Sleep Disorders - There's More Than One

For those who don't suffer from any form of sleep disorder the ability to sleep, regardless of the cause, is all piled into the same pot. There are, however, several different types of sleep disorders that can dramatically affect a person to the point of altering their personality. As we've chatted about elsewhere on the site some of these disorders are caused by lifestyle changes, disruption of your sleeping habits, medication or maybe even a chermical imbalance in the human brain.

Sleep disorders are not isolated to just a handful of people - millions of people all over the world suffer from them and chances are that somebody you know is suffering from some form of sleep disorder. With no fixed cause and their random nature a sleep disorder can affect any normal, health, happy person at any stage of their life.

Common Sleep Disorders

Insomnia
Insomnia is the inability of a person to enter into a state of restful sleep and remain in that sleeping state for a long enough time to wake up feeling refreshed. The reason we sleep is so that the body can repair all the cellular damage that you suffered during the day and to give our organs a chance to rest and repair themselves. It's the body performing a basic tune up of itself to get you ready for the next day.

Just like a car if this basic maintenance isn't performed regularly then the mechanisms start to suffer. Your body is no different in this regard. Insomnia can be caused by stress, physical injury, reaction to medication, amphetamines (legal and illegal). Insomnia is treatable but will, of course, depend on the initial cause.

Sleep Apnea
This condition is when a person stops breathing while they're asleep but usually only for very short spells of 10 seconds or so. The problem with sleep apnea is that these interruptions to breathing can happen many times during a normal nights rest. This sleep disorder is very difficult to diagnose simply because the person is asleep when this is happening so unless their partner or a loved one notices this break in breathing it can be hard to deal with. The sufferer just knows that they wake up in the morning not feeling rested.

There are mechanical, medical, and surgical treatment options available for people that suffer from the condition.

Sleep Paralysis
This is one of the most troubling sleep disorders that exists and is similar to night terrors in some ways. Sleep paralysis is when the mind wakes up but the body does not. This literally means that you can wake up in the middle of the night and be fully aware of the fact you're awake but are totally unable to move, speak or even make eye movements. Sleep paralysis can also be accompanied by hallucinations of ghosts or other entities and also with hearing voices.

Sleeping facing upwards, stress, broken sleeping patterns and sleep deprivation are commonly believed to be causes of sleep paralysis. The interruption of a lucid dream can also cause this disorder.

Sleep Walking
The medical term for this is somnabulism and involves a person walking around or doing other things while they're still asleep. A sleepwalker normally won't remember anything they did while they were asleep which of course can be dangerous in the case of children or somebody else to watch the sleepwalker. Sleepwalking is something you find in people of all ages but it normally affects children and young teenagers - people tend to grow out of it after that.

Narcolepsy
This condition causes the sufferer to suddenly fall asleep without any prior warning. The narcoleptic has no control over this and will often have no idea they'd fallen asleep at all. Narcolepsy is rare but because of it's sudden and unexplained nature it's one of the most worrying types of sleep disorder. The condition itself is often treated with anti-depressants and, amazingly enough, can even be found in dogs and cats!

Night Terrors
If you can imagine your worth possible nightmare and then multiply it by 10 then you probably have an idea of the fear people endure when they get a night terror. During a night terror it's pretty much impossible to wake the person having the night terror up. Most disturbingly a night terror is usually accompanied by crying, moaning and screaming. This condition is usually only temporary and will last just a few days or weeks but for an unlucky few it can last their entire lives.