Sleep is essential for optimal health.  Shockingly, 85% of people have problems sleeping!  But sleep disorders do not have to disrupt your life.  We are here to help you sleep and feel better.

The symptoms and treatment options for problems with sleep vary, depending on the specific sleep disorder.

More than 88 different disorders of sleeping and waking have been identified. They can be grouped in four main categories:

1.     Problems with sleepiness during the day

2.     Problems with falling and staying asleep

3.     Problems with sticking to a regular sleep schedule

4.     Sleep-disruptive behaviors

However, there are 5 main sleep disorders that we tend to see in the population:

1. Sleep Apnea: pauses in breathing during sleep for different reasons. 
    The Symptoms of Apnea include:

• SNORING
• Daytime Sleepiness
• Pauses in breathing or snoring while sleeping
• Morning dry mouth and/or morning headaches
• Moodiness, including mild depression
• Loss of sex drive
• Frequent nighttime urination
• Weight gain

2. Insomnia: inability to fall asleep, maintain sleep, or awaken early in the morning. 
The symptoms of insomnia include:

• Trouble falling asleep (more than 30 minutes, more than 3 times per week)
• Trouble staying asleep (awakening after a few hours and it takes more than 20 minutes to fall back asleep)
• Waking up more than 1 hour before you want to, or ahead of your alarm
• Getting 8 hours of sleep but feeling like the quality of your sleep is poor
• A racing mind (“I can’t turn my mind off before bed”)
• Weight loss
• Anxiety or Depression

3. Periodic limb movement disorder: rhythmic movement of the limbs during sleep
Symptoms include:

• A small kick occurring while sleeping in either arms or legs
• Constant tossing and turning while sleeping
• Shaking the bed  

4. Restless leg syndrome: A feeling of leg restlessness where you are constantly moving, trying to get comfortable. 
Symptoms include:

• An inability to lie in bed still
• An inability to get comfortable in bed
• A creepy, crawling feeling in your legs or arms that goes away with movement.

5. Disorders of excessive sleepiness called hypersomnias.

     These include:

• Narcolepsy: excessive daytime sleepiness and sometimes falling asleep at inappropriate times
• diopathic hypersomnia: excessive sleepiness that occurs without an identifiable cause  

Abnormal behaviors during sleep are called parasomnias and are fairly common in children and may be seen in some adults. They include:

• Sleep terrors
• Sleep walking
• Sleep Talking
• Sexsomnia
• REM sleep behavior disorder: where a person acts out their dreams 

If lack of sleep or too much sleep is interfering with your quality of life, or if non-breathing spells are observed during sleep, please call for an appointment with Dr. Breus.  The Sleep Doctor is here with your solution!  Please CLICK HERE to learn more about the Sleep Doctor.

Dr. Breus’s SoundSleep Solutions CD will help you get to sleep and stay asleep.  As THE leading expert in sleep therapy, The Sleep Doctor’s CD was selected to help Crown Plaza Hotel guests rest easy!  Available at Arrowhead Health for only $10!