If you toss and turn each night before you are finally able to fall asleep, you are not alone. Altogether, approximately 60 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders. Forty million suffer from chronic sleep disorders, while another 20 million suffer from occasional, milder sleep disorders.
Distinguishing The Types Of Sleep Disorders
There are three distinct categories that sleep disorders are typically categorized by. These categories are: lack of sleep, disturbed sleep, and excessive sleep. Each category describes the amount of sleep the person affected gets in relation to how much they need. The average adult needs nine hours of sleep.
Lack Of Sleep
The first category of sleep disorders, lack of sleep, is also commonly known as insomnia. It is not uncommon to experience insomnia occasionally; however, if it occurs often, then it may be a sign of chronic insomnia. Failing to get the proper amount of sleep can disrupt daily life in many ways. Many people who suffer from chronic insomnia worry during the day about not being able to fall asleep, which can contribute to the problem.
There are many consequences of insomnia. Lack of sleep is known to impact judgment, memory, hand-eye coordination, well-being, and reaction-time. Additionally, sleep deprivation can damage the immune system.
Disturbed Sleep
Disturbed sleep is the second classification of sleep disorders, and it describes the disruption of normal sleep. The most common type of disorder classified in this category is obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused either by a problem with the windpipe or a neurological disorder, and it results in loud snoring and blocked airways. Eventually, this sleep disorder can cause a stroke.
Other types of sleep disorders that can be categorized as “disturbed sleep” include Restless Leg Syndrome and Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. Both are genetic disorders that cause involuntary movement in the arms and legs during sleep.
Excessive Sleep
Finally, sleep disorders can be classified in the category “excessive sleep.” This is also known as narcolepsy. Narcolepsy causes patients to have sleep attacks, lasting for as little as a few minutes to as long as half an hour!
Complications of narcolepsy include cataplexy and hypnagogic hallucinations. Cataplexy is weakness or paralysis of the muscles, and hypnagogic hallucinations are vivid dreams that occur during the stage in between being awake and being asleep.
Getting Help And Support
If you suffer from any type of sleep affliction, you should consult with your doctor to determine what form of treatment would be best for you. Doctors have the ability to prescribe medications that can help you live a normal life. They can also recommend discussion groups that you can turn to for support from others who suffer from sleep disorders.
This is a very long post on one of my favorite subject children over 1600 words, sorry. Grab a cold drink and begin
Insomnia Children Disorders
Children are often faced with serious medical problems that are usually associated with adults and adult behavior. Especially sleep disorders in children. While there is a significant difference in age between an adult and a child there is no difference between the negative impacts the sleep disorder will have on the child.
Adults who suffer from insomnia will drowsily muddle through the day, making mistakes on the job, not paying attention while driving and you can list many more happenings because of sleep disorders.
A child on the other hand, will vent his frustrations by constantly crying, wanting to be held, and displaying his frustrated side. A parent who has been up with the infant all night who is suffering from insomnia sleep disorder can become very angry with the infant and can do grave harm to him or her.
Babies usually wake once every evening at the minimum. Unless breast fed, infants can go back to sleep on their own.
The audio cost less than $10.00 and I feel the audio provides some very worth while information.Would you pay $10.00 for a full nights sleep. I know I would.
Insomnia or sleeping disorders can be defined as follows.
A person who wakes up very early
A person who wakes up often at night
Having difficulty sleeping at night
It is worth while to mention that the infant may sleeps at a rate of 16 hours per 24 hours until they reach about one year of age. The baby will sleep during the day from 2 to 3 hours.
Janet Brownlee has written a great book on helping you to get your children to bed at night. Read her comments
I wrote Sleepytime Secrets to be an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide for learning how to get children to sleep. It is jam-packed with over 75 pages of information covering a huge number of child sleeping issues, and provides proven techniques that can be implemented into your parent-child relationship to get the sleep related results you are searching for. Not only do the techniques work, but they are designed to make nighttime fun and enjoyable for you and your child.
Janet Brownlee
Author of Sleepytime Secrets: Making Bedtime a Breeze!
This ailment can cause the feeling of tiredness and drowsiness even after waking up in the morning. A person with insomnia also has a hard time concentrating.
Other terms for insomnia are Wakefulness, Sleeplessness and Dysnia. This applies children as well as adults.
Therefore it is necessary for the parent to fully understand the insomnia symptoms children display in order to cope. Each child is different; the parent must learn the individual personality of each child.Those of us who have more than one child will understand that no two babies are the same.Each child will start developing their own personality as early as 3 to 4 week.
There exists the possibility that the effects of the disorder on the child may be more dramatic than on an adult.
In the case of insomnia in children, the effects can be quite dramatic. A child that suffers bouts with insomnia may experience a number of residual effects that can make the child’s life difficult. A poor night’s sleep can lead to a lack of performance in school, an inability to maintain a social life and a host of other problems.As such, proper treatment of insomnia in children is critical and such proper treatment always starts with a proper diagnosis.
They want their parents to notice them. Don’t neglect the child. All children need and must have cuddling, speaking softly to them.They need their individual attention starting as young as a few days old. Reminder the room in which the child sleeps is not a play room or a room to provide the individual attention. Teach the child that this room is for sleeping.
They may be suffering from digestive ailments or infantile colic which is a condition where babies cry for more than 3 hours a day. Should you believe that your child is crying excessively, check with the child’s doctor for their safety and your peace of mind.
Infants are often hungry. As I stated above each child is different.Some are chow hounds, eating large portion a few times per feeding and don’t require the every two hours feeding schedule; while others are nibblers and seems to be hungry constantly.Recognizing the symptoms of hungry in you child will go a long way in prevent insomnia.The child will learn quickly to fake hungry to gain your attention and having you pick him or her up.
