You Suffering From A Sleep Disorder Or Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation in America has become a larger problem than most will admit. It is estimated that
Between fifty and eighty million people are suffering from sleep deprivation at this moment and that
Most people will experience sleep deprivation sometime in their lives. Of course there are many
Reasons and at varying levels that people will be affected. But do you know the difference between sleep deprivation and a sleep disorder? One is a result of and the other is the reason for.

In other words you could have insomnia, which is a sleep disorder, and suffer sleep deprivation, which is the result. For more details www.activities-small-fingers.com The reason I make this distinction is because too many people believe that they are suffering from a sleep disorder when they start missing sleep but when you carefully diagnose the problem, it might not be a disorder.

A simple example is: a dog is barking outside your window at night keeping you awake. After a few nights of this, you are experiencing sleep deprivation. Stop the dog from barking and you solve your problem. Unlike a sleep disorder, which could result from a psychological or physical issue in your life, sleep deprivation is the result.

Unfortunately a major problem today is too many people go undiagnosed and will not get the necessary treatment for their problem. So it is vital to recognize what is causing you to have sleep deprivation in order to seek the right treatment. Sleep deprivation can turn into a disorder, like insomnia, if you don’t get help. It can start as a mild case where you lose sleep for a few nights to a severe case where you are losing sleep for weeks or even months. So it is imperative that you examine what’s going on in your life to seek the cause.

Are you going through a stressful time and are doing a lot of worrying? Most people who are experiencing a stressful time in their life lose sleep because they lie awake all night thinking of their problems and their minds become their worst enemy.

Could it be something deeper that you can’t easily recognize? You should always seek a doctor’s help for both identifying your issue and remedies to take care of it. Sometimes it’s as simple as taking some sleep medication for a small period of time to get you back into a natural sleep cycle. For more details www.tips-getting-healthy.com The main point is to identify the underlying cause and then seek alternatives that can help.

Remember there are dozens of sleep disorders out there such as insomnia, apnea, night sweats, and so much more. The key is to identify the underlying cause and recognize that if you are loosing sleep over an extended period of time, you are suffering from more than just sleep deprivation, you are suffering from a sleep disorder. Seek medical help in determining just what it is and you can buy the proper treatment.

Get Rid of Sleep Deprivation For Good

Sleep deprivation can have serious effects on a person’s health. It can affect a person physically and mentally. It will affect your ability to reckon, deal with stress, and keep your immune system healthy. Concentration can drop and memory can become impaired from long term sleep deprivation. Problem solving skills are disabled and choice making skills are compromised as well. Getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night is what most people need to be well rested and healthy.

Long term sleep deprivation can also cause hallucinations in severe cases. Slurred speech, depression, irritability, and slowed reactions times can happen as well. You can also get hypertension and heart disease too from sleep deprivation.

Older people tend to be more susceptible to sleep deprivation than younger people. Hormone changes and physical changes that happen as we age are likely the cause of this. For example menopausal women are going through many changes and sleep deprivation is very common among women. Most problems that older people have is the ability to get deep restorative sleep.

Dramatic weight changes have common effects of sleep deprivation. More commonly weight gain than weight loss. Not allowing enough time for sleep will cause sleep deprivation as well. Repeatedly getting awoken from loud noises, working at night, traveling across time zones, medical illnesses that cause pain and difficulty breathing can all cause sleep deprivation.

Certain sleep disorders can cause sleep deprivation. Obstructive sleep apnea is a very common disorder where there is an obstruction of the nose and throat because of enlarged tonsils or a deviated nasal septum. This disease can cause pauses in breathing while sleeping , snoring, morning headaches, and daytime fatigue. Nocturnal myoclonus is t he jerking of legs while sleeping that causes small awakening. It causes insomnia and daytime fatigue. Narcolepsy is a rare sleep disorder of dream sleep, the main symptom of it is uncontrollable sleep during the day.

Decreased productivity and car or work accidents result from sleep deprivation. If sleep deprivation becomes too much of a problem it may be best to go to the doctor to prevent and accidents. Accidents are most likely to happen in the mid afternoon and in the early morning hours. Adding naps in the afternoon may prevent accidents from happening through it will just add to sleeplessness in the night.

There are treatments available to help with sleep deprivation. Keeping a sleep diary can help you and your doctor determine the cause of sleeplessness. Include any medications taken, any stressful situations, date, time, and what you ate that day, whether you exercised or not, and lastly add how you slept the night before and how it affected you during the day.

