Most of us might have experienced trouble sleeping at least once in our lifetime. Generally, sleep disorder is caused due to changes in our normal routine, stress, tiredness, or any other illness. But continuous sleep irregularities can interfere with your daily life and can cause serious diseases or sleep disorders. More than just sleep deprivation, trouble sleeping can create a serious impact on mental and physical health, leading to weight gain, memory issues and affects your mood. Don’t panic! You need not spend your whole life with a sleeping problem. A few things out there will help you get a good night’s sleep and thus improve your health.
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Symptoms of Sleeping Disorder
Sleep disorder or trouble sleeping is the change in the way you sleep. If you ignore the irregularities in your sleep, it can affect your overall health and quality of life. Take some time to do some research and you can find several types of sleep disorders that affect your healthy life. Sleep disorders can be categorized with respect to the problems in your usual sleep-wake cycle, difficulty sleeping, behavioural changes, breathing problems and excessive sleepy feeling during the daytime.
Some of the signs and symptoms of sleep disorders include:
- Feeling irritable or drowsy during the day
- Falling asleep, heavy-eyed or tired during work or other activities
- Increased movement during night sleep
- Excessive snoring and breathing problems
- Difficulty concentrating and lack of energy
- Poor performance at work
- Depression and forgetfulness
- Slow response and reaction
- Impulsive behaviours, aggressive nature and over anxiety
- Daytime fatigue and difficulty staying awake
- Trouble controlling emotions
- Feeling to take a nap most of the daytime
- Behaviour disturbances and mood swings
What Causes Trouble Sleeping ?
According to the medical researches, a good number of diseases, health conditions and disturbances cause sleep disorders. In most cases, the sleep disturbances develop due to some hidden health issues. If not treated properly, your health will be at risk.
Stress and Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are found to be the main reasons for sleep deprivation. Both can create huge negative effects on your sleep cycle, leading to regular sleeping irregularities. Uncontrolled stress and anxiety can create difficulty to fall asleep during the night and you will feel tired during the whole day. Sleep talking, sleepwalking and nightmares which disrupt your night sleep are also caused by stress and anxiety.
Respiratory Problems
Sleep disturbances that involve trouble breathing during sleep can cause disrupted sleep and you will feel to stay awake. Difficulty breathing signals your brain to awake from sleep and forces the respiratory system to breathe harder and get over the breath obstruction. Cold, allergies, and other respiratory infections also create breathing problems, especially at night. The inability to respire through your nose and snoring can also cause trouble sleeping.
Body Pain
If you experience chronic and constant body pain, it can cause difficulty to fall asleep during the night. Severe pain can even wake you up in the midst of your sleep and spoil the whole night. The common causes of chronic pain include continuous back pain, arthritis, persistent headache, fatigue, fibromyalgia etc. In case of chronic muscle pain, painful joints, and fibromyalgia, it is advisable to go for ayurvedic treatment to get greater relief through lifestyle changes and proper medication.
Nocturia
Nocturia or frequent urination is greatly linked to sleep disorders. Nocturia disrupts your sleep and makes you awake during the night. Urinary infection and hormonal imbalances trigger this condition and spoil your sleep and health. Don’t be late to visit your doctor right away if you experience frequent urination accompanied by pain or bleeding.
Types of Sleep Disorders and Risks
Medical practitioners classify the sleep disorders into different types. In many cases, these sleep irregularities are caused by some other underlying health problems.
Insomnia
Insomnia is described as the inability to sleep. Stress and anxiety, hormonal changes, digestive problems, body pain etc are the common causes of insomnia. If untreated, insomnia can be troublesome for your healthy life causing weight gain, depression, mood swings, behavioural disturbances, impaired work etc.
Parasomnias
Parasomnia is a type of sleep disorder that cause abnormal behaviour and movements during sleep. The most common symptoms of parasomnia include sleepwalking, bedwetting, groaning, sleep talking, nightmares, teeth grinding and many other syndromes.
Sleep Apnea
Struggling with sleep deprivation or snoring? Call your family dentist or visit the nearest dental clinic. Sleep disruptions and snoring are the common signs of obstructive sleep apnea, and your dental health could be to blame. Sleep apnea is a serious condition that causes the body to intake less oxygen, leading to disturbed sleep during the night. The prime indicator of sleep apnea is tooth grinding.
Restless Leg Syndrome
Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is characterized by an uncontrollable urge to move the legs. This condition is most prevalent at night often accompanied by a tingling sensation on the legs. Though it is said that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Parkinson’s disease are associated with RLS, the exact reason for this syndrome is still unknown.
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that affects your ability to control sleep and wakefulness. Excessive daytime sleepiness is what people with narcolepsy experience. The most alarming fact is that the sudden ‘sleep attacks’ caused by narcolepsy can occur during any activity at the daytime. In most cases, narcolepsy is not diagnosed properly and therefore left untreated.
Treatments and Management
Treatments for sleep disturbances vary depending on the type of the disorder and its cause. Generally, with proper medication and changes in lifestyle, sleep disorders can be cured completely.
Common medications for sleep disorders
- Melatonin supplements
- Sleeping pills
- Medication for cold, allergy, and respiratory problems
- Medicines for other underlying health problems
- Surgery or breathing device for sleep apnea
- Dental guard to avoid tooth grinding
Change your Lifestyle
If you are ready to include some changes in your lifestyle, you can improve your quality of sleep and overall health condition. Follow these natural remedies to get rid of sleep disruptions.
- Stick to a regular sleeping schedule
- Include more vegetables and fish into your diet
- Avoid strenuous activities or work-loads to bedtime
- Reduce your anxiety and stress by regular exercise
- Engage in pleasant and relaxing activities
- Decrease your tobacco and alcohol consumption
- Drink less water just before your bedtime
- Reduce the intake of sugar and artificial sweeteners
- Eat low carbohydrate meals in smaller quantities before bedtime
- Reduce the intake of caffeinated drinks
- Practising yoga can help you get good sleep
- Drink green teas or herbal drinks such as Agarwood tea or Chamomile tea to deal with your stress and anxiety and get a long peaceful sleep.
- Avoid using mobile phones at bedtime
- Minimize noise, light, and temperature during sleep time.
Sound sleep is very important for the overall well-being of the human body. So keep a habit of going to bed and waking up at the same to get good night’s sleep regularly. If needed, get the help of a sleep specialist or our doctor to get adequate sleep at night.
