A sleep disorder is a condition in which a person cannot get healthy sleep, or cannot stay awake during the day despite getting enough sleep. It also includes conditions in which the sleep rhythm is disturbed, causing difficulty sleeping or staying awake.
Any illness or injury can disturb sleep. Internal factors such as excitement, worry and stress also play a role, and sometimes sleeping pills themselves can cause insomnia. Drinking and eating can affect sleep, and aging can also be a cause.
Insomnia is being unable to sleep for two weeks or more despite a suitable environment and conditions. It includes difficulty falling asleep, waking often during the night, and waking early in the morning without getting back to sleep. It can cause daytime fatigue, drowsiness and loss of motivation.
Hypersomnia may be suspected when excessive daytime sleepiness occurs even after sleeping at least 7 hours at night. Irresistible sleepiness can make a person suddenly fall asleep for ten minutes or more, even while talking or driving. It may be accompanied by sleep paralysis and hallucinations around the time of falling asleep.
A sleep disorder in which a hard-to-describe discomfort in the legs around bedtime makes it difficult to fall asleep, leading to lack of sleep. Patients describe the feeling in various ways, such as an electric current or insects crawling, but usually do not describe it as pain.
Snoring is a very common physiological phenomenon, but about 75% of people who snore also have sleep apnea, in which breathing stops during sleep. When sleep apnea occurs more than 40 times a night, deep sleep becomes impossible and the body's oxygen supply is reduced, which can cause daytime fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, headaches and lethargy.
