Sleep HabitsA sleep disorder is a medical problem that in some way affects how you sleep. This section provides information on a large range of sleep disorders, from their symptoms, what causes them, and how they can be treated or reduced. There are two major types of sleep disorders; parasomnias and dyssomnias.
Parasomnia
Parasomnias are abnormal events or behaviours that mostly happen during sleep but can also occur just before you fall asleep or just after you wake up.
Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking (also known as Somnambulism) is a strange but surprisingly common sleep disorder. Sleepwalkers can perform an array of complex daily tasks despite being fast asleep.
Nightmares
It's completely normal to have the odd bad dream, but when nightmares become frequent enough to disturb your sleep something needs to done. This article covers the causes of nightmares and how you can stop them.
Hypnic Jerk - That Sudden Twitch & Falling Sensation Just Before Sleep
Have you ever been relaxing in bed when all of a sudden your body twitches and you feel as you've just tripped over & you're falling through mid air? It's called a hypnic jerk. Up to 70% of us get them.
Night Terrors
A condition that causes people to suddenly sit up in bed (or jump out of it) and start screaming or shouting as if they've just woken up from a bad dream. But despite all appearances, they're still fast asleep.
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
A rare sleep disorder that enables people to fully act out their dreams in real life. Their dreams are vivid and intense, often involving a violent threat, causing them to run around the room kicking and punching.
Sleep Paralysis
To prevent us acting our dreams our bodies become paralysed when we go into REM sleep. But sometimes the paralysis works a little too well, kicking in before we've fallen asleep or continuing after we've woken up.
Restless Leg Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
People with restless leg syndrome experience a tingling, scratching, or crawling sensation in their legs that is only relieved by moving them. The feeling can be anything from a mild irritation to intolerable pain.
Dyssomnia
Dyssomnias are sleep disorders that affect the process of sleep, including how long you sleep for, the quality of sleep, and the timing of sleep.
Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
Sleep Apnea occurs when the muscles around the throat relax causing the airway to close. Often observed as a gap of silence between snores, before they wake up and start breathing (or snoring) again normally.
Narcolepsy
A neurological condition that's characterised by excessive daytime sleepiness, muscle weakness, and REM sleep complications such as sleep paralysis and hallucinations.
Fatal Familial Insomnia
An extremely rare sleep disorder affecting only a few families worldwide that slowly removes the ability to sleep until falling asleep becomes completely impossible.
Circadian Rhythm Disorder
Circadian rhythm disorders are problems that affect your sleep timing so that you can’t fall asleep until much later than you would like or fall asleep too early in the evening.
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome
A sleep disorder most commonly experienced by young people, where the sleep pattern moves forward by a few hours each day, causing you to fall asleep later each night and wake up later the next day.
How to Avoid and Overcome Jet lag
Jet lag can cause huge disruption to your sleeping pattern, enough to cause sleep deprivation. Here's how to quickly overcome jet lag and some methods for avoiding it completely.