Sleep Disorders
Sleep Disorders
Insomnia and Sleep Disorders
We all tend to class poor quality of sleep as insomnia but really there are many different sleep disorders such as sleepwalking, restless leg syndrome, nightmares and narcolepsy to name the main ones. Sleep is vital for our welling being and lack of it affects us in various ways:-
- Difficulty in getting to sleep
- Falling asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow
- Waking up during the night
- Difficulty waking up in the morning
- Poor performance in school, work, or sports
- Increased clumsiness
- Difficulty making decisions
- Falling asleep in work or class
- Feeling especially moody & irritated
There are two main types of sleep REM sleep is when you do most active dreaming with the eyes moving back and forth whereas non REM sleep consists of four stages of deeper and deeper sleep. Each sleep state is important for overall quality sleep but deep sleep and REM sleep are especially vital.
Deep sleep has the largest impact on us when we are deprived of sleep and is the stage that the brain attempts to recover first. REM sleep or dream sleep is essential to our minds for processing and consolidating emotions, memories and stress.
It is also thought to be vital to learning, stimulating the brain regions used in learning and developing new skills.
Whilst most dreaming occurs during REM sleep it can happen during other sleep stags too. If REM sleep is disrupted one night your body will go through more REM the next to catch up on this sleep stage.
Studies have shown that better REM sleeps helps boost your mood during the day. Improving your overall sleep will also increase your REM sleep because if your body is deprived of deep sleep it will make that up first at the expense of the REM sleep.
Call me on 01582 416 605 / 07949 171 439