The Concept of Sleep-Wake Disorders - Essay Example

Sleep-Wake Disorders Content Sleep-wake disorders occur due to the timing, quality and amount of sleep. This can result in to impairment and daytime distress. Some of the disorders of sleep-wake are nightmare disorder, breathing-related disorders, insomnia disorder, sleep behavior disorder, rapid eye movement and restless leg disorder syndrome. Some of the syndrome of sleep-wake can create adverse impact on human beings both physically and mentally. The occurrence of sleep-wake disorder is not only a risk factor for the progress of mental conditions but also a possible cautionary sign for severe medical and mental issues. This essay will discuss about sleep-wake disorders. Sleep-wake disorders lead to varied distresses and severe ailments. The adverse impact of these disorders can disturb the social function, mental and physical activities of people. According to the etiological factors and features of clinic, sleep-wake disorders are categorized in to many classes. This resembles the fact that the Sleep-wake disorders can create disastrous impact on human beings. Some of the common sleep disorders of child are sleep-related disturbances in breathing, central hypoventilation syndrome and narcolepsy. The snoring sound in children can occur due to the vibration of soft palate. A person who does not maintain any time for sleeping can create snoring sound. Sometimes disturbances in sleeping can lead to problem of breathing.The cognitive focus and fatigues are the more obvious concern that leads to sleep disorders. The causes of distress on the health of human body and disturbed sleep are the pivotal reason behind the happening of Sleep-wake disorders. Non-24-hour is one of the sleep-wake disorders. It is also known as hypernychthemeral and free running disorder. This disorder is lead to extreme sleepiness which is between the 24-hour dark-light cycles and connected to the abnormal synchronization. The larger numbers of patients with Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder are blind. Two characteristics of the disorder are blind and sighted. The patients with this disorder often believe that a single day is longer than 24 hours. The body of people with non-24 refuses to adjust to the light-dark external cycle. This becomes difficult for patients to know the actual time to sleep and leads to daily shifts. The sleep-wake cycle of people is daily changed by this disorder. This degree of change in sleeping time is dependent on the number of hours or minutes the cycle lasts after 24 hours (Reading, 2010). The changes in the sleep-wake cycles become difficult for patients to adjust. It becomes hard for people to adjust during medications, illness, stress, vacations and travelling to places with different time zones. The disorder of non-24-hours can especially occur at any age. This can eventually lead to chronic sleep deprivation, myriad effect and insomnia. Other characteristic of this disorder is blind. It has been revealed by estimation that more than half of the people who are having this disorder are all blind. This dangerous disorder can occur after birth. Retina contains photosensitive ganglion cells. This enables people to view things. The lack of sunlight in the eyes can lead to the removal of photosensitive ganglion cells. In 24-hours social day, the lack of light in to the retina would create negative synchronization of the circadian rhythm. This lack of synchronization results in to blind people.Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorderprevents the perception of light in eyes. Most of the blind people have circadian rhythmsand little penetration of light in their eyes. 24-hout day-night cycle is synchronized which makes people to view. The lack of this synchronization results in to total blind individuals. This causes fluctuation in the period of good sleep and extreme sleepiness. In United States, 1.3 million are estimated to be blind people (Stores, 2001). The main sign of Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder can be due to daytime sleepiness and poor sleep. There is no specific age limit for this disorder. Irregular sleep-wake syndrome is another sleep-wake disorder. People with this disorder can experience disturbed sleep. There is no specific time of sleep. This syndrome enables people to sleep at a stretch maximum four hours a time. People can sleep at any time during 24-hour period. The problems of this syndrome are excessive sleeping during daytime and insomnia. Lack of circadian rhythm is the pivotal reason for the cause for irregular sleep-wake syndrome. People must have daily routine for the time to sleep. People who do not follow the routine are more prone to this syndrome. Some other factors of this disorder are frequently travelling at places with dissimilar time zones and working at irregular shifts. The gradual increase of age can also lead to the prevalence of irregular syndrome. Irregular sleep-wake syndrome is very rare. People who do not have routine for a day and problem of brain function can causeIrregular sleep-wake patter. The problems of internal clock of body I another reason of the disorder. Total number of hours slept by people with Irregular sleep-wake syndrome is ideal for the age. But main issue is the abnormal sleep episodes. People can sleep three to four times a day. The amount of time slept by individual can be normal. But this disorder can lead to the reduction of normal circadian cycle of body clock. Actigraph is a device which is used when diagnosis of the syndrome is not clear. This device is like wristwatch which people can wear and notify the time of sleep and awake.The time provided by the device can people to know amount of sleep time. There is no specific cure and medicine for the cure of Irregular sleep-wake syndrome (Kothare, 2011). Changes in the lifestyle and several therapies can help to address the syndrome. Patients are exposed to the light which is controlled. The amount of light to be penetrated in to the eyes is measured.Blue light must be exposed to the patients. The exposure of blue light must be increased during day time and minimized during night. The minimization of noise during night and melatonin supplementations can help to reduce the syndrome. Exercise, social interaction and comfortable sleeping environment for patients are the others therapies. There are the sleep-wake disorders that can be controlled by maximization of wakefulness and maintaining schedule for sleeping at night. References Kothare, S. (2011). Sleep in Childhood Neurological Disorders. New York: Demos Medical Publishing. Reading, P. (2010). Sleep Disorders in Neurology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Stores, G. (2001). A Clinical Guide to Sleep Disorders. London: Cambridge University Press. Read More