Sleep Disorders

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Causes

Sleep disorders are very common and they can result from a number of causes. Stress, illness, diet (e.g., caffeine, alcohol), and medications (e.g., antidepressants) all can cause sleep difficulties.

Genetics
Narcolepsy is the only major sleep disorder with a known genetic basis (i.e., hereditary condition).

Night Shift Work
The body has an internal system of signals in the brain that controls normal physical and mental function during the course of a 24-hour day (called the biological clock). For example, the biological clock responds to external cues like sunshine and darkness and controls when a person sleeps (or feels sleepy). In most cases, the darkness of the night triggers sleepiness.

Night shift workers often experience sleep disorders, because they cannot sleep when they start to feel drowsy. Their biological clock is telling their body to do one thing while they are doing something entirely different. People who work at night often have an increased risk for heart and digestive problems, as well as emotional and mental problems.

Blindness

The inability to detect light and darkness may cause disruptions in the biological clock, which can result in sleep disorders.

Mental Illness
Most patients with mental illness experience some type of sleep disorder. Depression often causes patients to wake up early in the morning, unable to go back to sleep.

Physical Illness
Many physical illnesses and diseases cause sleep disorders. Difficulty sleeping can result from chemical changes in the body caused by disease or by the medications used to treat the disease.

Aging
About 50% of adults over the age of 65 have some type of sleep disorder. It is not clear whether this is a normal part of aging, or a result of medications.

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