Get the Facts About the Most Common Sleep Disorders

Some people are unable to enjoy a good sleep at night because they have a sleep disorder. Some of the sleep disorders include snoring, sleep apnea, jet lag, insomnia, narcolepsy, or restless leg syndrome. These problems should be looked into and treated.

Every 24 hour, a state of consciousness is reached called sleep. It is the time when the body rests and repairs itself. The brain has some much needed downtime during this time period as well.

The amount of sleep that is needed depends on a variety of factors, which include diet, personality, environment, lifestyle, and age. For example, a newborn baby would need around sixteen hours of sleep in every twenty four hour period and an adult would only need half of that.

The body’s internal clock

c cycles called the circadian rhythm. When it starts to get dark, the brain releases chemicals into the brain that make you sleepy. The same happens when the sun rises and the brain releases chemicals to wake up.

Sleep stages

There are different sleep stages that go over and over. The first stage is the rapid eye movement stage and the second is the non rapid eye movement stage. The brain waves for the REM cycle are faster than the ones for the NREM cycle. The REM stage is associated with the time during your sleep that you dream while the body repairs during the NREM stage.

Common sleep disorders

When sleep is disturbed, it can be for any number of reasons. Here are some of the most common sleep disorders.

• Insomnia deals with when it is hard to sleep or stay asleep.
• Jet lag deals with the times when the body’s internal clock is thrown off because of a different time zone.
• Narcolepsy is when the body is extremely tired during the day and that leads to napping involuntarily.
• Periodic limb movement disorder is when muscle spasms wake up the sleeper.
• Restless leg syndrome is when lower leg pain and discomfort makes a person need to get up and move around.
• Snoring is when noisy breathing or narrowed nose and throat obstruction wakes the sleeper.
• Sleep apnea is when the upper airway becomes blocked which causing breathing to stop.
• Sleepwalking is when the sleeper walks around in their sleep.

Treatment of sleep disorders

Some disorders like snoring or sleepwalking don’t necessarily require treatment. However, there are some sleep disorders like sleep apnea that are dangerous. To make sure that you don’t have a dangerous or even deadly sleep disorder, it is so important to contact your doctor or a sleep clinic.