Sleep Disorder

A proper sleep is a good way to live a healthy and happy life. Sleep is very important for every living thing as it helps the body to function effectively, in restoring the energy lost by the body, gives relaxation and also plays a major role in the growth and development.

Inability to sleep properly causes sleeping disorders, sleeping disorder is a medical disorder which disturbs the sleep patterns. Serious sleep disorders may lead to emotional, physical and mental abnormalities.

There are certain stages that a person goes through while in his sleep, known as non-rapid eye movement (non- REM) and rapid eye movement (REM) stages of sleep. REM sleep is a stage which is light. In this stage of sleep the sleeper is easily awaken. And it is considered as active sleep. During the REM the body starts breathing at a higher rate along with an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, where as the muscle tone is minimized. REM is said to be involved in brain development.  Sleep requirement varies for different ages.  Sleep requirements gradually tend to fall with the increase in age. New born infants need a 17 hour sleep per day where as in adulthood the sleep requirements fall to the night time sleep. And the tendency of falling asleep in daytime increases with the increasing age. At old age the sleeping requirements become more or less similar to that of young ones. With the increase in age the time spent in deep sleep reduces that is why older people are woken easily by noises and environmental factors. A study in California stated that sleepers with a sleeping time of 4-5hours die early. Sleep deprivation of up to three nights causes changes to the immune system and also creates a lack of attentiveness and alert behavior, motivation and mood is also affected, there might be short term memory losses as well. Sleep deprivation more this may be harmful to physical and mental health and might lead to death if taken to the extreme. People who have night shift jobs often develop problems of anxiety, depression and cardiovascular diseases. Sleep deficiency creates problems faced by an individual which include insomnia, jet lag, sleep apnoea, narcolepsy and restless legs syndrome.

Insomnia is when there are continuous difficulties in falling asleep and maintaining sleep, sleep apnoea is when breathing problems develop during sleep they might be obstructive, narcolepsy are sudden sleep attacks that may occur for a time being making an individual fall asleep any time, and an individual may also suffer from restless legs in which there is a high sense of discomfort in the legs and urge to keep the legs moving. There are many other problems that may include sleep paralysis which is characterized by temporary paralysis of the body shortly before or after sleep and sleep walking in which an individual engages in activities in sleep which are done while awake. Treatments for these disorders which develop with time might be done by taking naps in free time, through medication, rehabilitation, and behavioral as well as psychotherapeutic treatments. By judging and diagnosing the person’s severity of disorders.Sleep is very important for everyone and inability to have the required sleep may lead to sleeping disorders.