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Everyone experiences sleep difficulties from time to time. But, when you or someone you love has trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and/or achieving restful sleep regularly, you may be experiencing a sleep disorder. The Sleep Disorders Center at Beebe Medical Center can evaluate your or your child’s sleep problems, diagnose their cause, and create a treatment plan.
TEN WAYS TO HELP SPOT SLEEP DISORDERS
If you, your spouse, or partner experience any of these symptoms, a sleep disorder may be the cause.
- Loud, irregular snoring or gasping for breath
- Breathing stops during sleep. Periodic episodes
of breath-holding or sudden body movements
before breathing resumes
- Falling asleep while eating, driving, or talking.
Excessive daytime sleepiness or uncontrollable
sleep attacks
- Awakening short of breath or with rapid heartbeat
- History of high blood pressure or weight gain
- Profuse sweating at night
- Frequent dreaming, nightmares, or hallucinations
before or after sleep
- Confusion, memory loss, decreased job performance, trouble concentrating, personality change, loss of sex drive, or irritability that may impair your quality of life
- Sudden loss of muscle tone while angry or laughing
- A feeling of being paralyzed upon awakening
UNDERSTANDING A SLEEP DISORDER
There are several sleep disorders that require medical
attention. The Sleep Disorders Center at Beebe Medical Center can evaluate, diagnose, and treat sleep-related problems.
SLEEP APNEA
Sleep apnea is a disorder which interrupts breathing during sleep. These interruptions can last 60 seconds or more and may occur hundreds of times each night. They are usually accompanied by loud snoring, gasping, and choking.
PERIODIC LIMB MOVEMENTS
Involuntary leg and limb movements or jerks during sleep result in lighter or fragmented sleep. Often, people complain of crawling, creeping, tingling, or twitching beneath the skin when laying down to rest.
NARCOLEPSY
This is a neurological illness that causes sudden, uncontrollable sleep attacks including irresistible daytime sleep. People with narcolepsy may also experience sleep paralysis, intense visual and hearing experiences when falling asleep or waking, and frequent awakenings during nighttime sleep.
INSOMNIA
Many people have difficulty falling or staying asleep at night. Others wake up early in the morning. Brief periods of insomnia are common and essentially a harmless reaction to temporary stress. But insomnia that does not go away or that keeps coming back is usually a symptom of a more serious, underlying problem and may last for months or even years. The treatment for chronic insomnia depends upon the underlying cause.
SLEEP DISORDERS CENTER
302-645-3186
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