Introduction
There are thousands of things in the world that keep people awake at night whether it is a 4th of July firework jubilee or alley cats who will not shut up or arguing neighbors upstairs, these are only some of the things that keep people awake at night. Another thing that have been known to keep people awake at night is sleeping disorders, and it can turn the most studious person into a drowsy pool of lifeless jelly. College students are a fine example of this, most stay up all night studying and getting sleep is usually the last thing on their to do list.
However, common people such as those who work 9 to 5 jobs are more susceptible to sleeping disorders than most people. It is also a known fact that sleeping disorders cause a multitude of problems in people, these sleeping disorders cause people to do things that they normally would not do. Generally, sleep disorders are temporary problems with more or less mystical causes. However, there are sleep disorders that some people know and some people do not know which this paper will cover.
Body
One of the most common sleeping disorders that exist and one that everyone has experienced at one time or another is called Sleepwalking. Interesting enough, another name for a sleepwalker is somnambulist and most people do not know it but sleepwalking can be caused by many things such as heredity or medical reasons. As previously stated, sleepwalking is one of the most common sleeping disorders in which a person will get out of their bed and walk about the house or target certain places within the house. Sleepwalking has been known to allow a person to completely leave their house, and end up in someone else’s house like in their kitchen, refrigerator or in their den. Ironically, when a person sleepwalks, they have no idea where they go or where they end up at when they finally do awake. Julie Roddick stated in 2005 that anyone can experience sleep disturbances whether it is a man or a child, no one is immune. Sleepwalking happens to people of all ages, it was once believed that kids were the only ones to be impacted by sleepwalking; adults are affected as well. In fact, it is said that adults are more susceptible to sleepwalking than children. Sleepwalking makes a person completely unaware that they are doing something, it makes a person so oblivious that the sleepwalker is not there in mind or body. Erroneously, waking a sleepwalker can have disastrous consequences for the person who dares wakes them. Sleepwalking can turn a harmless sleepwalker into a lethal fighter. For example, a person spots a sleepwalker a mile away. The person knows the sleepwalker and they run over to the sleepwalker, they try to wake them up. The sleepwalker will more than likely start swinging and flailing their arms trying to hit the person who touched them, sometimes the sleepwalker will land a few hits then wake up. The reason is because the sleepwalker does not recognize the person trying to wake them, sleepwalking has also been known to make people do things like ride a bike or play a video game or feed the neighbor’s cat.
Now, while there are sleeping disorders that can cause a person to do things that they would not otherwise do, there are some sleeping disorders that can literally cause a person great physical harm. One of the sleeping disorders that can do that is called Narcolepsy, and it is one of the most dangerous sleeping disorders of its kind. Narcolepsy can do everything from put a person in the hospital, miss days of work due to injury, cause or get into a car accident and cause lower body paralysis. People suffering from Narcolepsy are on constant alert from the people around them because those people know that bad things can happen to those suffering from the disease. Narcolepsy causes extreme sleepiness during the day which can cause people to fall asleep without warning, this disease interferes with a person’s concentration level where they are not likely to focus on immediate concerns or issues especially if it is work related. This disease also cause a hallucinatory experience where the person sees things that would otherwise not be there, the hallucinations can be anything from a big spider on the wall or a someone walking toward them like they want to harm the person or blood all over the walls. Generally, a narcoleptic will hallucinate all sorts of things, so there is no precise way of knowing; hallucinations are different per person. Narcolepsy can make a driver a lethal weapon because a narcoleptic can cause an accident by sleeping behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, the ramifications of these actions can be catastrophic to not just the narcoleptic driver but everyone else on the road as well. It is dangerous for a narcoleptic to walk down stairs of any kind because people suffering from narcolepsy also have trouble with keeping their muscles active, narcolepsy can cause a person’s muscles to lock up in their body. For example, a narcoleptic is getting ready to walk down some stairs and their muscles lock up, the narcoleptic person falls down the stairs; continuously rolling until they get to a stopping point on the stairs. Sleep paralysis also accompanies this disease, people cannot say a word or move while attempting to fall asleep; their will is not their own.