The child maybe teething and his mouth and gums may be sore and hurting. You doctor can recommend a good oral rub for the gums to relieve the pain
They may be ill or afflicted by a disease so be sure your child is not sick when he or she starts crying for long periods of time.At trip to the doctor may be called for.
Ascertaining a Proper Diagnosis of Insomnia in Children
It can never be stated enough that it is critical that a proper diagnosis of insomnia in children be properly made. Proper diagnosis is the key to proper treatment. As is common with many disorders, there is an unfortunate tendency in parents to not take such a potentially serious condition as insomnia in infant and children as something that is actually quite serious.
Here are some tips in curing insomnia for infants:
• Try not to comfort the baby immediately when crying at night. It would be best to wait until the infant stops crying on his or her own. Constant attention can be a stimulus for infants to stay awake at night.
• Observe if the child is unable to sleep because of excessive noise. Try playing classical or slow songs to cover up noisy environment.
• Do not make a child go to bed as a penalty or reprimand for something. This can cause insomnia because instead of them enjoying being asleep, they dread it.
• Parents should not make an infant accustomed to falling asleep in their arms. When the baby is about six months old, try getting them used to fall asleep in their cribs by themselves.
• Reading stories in bed, tapping or scratching a child before sleeping, singing a lullaby is often a cause of insomnia because without these routines children will be unable to sleep.
• Do not give a child sleep inducing medicine unless the doctor advices it. As much as possible, do not use chemicals or drugs in curing insomnia.
• Remember that sleeping pills may have side effects.
• If the condition remains after trying home measures to cure insomnia, consult a doctor. From: Silent Night.com
In insomnia is something that most people will deal with at one point or another during their lives. When the problem becomes continual, there exists the possibility that a serious underlying condition may be present.
If a parent does not take the presence of insomnia in a child seriously, then the ability to arrive at a proper diagnosis, care, and proper treatment will be seriously delayed. Needless to say, this does not help the child at all and may, in fact, lead to the underlying condition worsening.
Insomnia in Children and the Parent’s Role
Many times when a child cries excessively it is a sign that something is wrong in the child’s world.Like you when worried, pressured, threatened and tired your mind is not at peace.Therefore you can’t sleep and you suffer from insomnia.The same is true with a child even as young as 2 or 3 weeks.It maybe the light is to bright, too much noise, if bottle feeding, the nipple may be to hard or to soft.The infant, at what ever age will immediately pick up on angry voices and this will greatly affect its world the child knows no other way to express him self but to cry and not sleep.
To cure infant insomnia, parents should be ready to let their baby cry without comfort until they learn to sleep by themselves. Don’t let the child cry for more than 10 minutes
Parents can slowly lessen the attention that they give each night to put an infant to sleep until they can totally do it without parent’s supervision.
Children especially infants need enough and regular sleep for them to grow healthy emotionally and physically. When very young as much as 16 hours and dropping of until the child sleeps about 12 hours at one year of age.
Parents should be very sensitive and vigilant in observing their child’s sleeping habit. If not both the parents and the child will be affected by insomnia. The bedroom should be a place to sleep and should be peaceful not rowdy. A bedroom in not a room for a child’s play but for a child’s restful evening.
As such, if a parent notices the presence of insomnia in children, it is the parent’s responsibility to make sure the condition is properly treated. A parent’s primary role is that of a caregiver to a child and if the parent neglects this responsibility, then the ramifications can be dire.
Because of this, no parent should ignore any potentially serious condition. Insomnia may not seem like a serious condition on the surface, but a superficial analysis of a problem by an untrained eye is not the way to arrive at a diagnosis; see a professional instead.
Many of us rely on drugs to cure our ailments. Yes, drugs can help cure different kinds of ailments but these drugs can also have some side effects on our bodies. For the past years, several studies pointed out the hidden dangers of drugs for insomnia. Mainly that they can be addictive in that the body can become immune and larger and larger doses are required. Leading to some wicked side effects..
Many of these studies show that drugs for insomnia can cause drug induced stupors. The people who are taking these medication often find it difficult to concentrate on what they are doing. Many cases of driving while sleeping are directly related to drugs for insomnia. There are now some people who question the appropriateness of prescribing drugs for insomnia to some people, especially to children and adolescence.
Aside from driving while sleeping, drugs for insomnia are found to cause hallucinations and nightmares among people who are taking them. Some of these nightmares can be quite violent that the person taking drugs for insomnia gets some really violent jolts that they wake up screaming and sweating.
Another hidden danger in taking drugs for insomnia is that your body may develop immunity to these drugs. Once your body becomes immune to the drugs, you will need to increase the doses to achieve the desired effect. Some people who are desperate to get some sleep tend to double or triple their doses of sleeping pills just to get some rest.
The danger here is that some people often overestimate their capacity to handle the drug that they end up in a drug induced coma. There have been many reported cases of people dying in their sleep after they have accidentally taken an overdone of sleeping pills.
Should We Avoid Using Drugs For Insomnia?
Although there are some sectors that insist on the use of natural treatments for insomnia, some people who are chronic insomniacs simply can no longer sleep without the help of drugs for insomnia. For people who are really having so much trouble getting some sleep, drugs for insomnia may be the only answer.
In these cases, doctors who prescribe to their patients sleeping pills should be very careful when giving instructions to their patients. Doctors should warn their patients to follow the instructions on taking the sleeping pills properly to avoid accidents. Family members and other people who are living with the patient should be involved in monitoring the patient who is taking sleeping pills just to make sure that the patient is sticking to the original dosage. It is necessary that is patient is not taking other drugs that will interfere with the prescribed insomnia medication.
