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COMMON DISORDERS

There are over 85 recognized sleep disorders. For information on drowsy driving and other sleep disorders visit www.sleepfoundation.org.

Hopedale Medical Complex’s Sleep Disorders Center provides educational programming on sleep disorders for children, teens and adults. For more information, visit the resource area of this site.

SLEEP Obstructive is a medical problem affecting up to 4 percent of middle-aged adults. The most common complaints are loud snoring, disrupted sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder in which complete or partial obstruction of the airway during sleep causes loud snoring, oxygen desaturations and frequent arousals. As a result, affected persons have disturbed sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep apnea has been linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, angina, nocturnal cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks, , emotional problems, impotence and motor vehicle crashes. www.sleepapnea.org.

NARCOLEPSY is a neurological disorder caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep- wake cycles normally. The main features of narcolepsy are excessive daytime sleepiness and . The disease is also often associated with sudden sleep attacks, , -like hallucinations and a condition called . Narcolepsy affects both sexes equally and develops with age; symptoms usually first develop in adolescence or young adulthood and may remain unrecognized as they gradually develop. For more information visit www.narcolepsynetwork.org.

RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME/PERIODIC LIMB MOVEMENT DISORDER Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is often described by patients in many ways. They often use words to describe the sensation such as an ache, creeping, crawling, pulling, or that they have to get up and walk it off. RLS affects both men and women and can start at any age. It may be confused with growing pains or restlessness when experienced by children. In addition, the severity of the disorder appears to increase with age. Older patients experience symptoms more frequently and for longer periods of time. More than 80 percent of people with RLS also suffer from a condition know as periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD). Characteristics of PLMD include involuntary leg twitching or jerking movements during sleep that occur repeatedly throughout the night and result in disrupted sleep.

In addition to poor quality and short sleep at night, research has shown that people with RLS generally experience a reduced quality of life in the absence of treatment. There is also evidence of a connection between RLS and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For more information visit www.rls.org.

INSOMNIA Insomnia is the inability to fall asleep or remain asleep. Insomnia is also used to describe the condition of waking up not feeling restored or refreshed and is the most common sleep complaint among Americans. It can last one to several nights, or even months. According to the National Center for Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health, about 30-40% of adults say they have some symptoms of insomnia within a given year.

SNORING Snoring is noisy during sleep. It is a common problem among all ages and both genders and it affects approximately 90 million American adults — 37 million on a regular basis. Snoring may occur nightly or intermittently. Snoring disrupts your sleep and the sleep of anyone who is in the same room (or even house) as you. While you sleep, the muscles of your throat relax, your tongue falls backward, and your throat becomes narrow and "floppy." As you breathe, the walls of the throat begin to vibrate, generally when you breathe. These vibrations lead to the characteristic sound of snoring. The narrower your airway becomes, the greater the vibration and the louder the snoring. Sometimes the walls of the throat collapse completely so that it is completely occluded, creating a condition called apnea (cessation of breathing). This is a serious condition, which requires medical attention.