Hypnosis may be helpful; it has been used for years to treat many disorders. It will benefit a person that has sleep deprivation related to emotional issues, anxiety, and stress. In cases where physical impairment causes sleep deprivation surgery may be the only way to treat it. Surgery is limited to treating sleep apnea. These surgeries involve areas such as the throat and nose.

Alternative Health Supplements offers a variety of sleep aids that can also give relief from sleeplessness. Sleep and Relax Tea by Bell. It has all natural ingredients like chamomile, spearmint leaves, citronella herb, passionflower herb, orange flowers, linden leaves, and valerian root. This product will relax you and give you a well rested feeling in the morning. It even tastes fantastic.

Sleep Deprivation and Traffic Accidents

Ten years ago, a former colleague of mine, a fine teacher and person, was tragically killed in a car accident in British Columbia. He was on vacation with his daughter who miraculously survived the accident. What happened was a classic case of sleep deprivation: my friend was nervous to make his way to a chosen destination and despite his fatigue and the fact that he had been on the road for over 6 hours, he made the choice to drive through the night. He never made it there.

That there is a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and traffic accidents cannot be disputed. In 1998, 24,318 deaths were cited from accidents related to sleep deprivation in the US. There were as well 2, 474,430 disabling injuries resulting from accidents where decreased mental efficiency and attentiveness due to sleep loss was the major causative factor. In fact, a major review conducted in 1996 suggested that the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez, the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl( costing over 50,000 lives) and the near nuclear accidents at the Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom reactors were all associated with sleep deprivation of the personnel involved.

Sleep deprivation is often caused by sleep disorders which are unknown to the subjects themselves. Sleep apnea, for example, is a common cause for sleep deficit. A study at the Sleep Disorders and Research Center of Stanford University Medical School showed that truck drivers identified with sleep disordered breathing had a two-fold higher accident rate than drivers without sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep disordered breathing, commonly known as sleep apnea, affects 15 million people in the United States. This condition, characterized by suffocation and oxygen deprivation which wake the subjects up several times in the course of the night, is responsible for daytime sleepiness and fatigue. Place these subjects on the highway and we have a recipe for disastrous traffic accidents.

Perhaps an examination of the influence sleep deprivation has on our mental acuity and performance level can shed light on how we can protect ourselves and others from the disastrous consequences of sleep fatigue.

What happens to you when you are sleep deprived? According to the Traffic Research Center, these are the influences of sleep deprivation on performance:

a) Slower reaction time: sleeplessness slows down your reflexes; reaction time slows down, preventing you from stopping in times of danger.

b) Decrease in concentration levels: When you are overly tired, your attention span decreases. Most people are subject to a decrease in attention every 90-120 minutes; but, sleepiness makes this decrease even worse and it can cause accidents when you fall asleep at the wheel.

c) Disorder in information processing: Sleepiness is very much like being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When you are sleepy, your mental and psychomotor skills diminish. In one study, a group of subjects were kept awake for 28 hours; another group was given alcoholic drinks every half hour. When both groups were tested for hand-eye coordination, the ones who were sleep deprived performed equally terrible as the ones with 0.5 blood alcohol level.

What are the factors that have a direct effect on a driver’s tiredness?

a) The amount of time the driver has been on the road. When a driver has been on the road for 8 or more hours, his driving performance is impaired. The risk of accidents increases.

b) The amount of sleep the driver had the night before. Not having any sleep for 16 hours has a serious impact on driving performance. Research shows that the sleeping period of drivers who are involved in road accidents are shorter than the ones of those who had sufficient sleep.

c) Sleep disorders and Obesity. Sleep disorders like sleep apnea or narcolepsy in truck drivers are a major risk factor. In the same Stanford University Study mentioned above, even weight can seriously affect the frequency of traffic accidents. Obese drivers with a body mass more than 30 kg also presented a two-fold higher accident rate than non-obese drivers.

d) Environmental factors. The lack of resting and parking facilities for drivers is another factor that contributes to the accident rate.

What can we do to ensure that we get adequate sleep?

a) Set up a bedtime ritual—the same time to bed, the same routines like reading in bed or listening to relaxing music.

b) See your doctor if you have snoring or breathing problems, daytime fatigue, morning headaches, night time choking episodes. You could have sleep apnea which can be treated with new devices and technology.

c) If you are overweight, take the steps to bring down your weight. Obesity is a common factor in sleeplessness.

d) Get into a routine of exercise during the day. Do not exercise after 7Pm as the activity could be over stimulating and prevent you from sleeping.

A simple thing like sleep is nothing to be dismissed. More and more studies are revealing a direct link between our nighttime and daytime experiences.

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