by Jane Allyson

Created on: July 23, 2007

ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?
A person who is having a problem sleeping will soon realize that they are going to suffer because of it. You feel tired and your concentration span is nil and you feel like you haven't got the energy to do anything else except to go back to bed.

It is essential that a normal adult person gets at least 7 to 8 hours sleep per night to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If the normal pattern of sleep is interrupted on a regular basis, then that person can suffer greatly. "Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body," said Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago. "We have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior."

There can be many reasons why a person will get into a bad sleep pattern: little time for rest, not being relaxed enough, being anxious or depressed, enduring constant disturbance from environmental factors, night work, jet lag, being a new parent or having a medical condition that physically or emotionally stops you from sleeping.

There can be other reasons why sleep is disturbed such as Obstructive sleep apnea, which is an obstruction of the throat or nose by enlarged tonsils or an abnormal nasal septum which results in an interruption of breathing whilst a person is asleep. Symptoms of this disorder include snoring, headaches in the morning and tiredness during the daytime. If left untreated it can result in long term problems including heart attacks and strokes.

Nocturnal myoclonus causes an involuntary jerking of the legs whilst the person is asleep and causes brief moments of wakefulness. This can lead to insomnia and daytime fatigue.

The adverse consequences of sleep deprivation can contribute to medical problems such as heart disease, breathing disorders and depression. It can cause the breakdown of social relationships and create strife in marital life. It causes fatigue and sleepiness which in turn can lead to domestic and work related accidents.

Physiological studies show that when the brain is denied sleep, it puts more pressure on the body, this increases the amount of stress hormones produced and puts up blood pressure, which in turn puts the patient at a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes. Other studies have shown that that the body is also at a higher risk of cancer and diabetes.

Put simply: Not getting enough sleep in general stops the brain from working to it's full effectiveness. It can stop a person realizing their full potential. This means that the brain has to compensate by working harder just to achieve the same results. The brain will use the process of sleep to sort, process, and file all of the information it has accumulated during the waking time, which will explain why a lack of sleep can affect the memory so much.

The use of imagination will also suffer because the brain constructs creative connections or ideas from our memories while we sleep. Sleep deprivation can seriously weaken the immune system too.

If you think that you may have a sleep disorder, don't wait for the more serious consequences to build up and possibly create a vicious circle. Go and see your doctor immediately, who will advise you on the proper course of treatment to enable you to get your life back to normality.

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-d yn/content/article/2005/10/08/AR2005100801405.htmlTh e Consequences of Excessive Wakefulness
http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d000701-d000 800/d000705/d000705.html

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