How to recognise sleep disorders

New Delhi: Adults need an average of eight hours of sleep everyday. Any condition that causes disturbances in the sleep pattern could lead to a sleep disorders.

Doctors say that a modern lifestyle is mainly responsible for the rise of sleep disorders among people. We may be sleep deprived without us knowing about it.

"People are trying to do a lot of things at night and that is taking a toll on them because nature has not made us like this," sleep specialist, Dr Vikram Sarbai says.

One of the most common form of sleep disorders, sleep apnea for that matter, could go ignored as excessive snoring.

Sleep apnea is caused by upper airway obstruction during sleep. The throat muscles relax to such an extent that they obstruct the windpipe, making breathing difficult and depriving the body of adequate oxygen.

The common symptoms include heavy snoring, drowsiness during the day, headaches on waking up, mood changes and depression.

However, making some lifestyle changes can control sleep apnea. An obese person should control his or her body weight. You should change sleeping postures and avoiding alcohol and sedatives could help too.

Meanwhile, virtually everyone has an occasional sleepless night but when it becomes frequent, it could be insomnia.

Short-term insomnia can be treated with sleeping pills.

However, if it is a chronic case, a deeper investigation is required as it could be caused by a various physical and psychological ailments.

Sleep deprivation is cumulative, so each hour of sleep lost will count some day. Make sure you get your 'quota' of sleep everyday before it paves way for serious problems.

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