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.”
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Dr. Richard Castriotta is director of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at UT Medical School.
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What a Difference
60 Minutes Can Make
It’s just an hour. At 2 a.m. on March 14, time changes as we “spring forward” one hour overnight. It wouldn’t seem to be that big of a deal, but it is according to researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sleep Science. They have found that in the days immediately following the spring time change each year more people have serious car accidents, most likely due to the sleep loss and adjustments that our biological clocks must make to the new schedule.
To prepare for the time change, start going to bed and waking up 15 minutes earlier each day between now and the start of Daylight Savings Time. This helps reset your biological clock.
The spring time change isn’t the only time we should be concerned about our levels of sleep. According to the sleep researchers, adults ought to get 8 to 8.5 hours of sleep every night, but few of us do. This does more than leave us groggy in the mornings. Findings have shown that a lack of sleep may increase risks of obesity, diabetes, stroke and heart attacks.
The National Sleep Foundation offers this advice for healthy sleep:
