STORY BYThe most common sleep disorder is insomnia, in which a person has trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Contributing causes can be consuming chocolate, caffeine, nicotine or alcohol. Emotional causes range from positive or negative changes in one’s life, depression, ruminating thoughts, or anxiety.
Some people get frustrated because they cannot fall asleep, and begin to become angry the moment they walk into the bedroom. That anger keeps them awake.
Sometimes underlying disease or trauma contributes to sleepiness, says Dr. Richard Castriotta, director of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Castriotta's own completed study on traumatic brain injury found that 40 percent of the patients have serious daytime sleepiness. About 20 percent have sleep-disordered breathing. Three to 6 percent have narcolepsy, characterized by the patient falling asleep unpredictably. This can be accompanied by vivid dreams or hallucinations or suffering from extreme sleepiness during the day. Attacks can last from a few minutes to several hours.
Narcolepsy in the general population is rare, about 100 times less common than obstructive sleep apnea. It usually starts in adolescence and lasts throughout life. Both conditions though may lead to accidents and subsequent traumatic brain injury. But brain injury can also cause both sleep apnea and post-traumatic hypersomnia.
Sleeping is as important to the body as eating or exercising. Without it, you would be tired, disagreeable and depressed. Inadequate sleep results in irritability, frustration, fatigue, inadequate decision-making and impaired motor skills or reactions.
Shift work takes an enormous toll on individuals. When shifts change regularly, it is very difficult for the human body to adapt to the schedule. Sixty to 70 percent of these people have difficulty sleeping during off-hours and/or difficulty staying awake during working hours.
Our entire society as a whole does not receive enough sleep to sustain us in a healthy way, Castriotta asserts. We certainly do not respect the restorative power of sleep, often to our detriment. Citing such catastrophes as the Challenger, Exxon Valdez, Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl, Castriotta says, “Almost all of the major human-caused disasters have been caused by sleepiness and people making wrong decisions because they just cannot think straight.”
Last Updated: 1-26-2006Editorial Board | Legal Disclaimer | Privacy & Security | Contact Us
© 2000-2010 Office of Institutional Advancement, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Follow us on:
Dr. Richard Castriotta is director of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at UT Medical School.
See Dr. Castriotta also at:
Eating healthy
reverses metabolic syndrome
Dr. Tasnime Akbaraly of University College London and her colleagues were interested if healthy eating could actually turn-the-tide and reverse metabolic syndrome, which is having 3 or more of the following risk factors: excess abdominal fat; high triglycerides, hypertension, low levels of HDL the “good” cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes. Having metabolic syndrome doubles a persons’ risk of heart disease and greatly increases the odds of developing type 2 diabetes.
The researchers studied 339 British civil servants with metabolic syndrome, and how closely the adhered to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) to see if it could help reverse metabolic syndrome. The AHEI is a set of published nutritional guidelines by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2002 that emphasizes whole grains, fruits, vegetables and decreased red meat consumption.
Five years into the study, nearly 50% no longer had metabolic syndrome. People who followed the AHEI guidelines the closest were nearly twice as likely to have reversed their metabolic syndrome. The results of the study were published in Diabetes Care, online July 29, 2010.
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, an expert on diet and heart health from Tufts University in Boston who was not involved in the study said, "It's not about focusing on individual components of the diet, it's really the whole package, and that becomes important because it means that if one of the components of a healthy diet is to eat more fruits and vegetables, just buying a pill saying that there's a concentrated extract of fruits and vegetables is probably not what's going to help you."
Call and make an appointment with Wellness Coach Sam Hester, CWC, CPT, LWMC, at 713-500-3327. It's confidential and free. For more information on the wellness services provided, visit UT Counseling and WorkLife Services.
