Know the Solutions of Sleeping Disorders

The treatment is related to the cause, if the cause can be determined. If there is an obvious physical or psychological disorder causing insomnia, it should be treated. Depression is a very common cause of insomnia and can usually be treated with medication, cognitive behavioral therapy, or interpersonal therapy.

In addition, oral appliance therapy, positional therapy, somnoplasty, laser surgery or UP3 (where the tissue at the back of the throat is removed) are other ways to help sleep apnea patients attain restful sleep.

The tendency to be early to bed and early to rise increases as we grow older. Most persons adapt successfully but some of us find that our bodies say, "It's bedtime," earlier than we desire – often well before 9 p.m. Known as advanced sleep phase syndrome (or ASPS) this problem can wreck havoc with social life. Most persons with ASPS try numerous strategies to help them stay awake. Even if they succeed in pushing bedtime later, they may not be able to sleep any later because their body clocks still awaken them in the early morning hours.

Evidence suggests that melatonin is not effective in treating most primary sleep disorders with short-term use, although there is some evidence to suggest that melatonin is effective in treating delayed sleep phase syndrome with short-term use.

Natural remedies have been used for years to treat sleep disorders. One of the most popular "natural" remedies for insomnia has been melatonin, which can be obtained at most pharmacies and health food stores. Melatonin is a hormone that is known to be involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. It has been shown that the ingestion of melatonin prior to bedtime will help individuals fall asleep. However, scientific data have failed to confirm that melatonin is useful in maintaining sleep.

You can address most common sleep problems through lifestyle changes and improved sleep hygiene but it is important to see your doctor or a sleep specialist for a diagnosis if your sleep does not improve. A doctor who specializes in sleep problems is most skilled in diagnosing and treating sleep disorders. Sometimes sleep specialists work out of a sleep center; others are independent.

To determine if you have a sleep disorder, first pay attention to your sleep habits and daily routine. Whether you are trying to help yourself or planning to visit a doctor, it is helpful to record your sleep habits. Your sleep history will help you and your doctor find the cause of your sleep problems.

Your primary-care physician may be able to deal with depression as a temporary side effect or the everyday blues, but it's a psychiatrist who is trained in the ins and outs of major depression and its treatment, and it's a psychiatrist who is most able to suggest the treatment option that, tailored to your particular situation and combination of issues, is most likely to succeed.

Regularize your sleep hours. Irregular sleep hours can throw off your sleep cycles and lead to breathing problems during the most important sleep stages. Stabilizing bedtime hours and eliminating disturbances to your sleep can reduce sleep apnea.

Eliminate the use of alcohol, tobacco, and sedatives such as sleeping pills. Avoiding the use of alcohol, tobacco, and sleeping pills can reduce the likelihood of airway closure during the night.

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How Find the Best Way to Solve Your Toddler Sleep Problems

Does my toddler have a sleep problem? Your answer is dependent upon how well you cope with not getting uninterrupted sleep, as well as your expectations for a good night's rest.

There are parents who don't mind sleeping all night with their children if it means getting 12 hours sleep. Many other parents move from bed to bed over the course of a night. And in other families, the children never leave their own beds for any reason during the night. Where you fall on this spectrum will largely determine whether or not you believe your child has a sleep problem.

If you are unhappy with the current sleeping patterns, then there are some approaches you can take to change things. Some parents can not stand to hear the heartbreaking sobs of unhappy children at night, and so they choose to take the path that is most likely to involve upsetting their toddler. You might decide instead to just go with whatever makes the kid happy, in the hopes that their schedule will eventually coincide with yours, and you'll all do fine.

To accomplish this, they may sleep the same room or even in the same bed as their toddler. That way when the child wakes in the night, they are reassured by the parent's proximity. This strategy involves the theory that you can eventually teach the toddler how to sleep in their own space, and sleep training is no longer required.

The great thing about this process is that you can prevent the agony and stress that can come with sleep training. Not all methods of sleep training end in tears and a distressed toddler.

However, this strategy can also leave the parents completely drained and exhausted from having to wake up all the time, leaving them agitated and full of frayed nerves that make them liable to snap at the slightest provocation. For these parents, a different approach is needed.

Just take it one day at a time, and slow down. You can't address all of the problems inherent in a constantly waking child who starts screaming and running throughout the house breaking things because they can't establish a routine for sleep. Begin by tackling one issue at a time.

