Sleep Disorders

What Are Sleep Disorders?

The topic of sleep disorders incorporates a very broad range of categories and disorders. Some sleep disorders cause patients to struggle getting to sleep, staying asleep or waking up. Some are a combination of all of these. Some sleep disorders cause patients to dream, walk or even complete comparatively complex actions during their sleep with no recollection of them when they awake the very next morning. Some people believe that sleep disorders are nothing more than an irritation, however, thousands of people die every year in accidents caused by fatigue.

Effects Of Sleep Disorders

The fatigue that is associated with many sleep disorders can lead to physical, mental and emotional stress and illness. Sleep deprivation can even cause hallucinations and delusion as well as affect eating patterns and living habits. Sleep disorders are a lot more serious than you might first think.

Dyssomnia Sleep Disorders

Dyssomnias are sleeping disorders that limit the amount of natural sleep that a person gets during the night. The causes can vary from physical problems to environmental problems but the result is almost always excessive drowsiness and fatigue during regular daytime hours.

Parasomnia Sleep Disorders

Parasomnias are sleeping disorders that mean the sufferer is partially aroused during sleep. The result is unusual behaviour or activity during a night's sleep. Often this activity is forgotten when the patient awakes in the morning. However, fatigue and tiredness during the day are also symptoms of these sleeping disorders.

Medical Sleep Disorders

Medical sleep disorders are associated with other illnesses or disorders. An example would be an inability to sleep because of poor breathing caused by asthma. An inability to sleep caused by psychiatric or neurological disorders also fall under the umbrella of medical sleep disorders, sometimes also referred to as psychiatric sleep disorders.

Proposed Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders that cannot be attributed to any of these particular categories or for which very little information is known fall under the heading of proposed sleep disorders.