Do you get a good night’s sleep or are you like me and have a sleep disorder? There are several common sleep disorders but the top 3 include insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of my links, I may receive a commission or credit at no additional cost to you. For more info, please read my Affiliate Information Policy.)
Just What Is A Sleep Disorder?
Everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time, but documented sleep disorders are conditions that impair your sleep or prevent you from getting restful sleep. You might have a sleep disorder if you regularly have trouble sleeping or are often tired during the day even though you slept for at least seven hours the night before. Sleep disorders can cause a reduced or impaired ability to perform regular daytime activities.
If you have some form of a sleep disorder, you and I are not alone – according to the Cleveland Clinic, about 70 million people in the United States suffer from sleep disorders. Most adults need at least 8 hours of sleep nightly to feel rested but often only get 6 or 7 hours.
What Happens When A Person Doesn’t Get Enough Sleep?
Getting enough sleep is critical to our well-being, both mentally and physically. Not getting enough sleep for a long time can cause health problems. For example, it can make problems like diabetes and high blood pressure worse.
Not getting the proper amount or quality of sleep leads to more than just feeling tired. Sleepiness interferes with cognitive function, which can lead to learning disabilities in children, memory impairment in people of all ages, personality changes, and depression.
People who are deprived of sleep have trouble making decisions, irritability, have problems with performance, and slower reaction times, placing them at risk for automobile and work-related accidents.
Details Of 3 Top Sleep Disorders
As mentioned above, the most common sleep disorders include insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome.
Insomnia
Insomnia means difficulty in falling or staying asleep, not having restful sleep, or poor quality of sleep. This is one of the disorders that I deal with. Insomnia can cause you to wake up early or often during the night. It can cause sleepiness during the day, problems with concentration, or feeling tired when you wake up. In my case, I have great difficulty falling asleep, often hours after going to bed.
The most common causes of insomnia are medications, depression, anxiety, and environmental changes (travel, jet lag, or altitude changes). Noise, light, or extreme temperatures (hot or cold) can interfere with sleep. Another major cause of insomnia is stress, for example, the loss of a loved one, job loss or change, divorce, or illness.
I have not determined the root cause for my insomnia, but I have taken steps to minimize it. My Christmas list this year included a weighted blanket. It made a difference in my insomnia and I would definitely recommend one. Recently I also started taking CBD gummies. So far, they have helped me fall asleep much faster. I was hesitant to try CBD but my primary care physician said it could help my insomnia. CBD does not cause a “high,” and it does not have the same potential for abuse as cannabis. I plan to continue the CBD gummies as long as they help me!
Sleep Apnea
The other sleep disorder I suffer from is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea, also called sleep-disordered breathing, is where breathing briefly stops or becomes very shallow during sleep. If you have sleep apnea, not enough air can flow into your lungs through the mouth and nose during sleep, even though breathing efforts continue. When this happens, the amount of oxygen in your blood decreases. Your brain responds by awakening you enough to tighten the upper airway muscles and open your windpipe.
Normal breaths then start again, often with a loud snort or choking sound. Although people who have sleep apnea typically snore loudly and frequently, not everyone who snores has sleep apnea.
Because people who have sleep apnea frequently arouse from deeper sleep stages to lighter sleep during the night, they rarely spend enough time in deep, restorative stages of sleep. This causes excessive daytime sleepiness and often depression.
Sleep apnea can be confirmed with overnight sleep monitoring at a medical sleep center. This monitoring will reveal pauses in breathing, frequent sleep arousals, and intermittent drops in levels of oxygen in the blood.
Take hope if you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, there are treatments available. The most common treatment and the one I use is a CPAP device. CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure therapy. It is a device that pushes air through the airway. I no longer snore or stop breathing while asleep!
Other treatments for sleep apnea include: avoid alcohol, tobacco, and sleeping pills, losing weight, or surgery to make your airway bigger.
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)
RLS causes a powerful urge to move your legs. Your legs become uncomfortable when you are lying down or sitting. Some people describe it as a creeping, crawling, tingling, or burning sensation.
This sensation creates a need to stretch or move the legs to get rid of these uncomfortable or painful feelings. As a result, a person may have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. One or both legs may be affected. In some people, the sensations are also felt in their arms.
Doctors usually can diagnose RLS by patients’ symptoms and a telltale worsening of symptoms at night or while at rest. Doctors may also ask people who have RLS to spend a night in a sleep lab where they are monitored to rule out other sleep disorders and to document excessive limb movements.
RLS is a treatable but not curable condition. Dramatic improvements are seen quickly when patients are given dopamine-like drugs. Some other treatments include stretching, taking a hot bath, or massaging the legs before bedtime. Avoiding caffeinated beverages can also help reduce symptoms.
There are several common sleep disorders but the top 3 include insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome. Learn the symptoms and possible treatments. #Sleep #Insomnia #SleepApnea #RLS Share on XI hope these details on the most common 3 top sleep disorders give you information to help you get a good night’s sleep and hope for treatments if you suffer as I do!
Leave a Reply