Common Sleep Disorders and Symptoms

Sleep disorders are medical problems producing symptoms that often interfere with a person's ability to function successfully and happily at home or at work. Excessive daytime sleepiness, chronic insomnia (with or without dependence on sleeping pills) and unusual behaviors at night are examples of such disorders.

Frequently observed symptoms include snoring, irregular breathing during sleep, bedwetting, sleepwalking, restless legs, nocturnal headaches, shortness of breath at night, and problems related to shift work and irregular sleep/wake schedules.

Three types of sleep disorders are seen most frequently at The Sleep Disorders Center at St. Helena Hospital:

• Sleep apnea and snoring. Patients with apnea stop breathing during sleep. These apneas can last as long as a minute and may occur several hundred times a night. The resulting disturbance in sleep causes daytime sleepiness. As a consequence, the person may be sleepy all day. Loud snoring is a symptom of apnea. This disorder occurs most frequently in men but can occur in women or children; many sufferers are overweight. Sleep apnea may contribute to high blood pressure and heartdisease.
  
  
• Restless legs. Some patients experience frequent leg (or arm) movements throughout the night, which cause many brief awakenings with insufficient restful sleep.
  
  
• Narcolepsy. Patients with this disorder may fall asleep at inappropriate times, such as while talking, eating or driving. Another symptom of narcolepsy is the sudden onset of weakness at times of strong emotion. These symptoms begin in adolescence and continue throughout life; narcolepsy may improve with treatment or medication.