Healthy sleep is necessary for a person like air and water. If you do not restore strength after a busy day, the body becomes weak, immunity decreases. Narcolepsy is a type of sleep disorder that has a negative effect on health. Thus, a favorable environment for the development of infections and diseases appears. To avoid such consequences, you need to lead the right lifestyle, combining work with relaxation.
Physiology of sleep
Sleep plays an important role in human life. During night rest, the body is restored to adequately perceive all the events of the new day.
Sleep is a state when inhibition of active activity occurs, there is no consciousness and communication with the environment.
This period can be divided into two phases - fast sleep and slow, and the latter, in turn, is divided into four stages.
Sleep begins with a slow phase
- Nap. At this time, a person thinks about all the events that occurred during the day. The brain is working on the "digestion" of information, looking for a solution to the problems.
- Muscle tone decreases, pulse and respiration slow down. The brain gradually stops its work, but the human condition is several times close to awakening.
- Transition phase.
- Deep dream. The most important stage that gives the body a full rest. It is difficult to wake a person at this stage, although conversations and sleepwalking can be observed.
After deep sleep, the third, second stage begins again, and only then does the REM sleep phase begin, or, as it is also called, the phase of rapid eye movement. Muscle tone at this time is completely absent, but brain activity increases, and with it the respiratory rate and blood pressure. This stage is also called paradoxical, since it is very difficult to awaken a person at this time. At the fifth stage, the most vivid dreams are dreamed. As a rule, they can be remembered in detail after waking up.
Thus, the physiology of a person’s sleep consists of a sequence of two phases and looks like this: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 5. This order of sleep stages during the night is repeated four to five times. One cycle takes approximately ninety minutes.
People in a dream spend a third of their lives. The optimal time for which an adult can get enough sleep is eight hours; a child needs ten to eighteen.
What are sleep disorders?
Each person has encountered at least once with such phenomena as drowsiness and insomnia.
The main causes of sleep disturbance:
- Situations that traumatize the psyche.
- Somatic and neurological diseases.
- Mental disorders, accompanied by stress.
- Abuse of alcohol, antidepressants, psychostimulants, drugs.
- Smoking.
- Abrupt change of time zones.
- Night work.
Sleep disorders appear as follows:
- Inability to fall asleep in the usual mode.
- Anxiety before going to bed.
- Sleep is superficial with frequent awakenings.
- Deep sleep is absent.
- After rest, a person feels not vigor, but weakness and depression.
- Increased fatigue in the daytime.
There are several types of sleep disorders:
- Insomnia (insomnia) - complete or partial lack of sleep. The reason is ailments, overwork, medication, increased nervous irritability.
- Hypersomnia (narcolepsy) is a neurological disorder associated with the inability of the brain to regulate periods of sleep and wakefulness. In patients with narcolepsy, sleep begins immediately with the fifth stage (fast phase). Patients with this problem are more likely to suffer from mental disorders (schizophrenia). Therefore, when a person has such a sleep disturbance, treatment should be done immediately.
- Hypersomnability is a condition characterized by difficult awakening. It is as if a person does not control himself, is in automatic mode. His consciousness is confused and unclear.
- Apnea - short-term lack of breathing during sleep. As a result, daytime drowsiness and irritability appear.
- Klein-Levin syndrome - increased drowsiness for several days, which is replaced by attacks of hunger (bulimia).
- Sleepwalking is a disorder in which a person walks and performs various actions in a dream. He does this automatically, unconsciously. Such behavior is dangerous both for the patient himself and for others.
More About Narcolepsy
This desire to fall asleep at the wrong time. This feeling sometimes visits each of us. Some attribute this to nocturnal insomnia, others as fatigue at work. In fact, increased drowsiness may be the beginning of a disease called narcolepsy.
A person becomes distracted, feels constant weakness and fatigue, he performs most of his actions on "autopilot". People often confuse this condition with the onset of respiratory infections, and therefore do not conduct timely diagnosis and treatment.
The causes of the disease
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a desire to fall asleep at a non-standard time for this. This happens due to malfunctions of the brain, the sections of which are responsible for periods of wakefulness and rest.
The harbingers of the disease are headache, weakness, anxiety, hallucinations. Sleep disorder affects quality of life.
Increased drowsiness can be accompanied by catalepsy (sudden loss of muscle tone, which occurs spontaneously at the wrong time).
