Insomnia, Alteration or Sleep Disorder
In medicine, insomnia is part of the great family of sleep disorders, which includes narcolepsy (sudden and unpredictable appearance of drowsiness), hypersomnia (excessive need for sleeping) and sleep disorders. Cardiac rhtyms.
Insomnia (Latin somnus = dream) is difficult to define precisely because there is no ‘standard’ for sleep.
Insomnia is characterized by the difficulty of sleeping enough, to the point of interfering with the activities of daily life (drowsiness, lack of attention, irritability, etc.). Some people naturally sleep a few hours per night without harmful repercussions: therefore, they do not suffer from insomnia.
Types of insomnia
Transitory insomnia
Symptoms are related to a specific situation, often easily identifiable (a stressful moment at work, divorce, etc.);This type of insomnia may take several weeks;
Chronic insomnia
The difficulty to sleep must occur at least 3 nights a week, for at least 1 month. Note that the dividing line between these 2 types of insomnia is not always clear.
Who does it affect?
According to the latest Canadian community health survey, approximately 13% of Canadians over 15 years of age suffer from chronic insomnia 1 . According to the same survey, 36.5% of insomens do not usually feel rested upon awakening, while only 9.2% of people who say they do not have insomnia are tired in the morning. The survey also reveals that people affected by insomnia sleep on average 1 hour less per night than people not 1 .
However, statistics on the prevalence of insomnia vary from one source to another, since the ‘criteria for insomnia‘ used in surveys are not always the same. Some researchers trust the duration of symptoms;others, for its degree of seriousness;even others, in their presence or not. The most used criteria is the frequency of insomnia symptoms.
Causes
Insomnia is a symptom, not a disease itself, like fever. Before thinking about treating it, we must therefore find the cause (s) (s).
Some of the physical and environmental factors that have a great influence on sleep include environmental light and noise, as well as the content and time of meals .
Psychological factors such as stress or anxiety also play an important role. They represent 50% of all cases of insomnia evaluated in a sleep laboratory.
In addition to the factors related to lifestyle and the environment, all kinds of acute or chronic health problems can interrupt sleep:
- Restless legs syndrome, which is characterized by desire to move the legs, especially during periods of relaxation or inactivity.
- Sleep apnea, which usually occurs in overweight people or roncan;causes respiratory breaks of a few seconds or more several times during the night, which may or may not cause awareness.
- Chronic pain caused by arthritis or cancer, for example.
- Depression.
- Difficulty breathing (in case of heart failure or lung disease), need to urinate at night (Nicturia), gastroesophageal reflux disease, hyperthyroidism, Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease.
- When a physical or mental health problem makes it difficult to sleep well, it is first important to receive adequate treatment.
Sleep needs with age
The elderly do not need to sleep less than other adults, although many sleep less. With age, periods of slow sleep decrease continuously. As the dream is more fragile, it is more likely that older people wake up with external stimuli, whether noise, light or body pain. However, taking naps when necessary and respecting sleep hygiene rules (described in the prevention section), it is completely possible to sleep enough.
Possible consequences
The consequences of insomnia feel quickly and include: fatigue, drowsiness, irritability, memory loss and difficulty concentrating during the day. It is possible to evaluate the degree of diurnal drowsiness through a standardized 8 questions test. Click here to perform the epworth test . Insomnia tends to accentuate the symptoms of certain health problems: migraines, pains, digestive problems, etc.
While having some insomnia nights occasionally is not worrying, the chronic lack of sleep can interrupt daily activities and cause:
- Educational difficulties, especially among primary students;
- At work, absenteeism or presentism (be present in body and not in spirit);
- Work and road accidents: driver’s fatigue is involved at 20% to 25% of mortal traffic accidents 3, 32 .
In general, it can be said that sleeping well at night is important not only to feel tall and with energy, but also to enjoy a good long -term health. During sleep there are several physiological processes: liver and muscle tissue regenerate, the immune system recovers its strength, memory is consolidated, etc. It is during sleep when the secretion of growth hormones is higher. The brain also takes advantage of this respite to eliminate its "waste" thanks to antioxidants . However, much is not yet known about how the dream is that it triggers these restorative mechanisms.
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