Sleep Disorders and Its Causes

Sleep disorders are disturbances of a person’s sleep cycle or the quality of sleep. Based on statistics, approximately 40 million Americans are believed to suffer from chronic sleep disorders, with millions more affected on an occasional manner. Doctors have defined more than 70 different types of sleep disorders.

Below are some of the most common sleep disorders and its definition.

Insomnia – it is the sense of poor quality sleep, including the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. Since people differ in their required amount of sleep, there are no fixed standard that define insomnia. Insomnia is very common among Americans and in fact, it occurs in 30 percent t 50 percent of the general population. Nearly 10 percent of the population may suffer from chronic (long standing) insomnia.

Sleep apnea – it is characterized by a reduction or pause of breathing during sleep. Central Sleep apnea occurs when the brain failed to send signal to the muscles to breath. As a result of which, no muscular effort to take a breath occurs.

Moreover, in obstructive sleep apnea, the brain sends the signal to the muscles but although the muscles make an effort to take a breath, the process becomes unsuccessful because of the airway that becomes obstructed and prevents an adequate flow of air.  Meanwhile, in mixed sleep apnea, it is when both central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea take place.

Restless leg syndrome – it is also referred to as nocturnal myoclonus. It is characterized by uncomfortable sensations in the legs and an uncontrollable desire to move the legs. The abnormal sensation commonly occurs in the lower legs shortly after going to bed and during the early stages of sleep, these series of leg movement often last up to an hour. The abnormal sensations brought by the RLS are quite inconsistent. Sensations are in fact described as crawling, creeping, pulling, drawing, tingling, pins and needles or prickly discomfort. However, cramping is not included in its character.

Narcolepsy – it is a disease of the central nervous system that eventually resulted uniformly in excessive daytime sleepiness. The disease is characterized by loss of muscle tone called cataplexy, distorted perceptions called hypnagogic hallucination and the inability to move ot talk called sleep paralysis. Other symptoms of narcolepsy include disturbed sleep and automatic behaviors. Unfortunately, the affected person carries out certain actions without their consciousness. All of the said symptoms of the disease may be present in various combinations and degrees of severity.

Some sleep disorders can be treated with natural sleep remedies. However, in severe cases, it is strongly recommended to seek medical attention from professionals to give you the right prescription. 

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Smoking and Head Injury Linked to Rare Sleep Disorder

According to a research published in the June 27, 2012 online issue of Neurology, smoking, head injury, pesticide exposure, farming and lack of education may be risk factors for a rar sleep disorder that results to kicking or punching of a person during sleep. Neurology is the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

People with a sleep behavior disorder called REM do not have the usual lack of muscle tone that takes place during rapid eye movement or REM sleep, enabling them to act out their dreams. Sometimes, the movement can be violent, causing injury to the person itself or to their bed partner. The disorder is approximately to occur in 0.5 percent of adults.

The study’s author, Ronald B. Postuma, MD, MSc, said that until present, he and his co-researchers do not know much about the risk factors for the disorder, except the fact that the disorder is more common in men and in older adults. Postuma is with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montreal and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. Postuma further claimed that since it is a rare disorder, it was difficult to gather information about enough patients for a full study. In fact, Postuma and his team worked with 13 institutions in 10 countries to get a completely analyse the disorder.

The disorder can likewise be a forerunner to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and a kind of dementia. Studies have revealed that more than 50 percent of people with REM sleep behavior disorder continue to develop a neurodegenerative disorder after several years and even decades.

Due to the said correlation, the researchers claimed that they wanted to further investigate to determine whether the risk factors for REM sleep behavior disorder were similar to those for Parkinson’s disease or dementia.

The results were mixed. While smoking has found to be a shielding factor for Parkinson’s disease, people who smoked were found to be more possibly to develop REM sleep behavior disorder. Meanwhile, exposure to pesticide is a risk factor for both disorders. Studies have presented that people who drink caffeinated drinks are less possibly to develop Parkinson’s disease. However, the study found no relationship between drinking coffee and REM sleep behavior disorder.

The study includes 347 people with REM sleep behavior disorder and another 347 people who did not have the disorder. 218 of which had other sleep disorders and some 129 had no sleep disorders.

Those participants with REM sleep behavior disorder were 43 percent more possibly to be smokers, with 64 percent of those with the disorder having ever smoked, compared to 56 percent of those without the disorder. Participants were 59 percent more possibly to have had a head injury with loss of consciousness from the past, 67 percent were more possibly to have worked as farmers and more than twice as possibly to have been exposed to pesticides through work. Also, those with the disorder had lesser years of education, with an average 11.1 years, compared to 12.7 years for those without the disorder.

In such circumstances of rare sleep disorder, natural sleep remedies seems to be far impossible to resolve the problem. Further studies are definitely needed for the treatment of such disorder.

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Does Sleep Deprivation Really Impose Cancer Risk?

Having cancer is a probably the worst thing that may ever happen to one’s life even if the disease was diagnosed at its early stage and treatable. For the time being, discovering treatment for the disease are still underway.

Surprisingly, several experts speculated that there have been connections made between sleep and cancer.  

There is no doubt that getting the right amount of sleep is beneficial for both healthy people and those who are fighting against cancer. However, there is firm evidence that people who sleep less than six hours a night could be more possibly to have dangerous polyps in their colon or rectum compared to those who are well-rested. In a study published by the journal, Cancer last October, it showed that there was a link found between sleep duration and risk of polyps, which are directly associated with the risk of colon cancer.