The causes of the disease are not fully established. Scientists believe that drowsiness develops as a result of an insufficient level of the active substance of the brain - orexin. Also, the disorder can occur against a background of mental illness.
Narcolepsy symptoms can have a variety of - from a constant desire to fall asleep to a complete "outage".
The following people are at risk:
- Head injured.
- Pregnant women.
- Those who have mental disorders in their family.
- Children, schoolchildren, students.
Symptoms of the disease
In order to recognize the ailment and take timely measures, you need to know its symptoms. Among the most common symptoms are the following:
- Drowsiness during the day for no apparent reason.
- Sleep takes from a few seconds to fifteen to twenty minutes.
- Stray, lack of concentration.
- Constant fatigue. Falling asleep in minibuses, during conversations, at work.
- Muscle weakness in the knee area. Feeling that legs give way.
- Short-term paralysis, sometimes accompanied by a lack of speech.
- The appearance of hallucinations and other mental disorders.
- A person begins to see dreams, barely closing his eyes.
- Intermittent night sleep.
- Inability to control oneself upon waking, morning catalepsy.
- Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).
- Tachycardia (increased heart rate).
These symptoms in combination or alone occur in all patients with narcolepsy. Often they are mistaken for signs of diseases of a different nature. Over time, symptoms increase, and a person can become dangerous to others. For example, when driving a vehicle or working with mechanisms.
Nightmares as the cause of the problem
All people at least once in their lives face nightmares. Especially often bad dreams are seen by young children. So, perhaps, therefore, a brief daytime falling asleep (narcolepsy) is the result of terrible dreams? Fear, anxiety, which a person experiences during a night's rest, as a result lead to fatigue and depression during the day.
Nightmares are a normal occurrence, but they can not only cause a desire to fall asleep, but also affect the health of a person as a whole.
First, horrific dreams are the first step to depression and stress, which can even lead to cancer! Sometimes such dreams also lead to suicides.
Secondly, nightmares that torment a person at night often cause obesity, diabetes and heart disease, blood vessels. Therefore, such sleep disorders must be dealt with.
Ways to fix the problem:
- Psychotherapy. Consultations of a psychologist, psychiatrist.
- Following a diet before bedtime. Abuse of food makes our brain more active during sleep, which, in turn, provokes the appearance of scary dreams.
- Stress management. Yoga, long walks in the fresh air, including at bedtime. A good way is meditation. Favorite activities, hobbies - knitting, embroidery, beadwork, reading books and magazines, watching positive films will also help to cope with depression and stress.
- Relaxing and soothing baths before bedtime.
- Particular attention should be paid to those drugs that people are used to taking. Perhaps the cause of restless sleep lies precisely in them. This applies primarily to antidepressants and tranquilizers.
- It is necessary to minimize the use of caffeine, alcohol, reduce the number of cigarettes smoked.
- It would be nice to learn to dream and abstract. Positive emotions and mood can defeat nightmares and insomnia.
- You should learn to combine work and leisure. Most nightmares occur amid overwork.
- Attend a couple of hypnosis sessions.
It should be noted that nightmares can not only cause a disease, they also warn a person about existing problems. So listen to your body!
Is the disease a result of insomnia?
Narcolepsy symptoms are the most controversial. However, the main ones are drowsiness and catalepsy. Often the desire to sleep during the daytime appears when a person does not get enough sleep at night. The main reason is insomnia.
Insomnia is the difficulty associated with falling asleep and the length of sleep. A significant part of the world's population is faced with such a problem. Moreover, different age categories.
The causes of the disorders may include the following:
- Unsuitable for sleeping environment - noises, screams, uncomfortable mattress or pillow, temperature conditions, insects, snoring partner.
- A new unknown situation - moving, traveling, flying, a sharp change in time zones, unusual night work (for example, the shift method - the body gets used to staying up a couple of nights, and as a result, when you need to sleep, you can’t do it).
- Diseases accompanied by pain, shortness of breath, intestinal and bladder disorders.
- Depression, stress.
Insomnia, like narcolepsy, requires treatment immediately. A person who spends a long time without sleep becomes like a drug addict - he is irritable, tense, his state is distracted and anxious. Of course, this cannot end in anything good.
The main methods of treating insomnia are the same as narcolepsy or nightmares: more motor activity during the day, relaxing baths, favorable emotions and limitation of daytime sleep.
