Sleep Medicine
Insufficient sleep has been linked to the onset of and correlates with a number of chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression. Insufficient sleep also contributes to motor vehicle crashes and machinery-related accidents, causing substantial injury and disability each year.
Why is Sleep Important?
Sleep is essential for a person’s health and wellbeing. Yet millions of people do not get enough sleep and many suffer from lack of sleep. Latest surveys by prominent institutions indicate that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders and 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems a few nights a week or more. Most of those with these problems go undiagnosed and untreated. In addition, more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month – with 20 percent reporting problem sleepiness a few days a week or more. Furthermore, 69 percent of children experience one or more sleep problems a few nights or more during a week.
Although how much sleep is needed varies between individuals, most adults need 7–9 hours of sleep each night. More than a third of U.S. adults report sleeping less than 7 hours per night.3 Causes of insufficient sleep include lifestyle and occupational factors (e.g., access to technology and work hours). In addition, some medical conditions, medications, and sleep disorders affect the quantity and quality of sleep.
Services
Sleep Studies
Home Sleep Studies
CPAP Services
CPAP Compliance
Disorders
Insomnia
Problems Falling And Staying Asleep: Insomnia includes trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Episodes may come and go, last up to 3 weeks (be short-term), or be long-lasting (chronic).
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
Problems Staying Awake: People with excessive daytime sleepiness feel tired during the day. Symptoms that are not caused by a lack of sleep or interrupted sleep are called hypersomnia.
Causes include:
- Medical conditions such as fibromyalgia and low thyroid function
- Mononucleosis or other viral illnesses
- Narcolepsy and other sleep disorders
- Obesity, especially if it causes obstructive sleep apnea
- When no cause for the sleepiness can be found, it is called idiopathic hypersomnia.
Sleep Rhythm Problems
Problems Sticking To A Regular Sleep Schedule: Problems may also occur when you do not stick to a regular sleep and wake schedule. This occurs when people travel between time zones and with shift workers who are on changing schedules, especially nighttime workers.
Other disorders in this category include:
- Irregular sleep-wake syndrome
- Jet lag syndrome
- Paradoxical insomnia (the person sleeps a different amount than they think they do)
- Shift work Sleep Disorder
Sleep Disruptive Behaviors
Abnormal behaviors during sleep are called parasomnias. They are fairly common in children and include:
- Sleep terrors
- REM sleep-behavior disorder (a person moves during REM sleep and may act out dreams)
- Sleepwalking