Archive for November, 2007

Serious side effects are associated with sleep apnea. So, it is called as a life threatening disease. It can cause several physical and psychological problems besides the blood pressure and heart complications.

The latest research has proved that the risk of accidents have increased a lot in the patients who are suffering with sleep apnea. Hallucinations, depressions, mental confusion, fatigue and some psychotic disorders are most often seen in the person who is suffering with sleep apnea.

Due to these aspects, they will be loosing their peace of mind and lot of confusion will be obtained in their work. Due to lack of concentration with more confusion, people with sleep apnea are facing accidents.

If you are in rotating shifts, problems arise due to the disturbance in circadian rhythm.

Sleep/wake cycle is the major circadian rhythm involved.

The other major problem is social isolation of those people who work at the time while others sleep.

Biological and social problems associated with shift work:

If you are a shift worker, you can face physical problem of peptic ulcer eight times that of the normal worker. Shift workers also have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. [Shift Work and Heart Diseases]

The other physical problems that you can experience are excessive sleepiness, chronic fatigue, and difficulty in sleeping.

Divorce rates are also increased due to rotating shifts. If you are in rotating shifts, you are at increased risk of substance abuse and depression. You will also feel that your job is stressful. Due to shift work, accidents also increase.

Factors that cause problems in shift work:

Many body functions exhibit circadian rhythm, from the sleep/wake cycle to all of the important organs.

Sleep: Sleep is one of the important factors which have to be scheduled to prevent problems in shift work. Your sleep patterns follow a circadian rhythm.

You press, clench or grind your teeth against each other when you have bruxism.

You grind your teeth most often during nighttime and you will be completely unaware of the condition.

You can identify your bruxism by sore, tense, aching or clicking jaw, tender teeth, headaches, and uneven wear on the teeth.

How bruxism affects you?

If you have bruxism, you can get headaches and neck pain. Your teeth can be damaged or lost.

The teeth can fracture, break, and weaken which requires expensive treatment.

You can also experience irritation, jaw and muscle pain, cheek and jaw problems. Due to these physical problems, you can also experience emotional pain that includes anxiety, stress and depression.

How Hypnosis helps to get rid of bruxism?

Hypnosis is natural and effective way to stop tension in the jaw and grinding the teeth. Even if you wear mouth guard at night, you will still create tension and pressure that can result in headache and neck pain.

Are you waking up at night with tight jaw? Does your partner informed about your teeth grinding? Then consider hypnosis to make your jaw and neck relax for a good night sleep. Hypnosis helps to stop teeth grinding if you are grinding during day time also.

Hypersomnia is less common than insomnia and it is one-fourth increase of sleep in total sleep time.

There are many factors that can cause hypersomnia.

Hypersomnia characteristics vary from person to person depending on the age, lifestyle and other underlying causes.

Factors that can lead to hypersomnia condition:

• Environmental factors can disturb your sleep and can lead to hypersomnia. Factors such as snoring of your partner, outside noise, uncomfortable mattress, waking up of your baby, heat and cold conditions can disturb your nighttime sleep and increases excessive sleep during daytime.
• Mental condition like anxiety can keep you awake at night and makes you to sleep during daytime. Depression also disturbs your night time sleep.
• Medications such as sleeping pills, antihistamines, and tranquillizers can also disturb your sleeping patterns. Alcohol and caffeinated drinks also disturb your sleep.
• Overtime or long working hours at office can disturb your sleep patterns. Teenagers stay until early morning hours during weekends which make their sleep patterns disturbed.
• Medical conditions like gastro esophageal reflux disease, hypothyroidism, nocturnal asthma and chronic pain can disturb your sleep during night time and increases daytime sleepiness.

The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is recognized as common problem in children.

This problem is increasing day by day in small children; the daytime attention and behavioral problems are noticed as a cause of this OSAS.

It is most difficult to find out OSAS in small children. The symptoms will not be clear, so it cannot be identified easily.

Some symptoms which helps you to find out sleep apnea in children are snoring, breathing through mouth, poor weight gain or weight loss, enlarged adenoids and tonsils, restless sleep and problems in sleeping, excessive daytime sleeping, daytime behavior and cognitive problems (such as problems in paying attention, hyperactivity and aggressive behavior).

What do parents need to know regarding OSAS in small children?

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) can cause several complications in your children such as headaches, poor growth, high blood pressure in small age and problems in the normal functions of lungs and heart.

This problem of OSAS in children is increasingly being identified as a source of children daytime school and behavioral problems.

If your child is not behaving correctly that means obtaining problems at school and snoring loudly while sleeping, then you must ask your pediatrician about OSAS in children.

Is narcolepsy a mental or psychological disorder?

Narcolepsy is neither a psychological nor a mental disorder.

It is a neurological disorder and physical cause is unknown.

If you have narcolepsy, your sleepiness and sleep attacks are uncontrollable.

It can influence your self esteem and personal relationships. Counseling is required to alleviate these problems.

What are the long terms problems of narcolepsy?

There are many long term problems of narcolepsy. Due to cataplexy and sleep attacks in public, you will become embarrassed and therefore cause severe social and economic difficulties. Your physical activities can be interfered with cataplexy [Cataplexy Info].

You are unable to work or drive with cataplexy and can result in loss of independence. Due too inability to work, you can face financial difficulties and other problems. With all these problems, you can lose contacts with others and become depressed.

Does narcolepsy affect learning?

Narcolepsy, although do not affect your intelligence, learning and education directly but you are affected by the symptoms. Due to the sleep disruption, concentration, study, memory and attention are affected.

Night sweats are excessive sweats that occur during night time.

Night sweats can often disturb your night time sleep.

There are different factors that cause night sweats. Here are some of the factors that cause night sweats.

Factors that cause night sweats:

Menopause: Menopause can cause night sweats due to the hot flashes that accompany the menopause during night time. Some hormonal changes can also cause night sweats in menopausal and pre-menopausal women.

Medications: Certain medications can cause night sweats as they react with your body’s natural chemistry. Medications that cause night sweats are anti-depressants and psychiatric drugs.

Sometimes, medications taken to lower fever like aspirin and acetaminophen can also cause night sweats. The other drugs that cause sweating are birth control pills, niacin, hydralazine, nitroglycerine, cortisone, Viagra, and tamoxifen.

Hyperhidrosis: Hyperhidrosis is a condition explained as excessive sweating during sleep. Your body produces too much sweat without any identified medical cause.

Pressure and anxiety: Pressure and anxiety are the important causes of night sweating, especially in men. When you are going through a stressful period, you can experience sweating at night.

When you have nasal congestion, breathing through nose becomes difficult and breathing takes place through mouth.

When your nasal congestion forces breathing through mouth during sleep, greater negative pressure is developed behind the uvula and soft palate.

The negative pressure increases the vibration of uvula and soft palate during sleep and creates the sound called snoring.

What are the reasons for nasal congestion?

Nasal congestion is caused due to different factors. Seasonal allergies and perennial allergies as well as sinusitis can cause swelling of the nose lining and turbinates, which increases nasal congestion.

Narrow intra-nasal anatomy from deviated nasal septum can cause physical blockages. Airflow is blocked due to sinus and intra-nasal polyps and due to benign and cancerous growths.

Significant congestion can interfere with sleep, cause snoring and is associated with not breathing episodes during sleep. In children, nasal congestion due to enlarged tonsils cause chronic sleep apnea.

The other causes of nasal congestion are common cold and flu, often accompanied by watery discharge from nose, headache, sore throat and cough and hay fever accompanied by watery discharge, sneezing and itchy eyes which can result in snoring.