Herbal teas and infusions, which have a calming effect, are good in controlling insomnia.
Often, doctors prescribe sleeping pills to treat such disorders. The lack of drugs is the quick addiction of the body to them. Therefore, the best assistant is folk remedies that act more gently.
Secrets of traditional medicine. Recipes for medicinal decoctions
- Two tablespoons of chopped hop cones insist one hour in 500 ml of boiling water. Strain and drink a quarter cup three times a day before meals. Easy relaxation provided.
- Peony root tincture . The medicine can be purchased at the pharmacy. Take it three times a day, one teaspoon.
- The motherwort has a calming and sedative effect. Four tablespoons of grass need to be poured with a glass of boiling water and insisted in a closed dark place for about two hours. Drink the third part of the glass half an hour before meals.
Diagnosis and treatment
First of all, to rule out other possible diseases, you should contact a specialist with narcolepsy attacks. Medical sleep disorders are treated by a somnologist.
After examining and studying the patient's complaints, two tests are performed to confirm the diagnosis - for multiple latency to sleep and polysomnography.
Polysomnography is a study of a patient’s sleep, during which all physiological processes are recorded - snoring, body position, facial expressions, brain activity, tone, limb movements, respiratory rate. Diagnostics is carried out in a medical institution using special devices and electrodes. This method allows you to identify most of all somnological disorders. Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) is prescribed the day after polysomnography.
MSLT is done in the same way, only daytime sleep is studied. The test is done 5-6 times with an interval of two hours. After such an examination, specialists receive a sleep pattern - a pattern that will be specific for patients with narcolepsy.
On top of that, encephalography can also be prescribed - a diagnosis of the bioelectric activity of the brain.
To date, this disease is incurable - narcolepsy. Treatment is aimed only at alleviating the unpleasant symptoms of the disease. For this, sleep normalizing drugs can be attributed. The patient is recommended to observe the daily regimen and lead a healthy lifestyle, as well as abandon bad habits.
Sleep Disorder Prevention
The best prevention of the problem is physical activity, walks in the fresh air and proper nutrition. Unfortunately, we live in a time when few people think about a healthy lifestyle. Work - home - work. People began to pay less attention to themselves and their health. Hence all the ailments! Signs of illness in many cases are associated specifically with sleep disorders. By following simple rules, you can avoid conditions such as insomnia and narcolepsy (their causes have been described above).
- You should wake up and fall asleep at about the same time.
- Limit substances containing caffeine.
- Avoid drinking alcohol in the evening.
- If there are problems with night sleep, you need to limit or exclude sleep during the day.
- Physical exercise and sports are essential for those who have the problems described above.
- Warm soothing baths on herbs and aromatic oils have a beneficial effect.
- Before going to bed, it is not recommended to eat food.
- Emotional overstrain, nervous breakdowns, stresses should be avoided.
- Do not abuse drugs, especially tranquilizers.
- If such measures do not help to eliminate sleep disturbance, treatment should be done with a medication.
Sleep problems (insomnia, narcolepsy) - this, unfortunately, is not uncommon today. However, it is somehow necessary to solve such a problem, otherwise soon the person will become angry, irritated and completely not interested in life. Of course, there are cases when people calmly exist without a night's sleep and feel great. They can be called an exception to the rule, a phenomenon.
The record holder in the nomination "life without sleep" was the Belarusian Yakov Tsiperovich. He has been awake for almost sixty-two years already for thirty-six years! After clinical death, a man simply lost the ability to sleep. Moreover, it practically does not age. Science cannot yet explain this mysterious fact. Ukrainian Fyodor Nesterchuk will compete with Yakov, who has not been sleeping for 20 years in a row. He does not get tired and does not feel weak. A man replaces a night's rest by reading books and playing chess with a computer.
Conclusion
His mood and health depend on how a person rests. Sleep disorder is a disease that requires a reasonable approach and proper treatment. Once overcoming the ailment, you will not receive a 100% guarantee that secondary narcolepsy or insomnia will not occur. Such problems in some cases are life threatening. In this case, both the patient himself and others can suffer. After all, often accidents at work or on the road are provoked by a short sleep, which people suffering from chronic lack of sleep, simply can not control.
A person who is faced with sleep disorders should know what narcolepsy is, how to get rid of its symptoms and improve the quality of life.