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Implications of Disturbed Sleep
Journal of Sleep Disorders & Therapy

Journal of Sleep Disorders & Therapy
Open Access

ISSN: 2167-0277

+44 1478 350008

Letter to Editor - (2016) Volume 5, Issue 4

Implications of Disturbed Sleep

Milind Parle*
Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Haryana, India
*Corresponding Author: Milind Parle, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana, 125001, India, Tel: 919812161998, Fax: 919812161998 Email:

Letter to Editor

Sleep is an essential life function. It is as important to our sound health as the meals we eat, the liquids we drink and the oxygen we inhale. Unfortunately, sleep is taken for granted. Sleep is a complex neuro-physiological state, with its primary function of providing rest to various body parts including mind in order to restore the energy levels. The duration of sleep needed by an adult person varies between 7 h to 8.5 h. Often, executives/leaders consider sleep as a waste of time. They miss their normal sleep to achieve their targets. Sleep deprivation has now become a common attribute of our society, affecting children, adults and senior citizens alike. More than ninety-nine types of sleep disorders affect billions of individuals all over the world. The value of sleep can be best appreciated from the fact that we spend about onethird of our lifespan in sleep. Lack of sleep reduces our alertness, impairs our judgment and affects our moods. Impairment of cognitive functions due to sleep deprivation not only leads to a loss of productivity at school or work, but also contributes to increased accident rates due to drowsy driving. Disturbed sleep, whether in quality, quantity and proper timing can have many adverse health consequences. A sleep disorder not only is a risk factor for subsequent development of certain neuropsychiatric disorders but also a potential warning sign for congestive heart failure, osteoarthritis, diabetes etc. These disorders are broadly of following types: i) Chronic Insomnia: inability to fall and stay asleep; ii) Sleep apnea: breathlessness while sleeping; iii) Hypersomnia: excessive day-time sleepiness; iv) Parasomnia: sleep-walking, partial arousal disorders, REM behaviour disorder; v) Night terrors/Night mares: an emotional episode in which person awakens in fear with feelings of anxiety; vi) Circadian rhythm sleep disorder: jet lag, shift work disorder; vii) Narcolepsy-cataplexy syndrome: usually includes sudden onset of sleep with sudden loss of muscle tone and hallucinations, when falling asleep or waking up; viii) Restless legs syndrome: feeling of restlessness and abnormal sensation in the legs that typically occur in the evening, when lying down, which is improved by movement of legs. Majority of the patients of sleep disorders prefer non-pharmacological solution over allopathicmedicines to get relief. Allopathic-medicines include application of hypnotics, sedatives, anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs whereas, non-drug therapies comprise of yoga, meditation, music therapy, deep breathing techniques (pranayam) and progressive muscle relaxation. Both the disasters, Bhopal (India) gas leak disaster and Challenger (United States) Space shuttle disaster are attributed to disturbed sleeprelated impaired judgment at the work-place.

Citation: Parle M (2016) Implications of Disturbed Sleep. J Sleep Disord Ther 2016, 5:247.

Copyright: © 2016 Parle M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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