Sleeping+Disorders

Parasomnias are a category of sleep disorders that involve abnormal and unnatural movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and dreams that occur during falling asleep, sleeping, between sleep stages, or arousal from sleep. Most parasomnias are seperated sleep states which are partial wakings during the transitions between wakefulness and NREM sleep, or wakefulness and REM sleep.

Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder that is created by pauses in breathing when your sleeping. Each time you stop breathing it is called apnea, apnea last just enough to miss a couple of breaths. The definition of an apneic event is a minimum of a 10 second interval between breaths, with either a neurological change (a 3-second or greater shift in EEG frequency) or a blood oxygen desaturation of 3–4% or greater, or both a brain changeand desaturation. Apnea periods happen often and randomly when you are sleeping. Sleep apnea is diagnosed with an overnight sleep test called a polysomnogram, or a "sleep study".

It is possible to sleep with your eyes open; however if you do it can be a serious medical condition.

Myoclonus is brief, non-controlable twitching of a muscle or a group of muscles. Usually this signals that a person may have a more serious sleeping problem. Myoclonus muscle twitches are mainly caused by fast muscle contractions. Contractions are called positive mynoclonus, relaxations are called negative contractions. Most myoclonus happens while you are falling asleep early in the night. Hiccups are also a form of myoclonus.

Sleep paralysis is a paralysis that occurs during sleeping that is linked to many other diseases.

My Interview With An Expert: My expert is a family friend, who has had difficulty with sleep over the past several years.

My expert in the sleeping field was diagnosed with sleep apnea annd chronic fatigue syndrome. He decided to talk to his doctor about always feeling tired and snoring, and his doctor refered him to a sleep specialist at the Minnesota Sleep Institute. When the doctor told him that he should have a sleep study done, he went a hospital where they monitored his breathing, heart, brain waves and oxygen for a night's rest. He later went back in for a second test, called the mutiple sleep latency test. He had this second test done because even with the C-PAP (a mask to help you breath better), he wasn't getting better. He went in during the day and they told him to fall asleep so they could see how long it took him to reach sleep (using brain-wave measures). My expert had to fall asleep and take hour-long naps several times during the day. Around a week later my expert went back and had one of the doctors explain to him the sleep disorders, and he was diagnosed with sleep apnea annd chronic fatigue syndrome. Since going in for the sleep studies, he is trying to sleep better and feels much more energized during the day when he gets a good night of sleep.

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 * Table of Contents: **
 * = REM ||= Stage N1 ||= Stage N2 ||= Stage N3 ||
 * = Sleeping Habits ||= Sleeping Disorders ||= Bibliography ||=  ||