Dealing With Sleeping Disorders
Posted by Real Flaroty on August 24th, 2009 filed in Sleep HealthA sleep disorder is defined as any condition which leads to major interferences in the sleeping patterns of the person it affects. Now the idea of seeking medical treatment for sleeping disorders might seem frivolous to a person who has never experienced them (or seen a person going through any one of the major sleeping disorders). But for anyone who has seen the type of psychological and physical distress that some of these sleeping disorders can cause, the idea of someone seeking medical treatment for sleeping disorders is one that definitely clicks.
It is important to take note that when we talk about sleeping disorders, we are not only referring to difficulties falling asleep (since many of us tend to equate the term ’sleeping disorder with the inability to fall asleep); as there is a great variety of sleeping disorders beyond insomnia, though admittedly, insomnia is probably the commonest of sleeping disorders. These other sleeping disorders beyond insomnia include those where a person has no difficult falling asleep, but rather in waking up, and those odds ones like narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder in which the person finds themselves just (spontaneously)falling asleep even at the most in the most inappropriate of venues and times.
Devising a treatment program for sleeping disorders starts with a diagnosis of the problem - where the sleeping disorder one happens to be suffering from is identified and what could be causing it also identified; before best way to confront the problem can be worked out. Typical approaches to sleeping difficulty treatment include psychotherapy, rehabilitation (which is essentially change of habits) and the use of medication for some cases.
Rehabilitative sleeping disorder treatments mainly get their efficacy from the fact that some cases of sleeping difficulties are caused by poor long term sleeping habits. A person who makes the habit of sleeping during the day, for instance, might in the long term find their biological clock making an adjustment (so that such a person can only fall asleep during the day, and not during the night, as is socially accepted). Now should such a person get onto a commitment that can’t allow for them to be asleep during the day, they would be in for a really tough time, often culminating in them seeking treatment - which, in this case, would be best achieved through rehabilitation, as this kind of sleeping disorders don’t really have any major biochemical root to warrant the use of medication.
Psychotherapeutic treatments sleeping disorders, on the other hand, get their efficacy from the fact that many sleeping disorders occur due to psychological illnesses such as depression (which typically manifests as either too much sleep or inability falling asleep), and which is best treated through psychotherapy as a first line of treatment, before resorting to medication if psychotherapy proves inadequate.
Turning to medication-based treatments for sleeping disorders, these are typically the only viable route to sustainable treatment for sleeping disorders that are deeply rooted in biochemical deficiencies, which simply can’t be adequately addressed by the psychotherapeutic or rehabilitative treatments.