Here’s the truth, quality sleep is the foundation for all things optimal health! If you’re not sleeping well or enough, your body is not functioning as well as it could be. Queue common sleep disorders.
The effects of sleep disorders can be long-term and damaging to your body and mind! Your body performs numerous processes as you sleep. Lack of sleep due to sleep disorders may impair these processes.
If you have been struggling with a sleep disorder, you cannot afford to disregard your medical situation for long because so much is at stake! Quality sleep is essential for your health and wellness.
Now, let’s dig into some common sleep disorders and better understand how they can affect your long-term health.
Understanding Common Sleep Disorders
Sleep is vital to your health and well-being. During sleep, your body recharges, eliminating stress and fatigue and allowing you to have essential dreams (REM sleep) that help consolidate memories into long-term memories.
If you’re getting low-quality or insufficient hours of sleep, your physical, mental, and emotional health may suffer.
The most common sleep disorders are:
- Insomnia: This is the difficulty in falling or staying asleep. Insomnia may result from stress, anxiety, depression, or medical conditions like arthritis, asthma, or back pain.
- Sleep apnea: A condition in which breathing ceases temporarily while sleeping because of a blocked airway (obstructive sleep apnea) or an abnormal breathing rhythm (central sleep apnea). Sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed because victims don’t know they have it until they undergo testing. Sleep apnea can cause fatigue during the day, memory problems, and cardiovascular problems such as a heart attack or stroke.
Perpetuating Poor Sleeping Behaviors
Some behaviors perpetuate common sleep disorders. These are:
Common poor sleep habits:
In most cases, common sleep disorders result from poor sleeping habits. These include:
- Using devices before going to bed
- Eating heavily right before going to sleep
- Drinking coffee and other stimulants before bedtime
- Working out before bedtime, among others
Doing these for a long time can have a wide range of negative effects on your quality of life and health. The following are some of the most common ways that poor sleep habits can affect you:
- Tiredness and fatigue: If you aren’t sleeping well, you’ll likely feel exhausted throughout the day. This can make it difficult to concentrate on what you are doing.
- Lack of energy: When you don’t get enough sleep, it’s harder for your body to keep up with daily activities and responsibilities.
- Poor concentration: A lack of sleep makes it tough for your brain to function at its best level.
Too much on the plate
People with common sleep disorders often find themselves overloaded with work and responsibilities outside work hours. Trying to get everything done can make it difficult to relax at night. The inability to relax may create negative sleep habits like using devices or eating right before bedtime. Both activities stimulate the mind instead of relaxing it.
No relaxation techniques
People who are stressed out tend to have trouble falling and staying asleep through the night. It may take them longer to recover from stress-induced insomnia, leading to a cycle of increased stress and poor quality sleep.
If that describes you, it’s time to dig in and do some work to figure out how to create space to decompress!
Long-Term Effect of Common Sleep Disorders on Your Health
Not only does chronic sleep deprivation contribute to the development, progression, and severity of most chronic diseases, but it can also lead to early death.
When you don’t get enough sleep, your body tries to compensate for sleep deprivation by creating more symptoms. These symptoms cause stress on your body, which makes it harder for you to sleep at night.
You may fall into a vicious cycle leading to sleepless nights and more exposure to life-threatening conditions.
The following are some of the most common chronic conditions related to lack of sleep:
- Heart disease: A recent study showed that people who slept less than five hours a night were twice as likely to have high blood pressure as those who slept seven hours or more each night. Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in America and Europe, which means that lack of sleep could contribute significantly to this statistic.
- Diabetes: Research has shown that people who get less than six hours of sleep per night have higher insulin levels than those who get eight hours or more.
Create Good Sleeping Habits to Combat Common Sleep Disorders
Having great sleep hygiene helps to promote positive sleep patterns and habits and helps to set you up for success. Much like you brush your teeth in the morning and night, bedtime is a great time to set yourself up with positive habits to set you up for successful sleep.
Summary
If you are struggling with sleep, snoring, or have been diagnosed with sleep apnea or other common sleep disorders, reach out to schedule your exam today! Quality sleep is an essential component of optimal health.
If you’re saying, “I only need 5 hours of sleep to keep running”, stop! If sleeping less than you should be for your age, you can’t afford to spend another night missing out on another hour. Your body and future self deserve better.