Polyps is the abnormal growths detected through a colonoscopy. It can develop and become cancerous tumors. In fact, it exactly happens in about 10 percent of most cases.

According to the National Cancer Institute, this year, more than 140,000 Americans was foreseen to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and some 51,000 of which will die from the disease.

Researchers at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland studied 1240 men and women who visit their hospital for regular schedule of colonoscopy. The researchers found out that 338 of the said figure have polyps. It accounts for 27 percent of the total number of participants.

The researchers analyzed the sleeping patterns of the participants and found a higher rate of polyps in people who reported having sleep deprivation or less than 6 hours of sleep a night than those who sleep seven or more hours every night.

The difference in sleep time between the polyp patients and those without the lesions was actually small, in fact, it is only an average of 19 minutes. However, more polyp patients admitted they slept for much less than six hours, while some said they slept more than seven hours.

Nevertheless, people should not be alarmed since even if this newly discovered association is underlying, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have colon cancer.  The study only shows that sleep deprivation can be a cause of polyps to occur. Also, the study reflects the fact that those people who do not get the right amount of sleep at night might have the same chance for developing colorectal cancer like the others who are at high risk for illnesses.

The researchers further remind people that the said study is just one in a thousand of studies to come.

It is no longer surprising if sleep deprivation can cause polyps that can be more likely to result in cancer in the future since we all know that sleep deprivation can cause a lot of health threats to one’s health. Therefore, to prevent all illnesses that may occur, stop the main root of all problems, the sleep deprivation by taking natural sleep aids.

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Change your Bad Sleeping Habits

Bad sleeping habits are usually the most common problems encountered within our modern society. People used to stay up to late and get up too early. Most often, drugs, chemicals and work are factors that interrupt sleep and people tend to over-stimulate themselves until midnight.

Below are some important sleeping habits to replace your old and harmful way. Some of this may seem like common-sense but are commonly disregard by many.

Set a regular bed time and wake up time

Don’t allow bedtime and awakening time to drift. Set a proper regular proper time of sleeping and be sure that you can get the right amount of sleeping time that your body need. The body “gets used” to falling asleep at a specific time. However, it will only happen when you are sleeping at a fixed time. Sleeping is very essential whether you are a student, working or even retired.

Avoid napping during daytime

If you sleep throughout the day, it is no longer surprising if you will not be able to sleep at night. Usually, late afternoon is the time when most people feel so sleepy. Thus, people will take a nap at that time. This is not actually a bad thing to do, but thirty-minutes to one hour of sleep will do for your sleepy head so that you can still have a good night sleep.

Avoid alcohol a few hours before bedtime

When talking about alcohol, people usually believe that alcohol helps them sleep but it is actually a false belief. I few hours after an alcohol intake, you will feel its wake-up effect as the alcohol level in your blood starts to fall.

Avoid caffeine and other stimulating foods before sleeping time

It’s no doubt caffeine has a stimulating effect into the body. Drinks with caffeine include coffee, tea, sodas. Meanwhile, stimulating foods includes spicy foods, sweets and chocolate. Said foods can affect a person ability to sleep.

Have a regular exercise but not before bed time

Regular exercise particularly in the afternoon can help you to have a deep sleep during night. However, a strenuous exercise a couple of hours before bedtime can give you a hard time to sleep.

Bad sleeping habits can bring s lot of health risk to a person. Even if you are taking natural sleep aids to help you sleep, it would be non-sense if you are not practicing proper sleeping habits.

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Effect of Sleep Deprivation to Immune System Presents Physical Stress

A study looks at white blood cell counts after 29 hours of continuous wakefulness. Severe sleep deprivation shocks a person’s immune system into action, presenting the same type of prompt response revealed during exposure to stress, according to a new study.

Researchers from Netherlands and United Kingdom compared the white blood cell counts of 15 healthy young men under normal condition and severely sleep-deprived conditions. The great differences were seen in the white blood cells commonly known as granulocytes. It revealed a loss of day and night
rhythmicity, together with increased numbers, especially at night.

Future study will show the molecular mechanisms behind this immediate stress response and investigate its role in the development of diseases related with chronic sleep loss, according to the study’s lead author, Katrin Ackermann, Phd. Ackerman further said that if the study will be confirmed with more data, it will definitely have implications for clinical practice and for professions that comes with long-term sleep loss like rotating shift work.

Previous researches have linked sleep restriction and sleep deprivation with the development of diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Others have revealed that sleep helps achieve the functioning of the immune system, and that severe sleep deprivation is a risk factor for immune system deficiency.

For the said study, white blood cells were categorized and observed from 15 young men following a strict schedule of eight hours of sleep each day for the entire week. The participants were exposes to at least 15 minutes of outdoor light within the first 90 minutes after waking up and refrain from taking alcohol, caffeine or medication during the last three days of the study. All of which was designed to alleviate their circadian clocks and minimize sleep deprivation before a thorough clinical study. 

White blood cell counts in a normal sleep and wake cycle were compared to the numbers produced during the second part of the study, in which blood samples were collected during 29 hours of continual wakefulness.

Ackerman and her team eventually concluded that granulocytes quickly reacted to the physical stress of sleep loss and directly reflected the body’s stress response. Ackerman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Eramus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

There are lots of effective ways to avoid sleep deprivation such as over the counter sleeping aids and other sleep inducing foods.

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