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.
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