All Types of Sleeping Disorders are Treatable or Curable

Today is a good date to start improving your sleeping with a goal of treating and curing your sleeping disorder with a very welcome regular sleep pattern - Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep thru out the night? Do you often awaken feeling tired or feel real sleepy during the day, even if you have had enough sleep? If the answer is YES, you may have a sleep disorder. Below are the most common sleep disorders:

• Insomnia - hard time falling or staying asleep
• Sleep apnea - breathing interruptions during sleep
• Restless legs syndrome - tingling or prickly sensation in the legs
• Narcolepsy - daytime "sleep attacks"

Nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking, head banging, wetting the bed and grinding your teeth are kinds of sleep problems called parasomnias. There are treatments for most sleep disorders. Sometimes just having regular sleep habits can help.

Living with a sleep disorder can feel like you are fighting a losing battle. You may even begin to think that you will never be able to sleep well again. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Research continues to shed new light on the process of sleep. This helps doctors know how sleep disorders affect the human body. There is hope for you, even if you can’t remember the last time you had a good night of sleep.

Most adults need at least eight hours of sleep every night to be well rested. Not everyone gets the sleep they need. About 40 million people in the United States suffer from sleep problems every year.

Not getting enough sleep for a long time can cause health problems. For example, it can make problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure worse.

Many things can disturb your sleep such as:

• stress
• a sick child
• working long hours
• light or noise from traffic or TV
• feeling too hot or cold.
• wine, beer, or liquor

Insomnia includes the following:

• difficulty going to sleep
• having trouble getting back to sleep
• waking up too early.

Most people will have trouble falling asleep from time to time. It is usually little to worry about. Stress, like the loss of a job or a death in the family could cause problems falling asleep. Certain medicines can make it hard to go to sleep. Drinking alcohol or eating too close to bedtime can also keep you awake or slow to sleep.

Insomnia is called chronic, which means long-term when it lasts most nights for a few weeks or more. You should see your doctor if this happens. If you continue to have trouble sleeping, ask your doctor for help.

Treatments for Sleeping Disorders

Taking medicine together with some changes to your routine can help most people with insomnia. Certain drugs work in the brain to help promote sleep.

Tips for Better Sleep

• Go to bed and get up at the same times each day.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, beer, wine and liquor four to six hours before bedtime.
• Don’t exercise within two hours of bedtime.
• Don’t eat large meals within two hours of bedtime.
• Don’t nap later than 3 p.m.
• Sleep in a dark, quiet room that isn’t too hot or cold for you.
• If you can’t fall asleep within 20-minutes, get up and do something quiet.
• Wind down in the 30 minutes before bedtime by doing something relaxing.

Feeling Sleepy During the Day

Feeling tired every now and then is normal. It is not normal for sleepiness to interfere with your daily life. Watch for signs like:

• slowed thinking
• trouble paying attention
• heavy eyelids
• feeling cranky

Several sleep disorders can make you sleepy during the day. One of these is narcolepsy. People with narcolepsy feel very sleepy even after a full night’s sleep.

It is normal to take between 10 and 20 minutes to fall asleep. People who fall asleep in less than five minutes may have a serious sleep disorder.

Snoring

Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep. It is caused by vibrating in the throat. Some people can make changes that will stop snoring. These include:

• losing weight
• cutting down on smoking and alcohol, and
• sleeping on your side instead of on your back

Treatment for Snoring

You can buy over-the-counter nasal strips to help prevent snoring. You place one over your nose before going to bed to make breathing easier.

Sleep Apnea

Snoring loud and often, together with too much daytime sleepiness, may be signs of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a very common sleep disorder. It is also very dangerous. The most common type of sleep apnea happens when your breathing stops during sleep. It can stop for about 10 seconds to as long as a minute. You wake up trying to breathe. This stop-and-start cycle of waking to breathe can repeat hundreds of times a night. The danger is that some time you may not wake up to breathe. If this happens, you can die.

You are likely to feel sleepy during the day if you have this problem. People with sleep apnea tend to be overweight. It is more common among men than women.

Treatment for Sleep Apnea:

• The most common treatment is a device to force air thru the airway. This device is called a CPAP.
• Avoid beer, wine, liquor, tobacco, and sleeping pills.
• Your doctor may also suggest you lose weight.
• In some cases, you may need surgery to make the airway bigger.

Health Websites of Interest

America's Health

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Aspergers

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