Sleep is not just a luxury; it is a necessity. Pertinent for promoting the wellbeing of the person, sleep is required for many processes around the body.
Having quality sleep is necessary for the improving concentration and focus. It also helps in greater athletic performance. As sleep helps in caloric regulation, it also is helpful for preventing weight gain.
Getting adequate shuteye also averts the risk of depression. Without quality sleep, body also has higher propensity towards inflammation as well. Similarly, sleep is also required for having stronger immunity.
Therefore, anything that hampers quality shuteye needs to be remedied. However, most often, the problem behind lack of sleep is not due to bad sleep hygiene, but rather, due to sleep disorders. These then require treatment from the Internal Medicine specialist in Lahore.
What are some of the sleep disorders?
Sleep disorders cannot be remedied without proper treatment. Some of the commonly observed sleep disorders are:
Insomnia
In insomnia, people are unable to get continuous sleep, or they either cannot sleep or even if they sleep, they wake up earlier than they would like. Insomnia can be acute or chronic. While at times insomnia results from the stress factors around the person, others are due to poor nighttime routine.
Moreover, psychiatric conditions cannot also lead to insomnia.
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS)
While daytime sleepiness is common enough when we stay up all night, or fail to get adequate sleep, EDS is a different and much more serios condition. In this state, people sleep whilst carrying out activities like driving. Thus, it is life-threatening disorder, due to the risk of accidents associated with it.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
In this state, person stops breathing when they are sleeping, breaking their sleep cycle. OSA results when the muscles of the throat relax, and the airway gets blocked as a result. Obese people have higher risk of OSA.
One of the salient symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea is snoring. Its impact on the body is grave as well. OSA increases the risk for memory problems, hypertension, and heart disease.
Narcolepsy
It is also a form of excessive daytime sleepiness. People get sudden attacks, that increase the urge in them to sleep. Narcolepsy occurs due to inability of the brain to control the cycles of wakefulness and sleep. Not only is then the disturbed sleep a source of extreme discomfort, but the sleep itself is a very jarring experience for people suffering from narcolepsy.
Periodic Limb movements of sleep (PLMS)
A form of restless leg syndrome, this disorder mostly strikes people over the age of 60. In this condition, people jerkily move their limbs during sleep. They wake up often during the night, however, they do not have memory of it when they wake up.
Parasomnias
In some cases, sleep can be a source of extreme distress, which is why people get scared of sleeping. Sleepwalking, night terrors, sleep paralysis, sleep eating disorders are some cases of parasomnias.
What are symptoms of sleep disorders?
People suffering from sleep disorders present a set of certain symptoms. These include falling asleep during activities like driving, inability to concentrate, struggling to stay awake, slowed reflexes and responses, not having a proper sleep routine, etc.
Moreover, sleep disorder also causes people to look haggard. Memory problems are also persistent in such cases. Furthermore, performance at work and school also suffers because of a lack of quality shuteye. Since sleep disorders prevent people from getting sufficient nighttime rest, most then take naps during the daytime to make up for the sleep lost.
In such cases, it is pertinent to visit the top Internal Medicine Specialist in Karachi as sleep disorders need to be addressed.