SLEEP DISORDERS
What It Is:
Signs and Symptoms:
Sleep disorders are conditions that disturb your normal sleep patterns. Some major types of sleep disorders include:
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Insomnia - the most common sleep disorder is characterized by an inability to fall asleep and stay asleep.
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Sleep apnea - a disorder in which an individual stops breathing for 10 seconds or more during sleep.
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Restless leg syndrome - symptoms include a tingling or prickly sensation in the legs along with a powerful urge to move them.
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Hypersomnia - inability to stay awake during the day. This includes narcolepsy, which is characterized by extreme daytime sleepiness.
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Circadian rhythm disorders - difficulties with the sleep-wake cycle, leading to an inability to sleep and wake at the right times.
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Parasomnia - acting in unusual ways while falling asleep, sleeping, or waking from sleep, such as walking, talking, or eating.
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The symptoms of sleep disorders depend on the specific disorder. Some signs that you may have a sleep disorder include that:
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Regularly taking more than 30 minutes each night to fall asleep
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Regularly waking up several times each night and then have trouble falling back to sleep, or waking up too early in the morning
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Often feeling sleepy during the day, taking frequent naps, or falling asleep at the wrong times during the day
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Others say that when you sleep, you snore loudly, snort, gasp, make choking sounds, or stop breathing for short periods
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Experiencing creeping, tingling, or crawling feelings in your legs or arms that are relieved by moving or massaging them, especially in the evening and when trying to fall asleep
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Others notice that your legs or arms jerk often during sleep
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Having vivid, dreamlike experiences while falling asleep or dozing
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Having episodes of sudden muscle weakness when you are angry or fearful, or when you laugh
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Feeling as though you cannot move when you first wake up