As most well know, sleeping disorders can really mess with a person’s daily activities and their sleep patterns. Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder is a sleeping disorder that happens when a person wakes up a lot later than they are supposed to, this particular sleeping disorder has been the downfall of working people especially those who work midnights or graveyard shifts to be more precise. This sleeping disorder has a bittersweet effect about it, the bitter part of this sleeping disorder is that no matter how much a person tries to wake up to an alarm clock set by themselves or set by them on their cellphone or even by a person shaking them wildly, they will not wake up. In fact, it would take another person about a minimum of 2 hours to try to wake that person up. The fact remains though that the person that is going through this will not wake up on their own or on their own right away, it is not unlikely for the person to sleep 12 hours or more before realizing that they slept their day away. The sweet part about this sleeping disorder is that the person’s sleep will be practically never-ending, they will be able to sleep through loud noises for one thing. However, someone going through Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder will get all of the sleep that they want to get, but other mental parts of them suffer such as mental power, extreme sluggishness and falling asleep at random times during the day. A person going through this become incapable of living a normal life because they are constantly on their sleeping schedule and not their active waking life schedules, this disease completely messes with their body’s natural equilibrium. People who suffer from this are more than likely to take another big hit in their mental state making even the most common everyday information hard to remember, it gets to a point where these people do not know things like who they work for, who their kids are, their names, birthdates, husband’s social security number etc. People suffering from this who work corporate jobs are going to really send their company’s level of productivity plummeting because the person in question cannot get their body to react, their sleep will take precedence.
Marcelo Merello proposed in 1998 that Restless Sleep Syndrome increases as the person gets older, so there is no way that one person can suffer from it and the other person do not; everyone goes through this at some point in their lives. Restless Sleep Syndrome is similar to a charlie horse in the aspect that a person is liable to feel a real annoying pain in their leg which has been known to keep them up night after night, this is another one of those diseases that causes people to be up half the night trying to find a cure for. Intelligently, finding a cure for Restless Leg Syndrome is more or less complicated. Restless Leg Syndrome only affects those who are in bed instead of attacking them during the day, it is not common for Restless Leg Syndrome to just appear within every person whether they are young or old. A person who is afflicted with this sleeping disorder will be at the mercy of leg pain aplenty, and for some, the leg pain can go from uncomfortable to flat out overwhelming. This little disease requires that a person to immediately get out of bed and walk around until the pain subsides which can last anywhere from the rest of that night into the afternoon of that same day. This is likely to cause some discomfort from the person when they are trying to start their day and start it as a disaster. Even though Restless Leg Syndrome is likely to affect most adults at random times, Restless Leg Syndrome is hereditary which means that even though some adults do not think that they can get it, they will eventually get it if their father or mother had it. It is a known fact that Restless Leg Syndrome pain grows out of control when a person is not getting any exercise, to the point of it being crippling. The worse symptom about this condition is that it can cause a person to get up at several different points throughout the night, this can become an annoyance very quickly because most people know that the night is reserved for sleep for the next day’s activities. Anyone suffering from this knows that there is no night or sleep for them as long as they are going through this.
Getting a good night sleep these days are getting harder and harder the more people age, and a lot of people lament about how easy it used to be able to get a lot of sleep to sleeping through the night uninterrupted. Validly, uninterrupted sleep is what everyone wants, but only a small handful are getting it these days due to the various sleeping disorders. Nocturia is another sleeping disorder that has disrupted many a person’s sleep, it practically leaves a person feeling tired and drained the next morning. Nocturia is when a person urinates several times throughout the night, this leaves a person completely at the mercy of their bladder instead of their need for sleep. People suffering from Nocturia often get very little sleep and are usually caught trying to catch up on the sleep they missed that night, this can be a common occurrence in much older people between the ages of 50 to 65. Technically, Nocturia can happen to younger people as well, ages from 33 to 38 and some believe that Nocturia is linked to sleep apnea which it more or less is, the problem with Nocturia is that it affects the bladder whereas the person is constantly urinating so they do not end up urinating on themselves. Frightenedly, those suffering from Nocturia are usually suffering from other things like a bad liver which can cause a lot of problems within the body and those problems only get worse if they have a disease like diabetes.
Conclusion
Sleeping disorders can do everything from keeping a person up all night, to causing an auto accident to stiff muscles and memory loss over the smallest piece of information such as a person’s work number, which child gets out of school and when. Sleeping disorders should always be at the forefront of observation and treatment because if a person is not careful about getting treated for their sleeping disorders, they could cause disaster to befall those around them or themselves; sleeping disorders should never be taken lightly. Getting immediate help is definitely the best course of action.
Works Cited
Roddick, Julie . "Sleep Disorders." . Healthline, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 June 2014. <http://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/disorders#Overview 1>.
Merello, Marcelo. "Restless Leg Syndrome." . International Parkinson's and Movement Disorder Society, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 June 2014. <http://www.movementdisorders.org/MDS/About/Movement-Disorder-Overviews/Restless-Legs-Syndrome.htm>.
