What is a sleep disorder or sleep problem?

A sleep disorder is a condition that frequently impacts your ability to get enough quality sleep. Many of us occasionally experience difficulties sleeping. Usually it’s due to stress, travel, illness, or other temporary interruptions to your normal routine. However, if you regularly have problems getting to sleep at night, wake up feeling exhausted, or feel sleepy during the day, you may be suffering from a sleep disorder.

Sleep disorders cause more than just daytime sleepiness. They can take a serious toll on your mental and physical health, including your mood, energy, and ability to handle stress. Ignoring sleep problems and disorders can lead to weight gain, car accidents, impaired job performance, memory problems, and strained relationships. If you want to feel your best, stay healthy, and perform up to your potential, quality sleep is a necessity, not a luxury.

Frequently having trouble sleeping can be a frustrating and debilitating experience. You sleep badly at night, which leaves you feeling dead-tired in the morning and whatever energy you have quickly drains throughout the day. But then, no matter how exhausted you feel at night, you still have trouble sleeping. And so the cycle begins again. But you don’t have to live with a sleeping problem. There are many things you can do to identify the underlying causes of your sleep disorder and improve your sleep, health, and quality of life.

Signs and symptoms of a sleep disorder

Everyone experiences occasional sleeping problems, so how can you tell whether your difficulty is just a minor, passing annoyance or a sign of a more serious sleep disorder or underlying medical condition ?

Insomnia

Insomnia is the term for a difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep. There are two different types of insomnia. Transient or short-term insomnia and chronic insomnia.

Transient or Short-Term Insomnia. This type of insomnia often occurs in the aftermath of a stressful life event — for example, losing a loved one or going through relationship issues. It can also happen if you work shifts or have jet lag. You might be unable to relax, experience disturbed sleep, and may be unable to pinpoint any real reason for your inability to sleep.

Chronic Insomnia. Chronic insomnia is characterized by experiencing non-restorative sleep, having difficulty falling asleep and maintaining sleep for at least one month. You feel exhausted during the day. If you have chronic intermittent insomnia, you experience a sleeping pattern where you have a few nights of good sleep alternating with many nights of insomnia.

Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious yet common sleep disorder. Your airway repeatedly becomes blocked, and you’ll stop breathing. When this occurs, you might make choking noises or will snore loudly. You wake up as your body and brain are oxygen deprived. You may find this happens once or twice a night. However, it can happen hundreds of times a night in severe cases.

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy causes you to suddenly fall asleep at any time no matter where you are. Often times, you fall asleep uncontrollably during unusual circumstances, such as while eating. People with narcolepsy are unable to regulate their sleep-wake cycle.

Restless Legs Syndrome

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) presents as an uncontrollable urge or desire to maneuver your legs while you’re resting. You could also experience unpleasant aching, tingling, burning, and a feeling that something is crawling in your calves. Sometimes you feel these uncomfortable sensations in other body parts.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

When you have REM sleep behavior disorder, you act out your dreams while you sleep. You lack the muscle paralysis most people experience while asleep. When the condition causes danger to you or anyone around you, it’s taken particularly seriously.

Tracking your symptoms

The first step to overcoming a sleep disorder or problem is identifying and carefully tracking your symptoms and sleep patterns.

Keep a sleep Diary

A sleep diary can pinpoint day and nighttime habits that may contribute to your problems at night. Keeping a record of your sleep patterns and problems will also prove helpful if you eventually need to see a sleep doctor.

Your sleep diary should include:

The details can be important, revealing how certain behaviors can be ruining your chance for a good night’s sleep. After keeping the diary for a week, for example, you might notice that when you have more than one glass of wine in the evening, you wake up during the night.

Self-help for sleep disorders

While some sleep disorders may require a visit to the doctor, you can improve many sleeping problems on your own.

Improve your daytime habits. Regardless of your sleep problems, sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, getting regular exercise, limiting your intake of caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine, and managing stress will translate into better sleep over the long term.

Develop a relaxing bedtime routine to prepare your mind and body for sleep. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, and cool, avoid heavy meals and too many fluids late at night, take a warm bath, read, or listen to soothing music to unwind, and turn off screens at least one hour before bedtime.

Get back to sleep when you wake up at night. Whether you have a sleep disorder or not, it’s normal to wake briefly during the night. If you’re having trouble getting back to sleep, try focusing on your breathing, meditating, or practicing another relaxation technique. Make a note of anything that’s worrying you and resolve to postpone worrying about it until the next day when it will be easier to resolve.

When to call a doctor

If you’ve tried a variety of self-help remedies without success, schedule an appointment with a sleep specialist or ask your family doctor for a referral to a sleep clinic, especially if:

• Your main sleep problem is daytime sleepiness and self-help hasn’t improved your symptoms.
• You or your bed partner gasps, chokes, or stops breathing during sleep.
• You sometimes fall asleep at inappropriate times, such as while talking, walking, or eating.

Provide your doctor with as much supporting information as possible, including information from your sleep diary.

What to expect at a sleep clinic or center

A specialist will observe your sleep patterns, brain waves, heart rate, rapid eye movements and more using monitoring devices attached to your body. While sleeping with a bunch of wires attached to you might seem difficult, most patients find they get used to it quickly.

The sleep specialist will then design a treatment program if necessary. A sleep center can also provide you with equipment to monitor your activities (awake and asleep) at home.