experience a major loss and are grieving, sleep can be difficult.
Sudden changes in your lifestyle can also cause sleep interruptions. Starting a new job with different hours than what you are used to can take time to adjust your sleep cycle. Constant stress at work or school that you just can’t let go of will definitely make a good night’s sleep elusive. Trying to drown your frustrations in alcohol, caffeine, or through smoking will only cause more sleep interruption problems.
Staying up too late watching TV or surfing the Internet doesn’t give your body enough time to wind down from the day for effective sleep.
Some sleeping problems may be related to other medical conditions. Breathing problems, back or leg pain, acid reflux and indigestion can disturb the body in ways that make sleep difficult no matter how tired you are.
If you’re fed up of being tired all the time, here are 5 things you can do to overcome your sleep disorder or insomnia:
- Don’t focus on going to sleep, instead think about relaxation. Visualize a pleasant, satisfying, relaxing place and see yourself in that place.
- Turn down the bedroom lights. This allows your body time to wind down and adjust easier than going from a fully lit room and to a completely dark room.
- Reset your body clock by getting on a manageable schedule. Don’t try to exhaust yourself with exercise, work or activity as a way to fall asleep. You already know that doesn’t work. Write down a schedule that allows an hour to prepare for sleep. Take a warm shower, turn off the TV, cell phones and PDAs and turn on some calming music (an instrumental CD, not the radio). Stretch and slide into bed at the scheduled time.
- If after resetting your sleep cycle, you find yourself getting tired too early, increase your light exposure. Go outdoors in the sunshine or turn up the light in the room. The body responds to light and dark cues for sleep.
- Cease any work or stressful activity at least three hours before bedtime. Let go of the frustrations and allow your mind to focus on less intense things.
When some of these natural methods can’t solve your sleeping problems, you may need to get on prescription medication. Whatever you do, don’t self medicate with over-the-counter sleep aids at night and wake-up pills during the day. That makes the problem worse. Don’t take any sleep medications unless a physician is monitoring you. You don’t want to develop drug dependency problems while curing your sleep disorder.
Sleep Apnea is a More Serious Problem Than Just Snoring
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Sure, sleeping next to someone who snores all night is a big hassle and probably makes it difficult for you to sleep. You keep thinking, “If only the snoring would stop, I could fall asleep.”
Be careful what you wish for! If the snoring stops and it gets very quiet suddenly, it may not necessarily be a healthy situation for the other person.
Snoring is related to a condition known as sleep apnea. If you have sleep apnea, your nighttime breathing is interrupted and if doesn’t return promptly, it can become a life threatening situation. This breathing interruption can happen up to five times in an hour during sleep. If you snore loudly and nightly, you’re at higher risk for sleep apnea than the occasional snorer is.
Other signs of sleep apnea are episodes of daytime fatigue and emotional distress or skill deficits when you’re tired. Sleep apnea seems to start most often in mid-life and affects more men than women.
Risk factors for sleep apnea are:
- Overweight by more than 120% of your appropriate body weight
- Large neck girth. That’s determined by using a tape measure. The danger level is 17” or greater for men and 16” or greater for women.
- Hypertension whether treated or untreated by medication
- Narrow nasal passages
A medically supervised sleep study is needed to diagnose sleep apnea. A home monitor can be used for children as well as adults to monitor breathing interruptions. You have a number of options for treating sleep apnea.
You can be fitted for a dental appliance, an orthodontia device that you wear at night. This appliance changes the tongue placement so that the airway is clear for breathing.
Losing weight is also important to moderating sleep apnea. Along with losing weight, you need to be in an exercise program. Many people report that their sleep apnea completely disappears once they lose weight and get back to a normal, healthy range.
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) masks are worn over the nose and mouth to force air into the nasal passages in a continuous flow. This may not be the most comfortable way to sleep, but it has been highly effective and most people get used to the machine and rely on it to deliver a good night’s sleep.
If all else fails, there are surgical procedures such as widening the palate, restructuring nasal cavities or taking out the tonsils to aid in a sleep apnea disorder. Make sure you don’t ignore your snoring and mistake it as something harmless because if it’s sleep apnea, you’re putting your life at risk!
Books about sleep apnea:
Just Tired and Sleepy During the Day or is it Narcolepsy?
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Do you ever feel really tired and sleepy during the day? Do you just have to take a nap at your desk or pull over if you are driving? That daytime fatigue may be the result of working late, lack of sleep or stress that interrupted your sleep the previous night. If a short nap or some rest is all you need, then you’re fine.
However, if you have narcolepsy, you could fall asleep during the day often and without any warning. You may still fall asleep during the day despite getting plenty of sleep at night.
You gulp down several cups of coffee and no matter how hard you try to fight off the sleepiness; you still can’t force yourself to stay awake. You may be the victim of crude jokes and criticized at work for being lazy because most people are not aware of narcolepsy and its symptoms.
You know you are not lazy and neither are you faking your symptoms. What you have is a real medical disorder called narcolepsy. If you are not diagnosed correctly and treated properly, this condition can worsen, interfere with your job, social life and severely limit normal activities like driving.
What is narcolepsy?
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia. The condition is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in which a person experiences extreme fatigue and possibly falls asleep at inappropriate times, such as at work or school.
What are the symptoms of narcolepsy?
- Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS): This is the most common characteristic where the person often feels drowsy or fall asleep throughout the day even after adequate nighttime sleep. This urge to sleep may be physically impossible to resist and can occur at inappropriate times and places.
- Cataplexy: This is an episodic condition where there is loss of muscle function, ranging from slight weakness (such as limpness at the neck or knees, sagging facial muscles, or inability to speak clearly) to complete collapse of the body.
- Sleep paralysis: This is a temporary inability to talk or move while falling asleep or waking up. It may last a few seconds to minutes. It is often frightening but is not dangerous.
- Hypnagogic hallucinations: These vivid, often frightening, dreamlike experiences occur while dozing, falling asleep and/or while awakening.
Who is at risk of being affected by narcolepsy?
It is estimated that as many as 3 million people worldwide are affected by narcolepsy. In the United States, it is estimated that this condition afflicts as many as 200,000 Americans. Narcolepsy usually begins between the ages of 15 and 25, but it can manifest itself at any age. In many cases, narcolepsy is undiagnosed (fewer than 50,000 are diagnosed) and, therefore, left untreated.
Although the exact cause of narcolepsy is still not known, researches have discovered a strong link between narcoleptic individuals and certain genetic conditions. Narcolepsy seems to occur 8-12% more often in families with at least one close relative with this condition.
How is narcolepsy diagnosed?
The most common symptom of narcolepsy is EDS and it is not exclusive to this condition. Proper diagnosis requires a thorough clinical exam and a comprehensive medical history.
Polysomnogram (PSG) and the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) are two essential tests for confirming narcolepsy. These medical tests are interpreted by a physician who specializes in sleep disorders.
How is narcolepsy treated?
Although there is no cure for narcolepsy, prescription drugs can control symptoms of EDS and cataplexy. Abnormal sleep patterns may be treated by antidepressant medications.
You can help yourself by making certain lifestyle changes such as limiting or avoiding caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and heavy meals. Go to sleep at a regular time everyday, don’t work late or too close to bedtime and exercise regularly.
The key here is to explain your condition and symptoms to your family, friends, colleagues and your boss at work. You want people close to you to understand that your daytime sleepiness is not laziness or lacking of motivation but a real medical problem called narcolepsy.
Books about narcolepsy:
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