by Niamh Brown

Created on: July 21, 2007

Everyone knows what it feels like when you're jet lagged or you loose some sleep for whatever reason. Life happens and forces us outside our routine sometimes. Most people reset themselves by catching up the next day and then starting your regular sleep phase' again. You have a sleep disorder when you can't do this with regularity and are living in what is called sleep debt.

Symptoms

There are many issues that can cause problems with sleep. It maybe you can't get off to sleep, or that you can get to sleep but not stay asleep or you wake too early and find you have to get up. Either scenario cuts the amount of sleep down and reduces the number of deep-sleep cycles you go through in a night. If you are stressed about something, unable to relax, your body isn't able to stay in the deeper stages because of this tension, which requires respite and paralysis so you don't act out your dreams. A lack of deep sleep causes sleep debt.

Another problem can be your phase. Having a delayed sleep phase or one that is not 24 hours long causes you to try to fit a schedule that your body isn't suited for, which can be difficult in everyday life. It's like having jet lag all the time. You can usually tell if you have this because if you are on holiday and allowed to sleep naturally you should get up later and go to bed later but feel more refreshed during the day and able to get going quicker in the mornings. There is less of a concentration fight because your brain is working at its preferred length and time of day.

When is it not a disorder?

If you can find an external cause then it's likely not to be a disorder. You will be feeling temporally the same symptoms as those that do, but the sleep debt will be easily repaid. Environmental factors can cause interrupted sleep cycles like irritable legs, itching, snoring, building work, noisy neighbors, new house or baby. It can sometimes help to use what is called sleep hygiene, which is only using the bedroom to sleep, rather than associating it with waking activities such as reading or watching TV.

From Experience

I suffer from a delayed sleep phase, slow-wave sleep disruption, mania (which reduces the need to sleep), night terrors and sleep paralysis. I have lived in sleep debt all my life. Although most of time I am able to push myself through it I have to manage my holidays and balance them out over the year so I have regular breaks. I use these to catch up on my sleep so I can avoid burning out and getting depressed. It only takes one bad night during a work week to spend the rest of it feeling groggy.

What should I do?

If any of this sounds familiar keep logs and contact your doctor. They might be able to suggest medications that help, but they may only be temporarily to get your sleep phase back into its routine. If however you find that once you stop the medications it just goes back to where you started you may need to consider seeing a sleep disorder specialist. They should be able to do further tests and suggest lifestyle changes that can help. It could be that you have a co-morbid disorder which is causing the problem and by treating that you can sleep better. However in some cases like a phase problem there is little help available and you just need to find ways to accommodate for the sleep debt in your waking life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_disorder

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