Sit down and discuss the issue with your toddler before beginning any method of sleep training. We realize that not all toddlers are going to be reasonable, just as not all sleep-deprived parents will be reasonable, but the important thing is that you do open this line of communication with your child.

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Apnea: A Chronic Sleep Problem

A sleep lab patient, Pasadena resident William H. Chapman, was tested after his wife wrote his doctor to express concern about his restless sleep. Chapman, 61, has been a heavy snorer for decades.

"The descriptions of my snoring went from something like a growling bear to a machine that was going to knock down the house," he said. When he and his son went camping in southern Utah last year, his son asked him to sleep in the truck.

He felt bone-tired during the day, what he describes as "30 years struggling against this weariness that you feel perpetually. No alertness. No get-up-and-go."

Finally, Chapman spent a night at Torrance Memorial, plugged into the polysomnograph. The test results were startling: He was holding his breath as many as 57 times an hour, each time for 10 to 40 seconds. He would wake repeatedly as he held his breath, meaning that he unknowingly was sleeping only four or five hours a night.

A federal report concluded that while 60 million Americans suffer from apnea, narcolepsy and other chronic sleep problems, the majority are undiagnosed and untreated. Despite its pervasiveness and impact upon the society, sleep-related problems are not recognized as a public health issue.

The most common and severe form, called obstructive sleep apnea, features extremely loud snoring interrupted by pauses and gasps. Breathing stops for 10 seconds or longer, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times each night.

Most frequently, the airway becomes blocked during sleep due to excessive relaxation of throat muscles. In children, sleep apnea is often the result of enlarged tonsils and adenoids.

People with sleep apnea may show signs of anxiety, depression, irritability, forgetfulness and fatigue during the day. Recent studies have found that sleep apnea sufferers have two to five times as many automobile accidents as people in the general population.

Treatment includes weight reduction (most people with severe sleep apnea are overweight); avoiding alcohol within two hours of bedtime and sleeping drugs; surgery to remove excess tissue at the back of the throat or enlarged tonsils and adenoids; use of a special mask that improves flow of air through nasal passages.

Undergoing surgery or sleeping with a mask clamped to your face may seem like extreme measures just to silence snoring. But if you have sleep apnea, those treatments could save your life.

As awareness of apnea mounts, suspected sufferers are spending their nights under an infrared camera's watchful eye in hundreds of so-called "sleep labs" across America, sensors dotting their skin and scalp.

Eleven o'clock is "lights out." At 11:02 sharp, Navarro yawns. A needle swings wildly on a monitor humming softly in the next room. At 11:10 p.m., Navarro turns onto his left side, and a half-dozen needles jerk in response.

This night will be like no other for Navarro, a 32-year-old computer programmer. For the next seven hours, his every breath, movement and heartbeat will be recorded as he spends the night in a sleep disorders laboratory.

He is here because doctors think he suffers from sleep apnea, a disorder marked by loud snoring and interrupted breathing. Once considered relatively obscure, sleep apnea is stirring increased concern among physicians because it can cause severe daytime fatigue, high blood pressure, stroke and heart problems; serious cases can be life-threatening.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that sleep apnea is more common than once believed. The study found that 9% of women and 24% of men had sleep-disordered breathing; 2% of women and 4% of men in the middle-aged work force met the criteria for sleep apnea. That would make undiagnosed sleep apnea a major public health burden.

Depending on the severity of the apnea, treatment can include use of a night time face mask or even surgery. There's a less high-tech approach for those who snore or suffer apnea only while on their backs: sewing a tennis ball in the back of their pajamas tops so they will sleep on their sides instead.

Not surprisingly, roommates and spouses are often the first to spot potential apnea victims. Navarro is a longtime snorer; he can remember his college roommates waking him to request that he tone it down. His wife, Christine, grew worried when she noticed that he sometimes stopped breathing briefly during the night. She learned about sleep apnea from her doctor and urged her husband to get tested.

A video screen shows Navarro dozing peacefully. Pink computer paper moves steadily through the polysomnograph, a machine with 12 needles that records everything from his eye movements to heart contractions.

All night, monitors will record the needles' black tracks, paying special attention to those measuring Navarro's breathing. Sleep apnea victims have been known to stop breathing hundreds of times each night.

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