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Yasoda Rijal
Mr. Ring
Psychology
25 September 2015
Effect of Sleep Disorders on Individuals
Sleep disorders negatively affect people families, friends, and society. Therefore, it is
essential to understand the importance and types of sleep, as well as the causes and effects of
sleep disorders on individuals, the connections between sleep and disease, and the diagnosis and
treatment of these disorders.
Sleep is a requirement needed by an individual. Sleep is directly connected to the body
and minds. It is believed by some that sleep is an important health issues; without proper sleep,
human body cannot function well. Good sleep help ward illness; helps maintain healthy skins,
bones, and muscles; and help to balance a hormones and other important brain and body
chemicals. Every people needs an amount of sleep to function and balance their body and mind.
The three main factors of sleep is age, gender, and health. Teenagers need approximately nine to
ten hours of sleep while adults need seven to eight hours of sleep( National Institution of
Health). The sleep hours depends on different people. Some people needs five hours of sleep
while some need more than ten hours. It depends on what their body ask for. The amount of sleep
can enlarge if the person has poor sleep in previous days. The side effect from lack of sleep
include; irritated or angry, grumpiness, forgetfulness, lack of concentration and etc. Lack of sleep
for several days can cause your brain and cognitive function to affect in a negative ways.

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Sleep disorders is defined as the sleep patterns of a person or animal. Some sleep
disorders are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional
functioning. Sleep disorders have hundreds of different disorders that affects your sleep. Some
common or risky disorders that affects your sleep is insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy,
nightmares and night terrors, and sleepwalking and sleep talking.
Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders in U.S. adults. Insomnia is a sleep
disorders that is characterized by difficulty falling or staying asleep. Insomnia affect more than
one specific person. Insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic and is linked to motor vehicle
crashes, industrial disasters, and medical or other occupational errors (Center for Disease
Control). Insomnia can affect the brain and the body in different ways. Some people with
insomnia may have trouble activating certain brain regions involved in short term memory
because insomnia can affect the cognitive function and hormones in the bad way. And also
insomnia can increase the risk of depression, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. In fact,
research indicates adults with a history of insomnia are almost four times as likely to become
depressed. Chronic insomnia can also result in reduced health-related quality of life, decreased
job performance, and increased risks of disability. Lack of sleep or insomnia can make your body
goes grumpy and foggy. Insomnia also can put at risk for health problem like heart disease, heart
attack, stroke, and etc. To prevent the health risk, mental risk and risk of insomnia, people
usually talk with their doctor, avoid alcohol and drugs, track their sleeping record, and other non
prescription drugs.
Sleep apnea, a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or
shallow breaths while you sleep. Sleep apnea affect more than 20 millions Americans, although

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many people dont know they have disorders because most symptoms occurs at night. Sleep
apnea can increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, obesity, and diabetes.
Daytime confusion and memory loss are known symptoms of sleep apnea. When UCLA
neuroscientists scanned the brains of forty three sleep apnea patients and sixty six healthy
volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they discovered that the sleep apnea
patients mammillary bodies were nearly 20% smaller than those of the untroubled sleepers
(Health.com). There is specifically no treatment or diagnosis for sleep apnea, people can do
many things to actually protect yourself from sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea can use B1
vitamins to regain some your lost brain tissues. You can do exercise to generate new cells. The
evidence is pretty strong that if you exercise, you generate new cells in the hippocampus, says
Harper. You can do exercise to generate new cells and also it is very important to memory. The
importance of early diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing is to prevent the long
term effect.
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder involving irregular patterns in Rapid Eye Movement
(REM) sleep and significant disruptions of the normal sleep/wake cycle. Narcolepsy, a chronic
sleep disorder that affects an estimated 150,000 Americans. Narcolepsy can affect all areas of a
persons life including relationships with family and friends, education and employment, driving
and public outings. Besides excessive daytime sleepiness and bouts of sleep paralysis, some
people with narcolepsy also have sleep-related hallucinations, vivid dreams, and cataplexy, a
sudden loss of muscle tone that can cause all or part of the body to temporarily collapse.
Narcolepsy affect the specific part of the brain and the body. People with narcolepsy had lower
than normal levels of orexin/ hypocretin in their cerebrospinal fluid, surrounding the brain and

