Knowing If You Have a Sleep Disorder

There are many people who suffer with an undiagnosed sleep disorder.  They may feel very sleepy during the day, but may have trouble falling to sleep or staying asleep at night. Friends or relatives may tell them they look very tired. Some symptoms of not sleeping include irritability, mood changes and being over emotional for no reason. Often they have difficulty paying attention, concentrating, or remembering important things. These symptoms are all related to a sleep disorder due to sleep deprivation.

If you think you have a sleep disorder, ask yourself, what is wrong with your sleeping pattern. Do you have any of these problems:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Trouble staying awake
• Problem waking up in the morning
• Unusual behavior in your sleep

The diagnosis of a sleep disorder often lies in the answer to any of the above symptoms. If you can’t fall asleep it can mean a few things. There could be a problem when first going to bed, or after waking up in the middle of the night, or in the early morning hours.

Not being able to go to sleep when you do go to bed, is a common problem and some find help from an end tiredness program. Not being able to fall asleep is called sleep latency. Sleep latency can be a very serious symptom of certain sleep disorders, including sleep onset insomnia, delayed sleep phase disorder, shift work, restless leg syndrome, or paradoxical insomnia.

The problem is usually sleep fragmentation which is  when you cannot stay asleep.  Sufferers do not find it difficult to fall asleep, but wake up constantly throughout the night. Shift workers find it particularly hard to develop a sleep pattern and their disorder is called maintenance insomnia. If you wake up very early in the morning and find it impossible to go back to sleep it is a possible sign of sleep phase disorder or sleep maintenance insomnia.

If your problem is that you cannot stay awake, you may have narcolepsy, obstructive or central sleep apnea, limb movement, restless leg syndrome, shift work, or advanced sleep phase disorder.

Excessive asleep inertia is when you cannot wake up in the morning and take an hour or so to become fully awake. It is also known as excessive daytime sleepiness. They also have difficulty making the transition from sleep to being awake. Sleep disorders that could be responsible for excessive sleep inertia, are sleep apnea and delayed sleep phase disorder.

A person that does strange things in their sleep may find their sleep is full of surprises.

• Sleep walking
• Sleep terrors
• Waking up confused
• REM, ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ sleep behavior disorder
• Nightmares
• Sleep-related eating disorder
• Bruxism - grinding your teeth

People who do strange things in their sleep have a disorder known as parasomnia and they can sleep walk, wake up confused, have nightmares and generally have a sleep full of surprises. An end tiredness program review of your situation can help deterine if you have a sleep problem. As always if you are concerned with your health you should visit your medical practitioner for a full diagnosis.