Sleep Disorder or Not Enough Sleep - A night of disrupted sleep can ruin your whole day❗

Sleep Disorder or Not Enough Sleep - A night of disrupted sleep can ruin your whole day❗

***There is an old Irish proverb that says:

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything.”

Sleep is essential for good physical and mental health. While we are sleeping, our brain and body don’t just shut down. Internal organs and processes are hard at work throughout the night. Our body releases hormones during sleep that help repair cells and control the body's energy use, lower the risk of serious health problems like diabetes and heart disease, reduce stress, improve our mood, think more clearly, do better at work, and get along better with people.

Sleep disorders are issues with the type, quantity, quality, and timing of sleep that cause distress during the day and cause functional impairment. Sleep disorders or not getting the proper amount of sleep leads to more than just feeling tired. It interferes with cognitive function, which can lead to learning disabilities in children, memory impairment, attention deficiency, personality changes, anxiety, and depression in people of all ages. Sleep loss can also adversely affect life by contributing to the development of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Sleep disturbance also interferes with people’s interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.

❇️ How Common are Sleep Disorders❓

After the COVID-19 outbreak inception, the prevalence of sleeping disorders especially insomnia is increasingly observed in Bangladesh. Suffering from sleep problems is higher among women compared to men; among urban residents compared to rural and among anxious persons compared to non-anxious persons.

❇️ How Many Types of Sleep Disorders are There❓

If we like to categorize this there can be several types. Insomnia disorder, Hypersomnolence disorder, Narcolepsy, Breathing-related sleep disorders, Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake disorders, Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep arousal disorders, Nightmare disorder, Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, Restless legs syndrome, Substance/medication-induced sleep disorder. Let’s just talk in detail about the types of sleep disorders.

➡️ Insomnia Disorder: People who are suffering from this kind of disorder often cannot sleep properly or feel difficulty falling asleep or have dissatisfaction after sleep. This lasts for months and they have negative thoughts about their sleep.

➡️ Hypersomnolence: Self-reported excessive sleep and this is not normal. If this condition lasts for three days per week and more than 3 months then we can call it hypersomnolence.

➡️ Narcolepsy: Recurrent periods of an irrepressible need to sleep, lapsing into sleep, or napping occurring within the same day. These must have occurred at least thrice per week over the past 3 months. With other symptoms, this can be narcolepsy.

The most common sleeping disorder is insomnia. People with the disorder suffer a lot as they do not get enough sleep and often remain dizzy during the day. It also affects their mood and they feel irritated almost every day.

❇️ The Major Causes of Sleep Disorder

Sleep problems can be caused by various factors. Although the causes might differ, the result of all sleep disorders is that the body's natural cycle of slumber and daytime wakefulness is disrupted or exaggerated. Factors include:

➡️ Physical (such as arthritis and headache, asthma, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, diabetes, heart diseases, and sleep apnea.

➡️ Psychological (such as Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, ADD/ADHD, Restless Thyroid Imbalances Leg Syndrome, and Hormonal Issues.

➡️ Environmental (such as alcohol).

➡️ Medication (the medicines that act on the central nervous system such as benzodiazepines, non-benzodiazepines receptor agonists, antidepressants, etc.)

➡️ Aging (about half of all adults over the age of 65 have some sort of sleep disorder).

❇️ When it is a Disorder❓

➡️ Everyone can experience problems with sleep from time to time. However, sleep disorders conditions have three primary symptoms:

- Challenges falling asleep: Inability to fall asleep beyond 20-30 minutes.

- Inability to maintain sleep: frequent waking during the night after sleep onset beyond 20-30 minutes, and difficulty returning to sleep after midnight waking.

- Early morning wakefulness: waking at least 30 minutes before the desired time and before sleep reaches 6.5 hours.

➡️ Other DSM-5 sleep disorder criteria necessary for diagnosis include:

- Sleep difficulty is present at least 3 nights per week and for at least 3 months.

- You’re unable to sleep even with ample opportunity.

- No other physical health conditions explain the sleep disorder experience.

❇️ How Much Sleep is Necessary❓

How much sleep you need changes with age. Experts recommend school-age children get at least 9-10 hours a night and teens get between 8-10. Most adults need at least 7 hours or more of sleep each night.

❇️ How are Sleep Disorders Treated❓

➡️ Psychotherapy and Counseling: Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is very helpful to prevent negative cognitions associated with sleep. Also, psychotherapy works on the mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and other mental health diseases that are associated with sleep disorders.

➡️ Medications and/or supplements: (With the advice of a doctor, some sort of medicine is useful e.g. Tab. Fill fresh 3 mg.)

➡️ Sleep Hygiene: Famous research findings on sleep carried out by Oxford University (2017) suggested the following things to medicate sleep disorders.

- Stimulus control therapy- 20 minutes

- Get up at a fixed time

- Avoid stimuli after 5 pm

- Late afternoon or early evening exercise

- Keep the bedroom dark, quiet, and comfortable. Temperature between 17-20 degrees

- Dinner before 8 pm and no phone after 8 pm

- Use the bed for only sleep and sex

- Take a hot shower before bed

- The best quality of sleep is between 9 pm to 3 am. Try to sleep at least for 4 hours in between this time.

❇️ How MindShaper Counselors Can Help you❓

You can seek treatment from a mental health care service on your own. If you want to know more about the reason for your sleeping problem, we have our experts and some psychological interventions for the sleeping disorder at MindShaper that you may try or recommend to a friend or family member who suffers from sleeping problems or any mental health conditions that are associated with this disorder.

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