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the spinal cord. Orexin cells can be destroyed if people have a narcolepsy. Narcolepsy affects the
learning, study, concentration, memory, and attention span may be periodically impaired by
sleep. Narcolepsy cannot be cured yet, but the symptoms of the Narcolepsy can be treated with
medicine and lifestyle changes. It can be diagnosed through sleep study and a medical test called
including an overnight Polysomnogram (PSG) and a Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT). Also
narcolepsy treatment use modern medication, lifestyle adjustment, and complementary or
alternative therapy.
Common disorders like nightmare, night terrors, sleepwalking, and sleeptalking also
affects most the U.S. children from four to twelve years old. Nightmare is a dream, a frightening
dream that causes a sudden awakening in sleep. Also, nightmare cause a painful emotional
response that awakens the dreamer, but the emotional response is not fear. The response may be
one of sadness, guilt or anger. Night terrors typically occur in children ages three-twelve. Night
terror occurs during the transition from stage 3 non-REM sleep to stage 4 non-REM sleep. Night
terrors are characterized by frequent recurrent episodes of intense crying and fear during sleep,
with difficulty arousing the child. Night terrors are frightening episodes that can disrupt family
life. Night terror can increase heart rate, breathing rate, and sweating. Sleepwalking usually
involves more than just walking during sleep; it is a series of complex behaviors that are carried
out while sleeping, the most obvious of which is walking. Sleepwalking usually not associated
with any significant underlying psychiatric or psychological problem. Sleep talking is described
as talking during sleep with different levels of clarity. It can occur by itself or can be associated
with other sleep-related disorders such as REM Behavior Disorder, sleepwalking or sleep related

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eating disorder. Sleep talking dont have any serious health or mental problem. But people who
have this disorders can talk with their physician to get some medical explanation.
In conclusion, sleep disorders always have an impact on body and mind in the different
ways. During my research about the sleep disorders, I found that different sleep disorders affects
the different parts of body and mind. Sleep disorders have many different disorders, but some are
risky for the health and some are common. I looked at the different types of disorders and I
conclude that sleep is the most important and necessary for the living beings physical, social,
and mental process. Sleep disorder can be diagnosed and treated through different ways. People
who have sleep disorder need to go and get medical treatment because it can affect your brain
and body at the same time which will make your brain hard to function properly. If you sleep
enough hours that your body ask for, than you will have less chance to getting sleep disorders.
Sleep disorder can be treated in a biological or psychological ways. Psychological treatment will
be more helpful to get for the sleep disorders. Following this simple step of getting good sleep
can help everyone who have a sleep disorders.
Work Cited

MacMillan, Amanda. "Sleep Apnea May Damage Brain Cells Associated with Memory."
Health. Health Media Venture, 11 June 2008. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Perry, Susan. "Society for Neuroscience." BrainFact.org. Society for
Neuroscience, 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Bayer, Rich, Ph.D. "How Do Nightmare Affects You?" Upper Bay Counseling and
Support Service. Upper Bay Counseling and Support Service, 2004. Web. 25
Sep. 2015.

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Reference
http://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/effect-of-sleep-disorders-on-individualspsychology-essay.php
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/Sleep/
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/org/ncsdr/
http://news.health.com/2008/06/11/sleep-apnea-damage-brain-memory/
http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/sleep/articles/2012/narcolepsy/
http://narcolepsynetwork.org/about-narcolepsy/faq/
http://upperbay.org/DO%20NOT%20TOUCH%20%20WEBSITE/articles/nightmares.pdf