Sleep disorders and their causes

Normal sleep is vital for every person.

Many people take this issue lightly and do not appreciate their healthy sleep until they themselves face various disorders. The lack of quality rest for a long time definitely leads to negative consequences: first of all, our cognitive abilities decrease. At the same time, the brain adapts to the changed functional capabilities, and we can not understand that something is wrong with us. Problems become apparent only by signs such as problems with memory, attention, and so on.

What is considered a sleep disorder

Many people suffer from sleep disorders. In Russia, statistics on this issue are not kept, in the UK, this problem is faced by about 30% of the population, in the United States, according to various sources, from 25 to 60%. Sleep disorders include the following problems:

problems with falling asleep, when a person can not fall asleep for a long time;

night awakenings;

early morning rises, after which you do not feel rested;

daytime sleepiness, or hypersomnia.

When these disorders are functional, that is, occur more often than 1-2 times a week, they are not considered a medical problem. Usually they are caused by a downed regime or a nervous shock experienced. If sleep problems occur at least 2-3 times a week for several months or longer, this is a reason to seek help from a specialist.

Common causes of sleep disorders

About 80% of all problems associated with sleep are true insomnia, and here the psychogenic factor plays a role in the first place: a violation of the psychoemotional state leads to an increase in the intensity of the stress response system and to a failure of circadian rhythms.

The second most common cause is social jetlag: the disruption of circadian rhythms caused by our lifestyle. At a young age, when the compensatory capabilities of the body are great, we often neglect sleep and do not consider the downed regime a big problem. However, with age, lack of sleep begins to lead to serious problems. Also, social jetlag concerns people whose work is associated with constant flights and time zone changes, working the night shift, and so on. 

There are also those who artificially reduce sleep time, believing that to maintain efficiency, you do not need a full rest. Unfortunately, this is an illusion: normal cognitive abilities are preserved only when we provide enough sleep. At the same time, even one hour of lack of sleep for 4-5 days leads to the same consequences as a whole sleepless night. That is why it is important to observe the regime, and most people can do it, despite the popularity of the myth of larks and owls: in fact, early rises are a matter of habit, if we are not talking about extremely rare genetic disorders.

The third popular reason is various health disorders, both mental (depression, panic attacks, addictions, neuroses, and so on) and physical. In the latter case, we are talking about a whole range of diseases that directly or indirectly affect the quality of sleep: apnea, restless legs syndrome, rheumatic diseases, and so on.