Sleep disturbance is a fairly common condition. About 30% of the world's population complains of a similar disorder. Systematic insomnia, constant drowsiness, inability to fall asleep due to overexcitation or pain, frequent waking up, superficial and shallow sleep, constant nightmares - all this refers to sleep disorders.
The fact that a person has a sleep disorder can be said when he is tormented by insomnia or, on the contrary, constant drowsiness. Sleep disorders are divided into the following types:
Patients complain of problems with the onset of sleep. Usually the stage of falling asleep lasts 3-10 minutes. A person suffering from insomnia can spend from 30 to 120 minutes or more falling asleep.
An increase in the period of onset of sleep may be due to insufficient fatigue of the body during a late rise or early bedtime; pain reaction and itching of a somatic nature; taking drugs that stimulate the nervous system; anxiety and fear that arose during the day.
As soon as a person is in bed, the desire to sleep instantly disappears, heavy thoughts arise, and painful memories emerge in the memory. At the same time, some motor activity is observed: a person cannot find a comfortable position. Sometimes there is causeless itching, discomfort on the skin. Sometimes falling asleep occurs so imperceptibly that a person perceives it as wakefulness.
Trouble falling asleep can form strange bedtime rituals that healthy people don't have. Perhaps the appearance of fear from the lack of sleep and fear of bed.
The patient complains about the lack of deep sleep, even a minimal stimulus causes awakening followed by prolonged falling asleep. The slightest sound, the included light and other external factors are perceived especially sharply.
Spontaneous awakening can be caused by terrible dreams and nightmares, a feeling of filling the bladder (repeated urge to urinate), autonomic respiratory failure, and rapid heartbeat. A healthy person who does not suffer from insomnia can also wake up, but his awakening threshold is noticeably higher, subsequent falling asleep is not problematic, and the quality of sleep does not suffer.
Intrasomnic disorders also include increased motor activity, manifested by the “restless legs” syndrome, when a person makes shaking movements with his legs in a dream. The cause of the sleep apnea syndrome, which is often observed with insomnia, is the inclusion of an arbitrary mechanism for regulating breathing. Occurs most often with obesity and is accompanied by snoring.
Insomnia also manifests itself in the waking state after waking up. It is difficult for a person to wake up early, he feels weak all over his body. Drowsiness and reduced performance can accompany the patient all day. Non-mandatory daytime sleepiness is often observed: even with all the conditions for good sleep, a person cannot fall asleep.
There are sharp mood swings, which adversely affect communication with other people, often exacerbating psychological discomfort. Some time after waking up, a person complains of headaches, a rise in pressure (hypertension) is possible. In this case, a more pronounced increase in diastolic pressure is characteristic.
Transient, with a duration of no more than a few nights
Short-term (from several days to weeks)
Chronic (3 weeks or more)
Physiological (situational) and permanent (permanent) insomnia are also distinguished.
By origin, primary insomnia is distinguished, resulting from personal or idiopathic (unexplained) causes, and secondary, arising against or as a result of psychological, somatic and other pathologies.