Insomnia & Sleep Disorders

Insomnia and other sleep disorders and the health problems they cause are receiving growing recognition from the healthcare profession due to their pervasiveness and ability to potentially interfere with normal functioning, as well as the recognition in the 20th century of the medical importance of sleep. Today, more than 1,600 laboratories for sleep monitoring exist across the United States.

Disturbances in regular sleep patterns can be the result of a variety of factors, including teeth grinding, apnea, mood disorders and night terrors.

When a person has a difficulty sleeping with no clear cause, it is known as insomnia. Sleep disorders also encompass excessive sleeping, a condition known as hypersomnia.

Sleep apnea, a potentially serious disorder, is usually the result of breathing irregularities and can result in a range of consequences including daytime sleepiness and irritability to increased risk of accidents and hypertension. Untreated sleep apnea patients are three times more likely to have car accidents than those without sleeping disorders and as many as 50% of all sleep apnea sufferers have high blood pressure. Although only about 2 million cases of sleep apnea have been diagnosed in the U.S., the actual number of individuals suffering from the condition is estimated at between 15 to 30 million, with different groups using various methodologies to arrive at different estimates.

Common treatments for insomnia and sleep disorders include behavioral treatments, medications, and home respiratory breathing products, such as continuous positive airway pressure devices and bi-level positive airway pressure electro-mechanical devices for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.