Sleep Disorders Overview

Sleep disorders are sleep problems that, if untreated, can affect a person's physical health, daily activities, and mental health. More than the once-in-a-while tossing and turning or waking up early, sleep disorders are medical conditions that can potentially be serious. But, there is treatment for all of these disorders. Talk with your health care provider if you think you may have a sleep disorder.

Common sleep disorders include:

• Sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea stop breathing for a very short time many times during the night. Its main symptoms are loud snoring and feeling sleepy during the day. People with this disorder don't get enough restful sleep at night, making it hard for them to function during the day. Sleep apnea can lead to high blood pressure, heart failure, heart attack, and stroke.

• Narcolepsy. When a person has narcolepsy, brain messages about when to sleep and when to be awake get mixed up. This can make a person fall asleep when they don't want to, often without any warning like feeling drowsy. If not controlled with medication, this disorder can cause serious problems in a person's personal, social, and work life. It can also limit a person's activities, such as driving a car, work, and exercising. This disorder may run in families.

• Restless legs syndrome. A person with this disorder can have unpleasant feelings or sensations in the legs, mostly in the calves or lower legs. In some cases, the arms may also be affected. These feelings are often described as creeping, crawling, tingling, pulling, or painful. This disorder can be hard to diagnose and is sometimes mistaken for nervousness, insomnia, stress, or arthritis. It seems to affect women more often than men.

• Insomnia. People with insomnia have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep during the night. They can wake up often during the night and have difficulty getting back to sleep, or they can wake up too early in the morning. Sleep does not feel satisfying when a person has insomnia. A person can feel sleepy, tired, and irritable during the day and have trouble focusing on tasks.