Ailments and injury can put your body through the ringer, but recovery can be complicated by sleep symptoms. Pain and medications used to treat it can prevent you from sleeping or wake you frequently.
Long term sleep deprivation can worsen the symptoms of an existing ailment and lead to a multitude of other physical and mental illnesses. In this article, we’ll examine some common sicknesses and how they can impact the quality of your sleep.
Insomnia is defined by when you have problems falling asleep, maintaining sleep, or experience non-restorative sleep that occurs on a regular or frequent basis. While an occasional sleepless night may just leave you with a nasty case of daytime sleepiness, long term sleep deprivation can lead to several health problems.
Insomnia is among the symptoms associated with many common conditions. People withdrawing from drug and alcohol dependency often cannot fall asleep. Insomnia is also a common side effect of headaches, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and ginseng overuse.
Drowsiness is also a sleep symptom of many conditions. Frequent travelers often feel drowsy after a long trip. Feelings of sleepiness can also accompany diabetes, whooping cough, head injuries and heart attacks.
Studies have shown that sleep disorders are more prevalent in women. Premenstrual syndrome, menopause symptoms, and post partum stress can all disrupt your sleep. Women with these conditions often experience headaches, hot flashes, digestive issues, breast pain, joint pain and night sweats, all of which inhibits the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. These symptoms can be exacerbated by stress and overwork.
To regulate the symptoms and improve the quality of your sleep, many doctors recommend correcting nutritional deficiencies, regulating blood sugar levels, reducing salt intake and treating hormone imbalances promptly. If you don’t want to take sleep medicine, then naturopaths suggest avoiding junk food, fatty foods and tea and coffee, eating raw vegetables and not smoking.
Psychological illnesses and sleep disorders practically go hand in hand. The symptoms of each disorder feeds the other, creating a vicious circle of sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression. Many patients suffering from chronic anxiety, bipolar disorder and depression often experience sleep symptoms, such as the inability to sleep, sleeping too much and disrupted sleep.
Patients with sleep apnea tend to suffer from depression which is believed to be related to their lack of sleep. Stress, alcohol and drug abuse are also common symptoms of psychological illnesses. For this reason, most doctors and psychiatrists choose to treat patients with a combination of antidepressants and cognitive therapy.
A restless night can result in more than just daytime sleepiness, so it’s crucial to seek medical attention if you aren’t sleeping for an extended period of time. The doctor treating your primary illness can recommend ways to improve your sleep or refer you to a sleep disorder center.
Your quality of life and your illness will definitely improve once the sleep symptoms are gone and you start getting some quality shut eye.
Comments on this entry are closed.