Posts Tagged ‘Memory’

Hypersomnia (oversleeping)

Friday, March 12th, 2010

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Most people don’t realize they oversleep when they have a condition called hypersomnia and that’s due in part to recurring episodes of excessive daytime sleeping and prolonged nighttime sleep. This is different from the average person taking that midday nap when they do it at sometimes the most inappropriate times like at work, during meals, or even in conversation with people.Hypersomniacs are also diagnosed with narcolepsy, which can be quite dangerous because some individuals are behind the wheel of cars or even cooking in their home and aren’t aware that they fell asleep. Some hypersomniacs and narcoleptics can fall asleep and then wake up and resume where they left off in conversations with people. Usually daytime naps usually provide no relief or symptoms to the problem(s) and will result in the individual(s) having increased difficulty in waking from a long extended period of sleeping, disorientation, anxiety, decreased energy, increased fatigue, restlessness, slow thinking, slow speech, loss of appetite, hallucinations, and problems with memory functions.Some individuals also experience losing the ability to function in normal family, social, occupational, and other settings familiar to that person.Hypersomnia can be triggered by sleep apnea or narcolepsy, where it can lead to dysfunction of the autonomic nerve system, which can be brought on, by acute alcohol and/or drug abuse. In some cases rare or not it can also be triggered from physical problems such as tumors, head trauma or injuries to the nervous system. Specific medications or withdrawal of medications and/or drugs may contribute to someone having hypersomnia. Medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, depression, encephalitis, epilepsy, and obesity can contribute to hypersomnia as well.It’s also been noted that those who have hypersomnia are also genetically dispositioned to this problem whereas in others there’s no known or documented cause. Hypersomnia typically affects adolescents and young adults in their 20s and 30s. Although the most common causes of this disorder differs in the age brackets. Information can be located on the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes website if you’re seeking a more thorough clinical explanation to this problem. This isn’t a substitute for medical advice from a licensed physician so it’s ideal to educate yourself, but leave the diagnosing and treatment to a doctor so that you condition can be monitored closely.People who are not seeing a doctor when they identify problems that are not normal for them to experience are misdiagnosing too many issues with sleep. Persons who are severely obese can also have a difficult time losing the weight because of the fact that lack of sleep can increase the body’s metabolic rate, which can trigger excessive hunger in those who are trying to lose weight.This is why so many people who are obese are eating more than they should because a lot of them sleep so much that they wake up wanting to eat when they should be sleeping like normal people do and not up at all hours of the night wanting to eat. This is why it’s harder for people who are obese to lose weight when they sleep too much and not training their body to rest instead of wanting to eat food.

Muscle pain and sleeplessness

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Fibromyalgia is a painful condition that affects the muscles and joints and is seen in only 3-6% of the general population in the world. It’s generally seen more in females than males with a ratio percentage of 9.1 according to the College of Rhumatology and is commonly diagnosed in females between the ages of 20-50 though it’s been noted that the onset happens in childhood. This is not a life-threatening disease though the degree of pain in the condition can vary day to day with periods of flare ups and remission. The disease is being argued and viewed as non-progressive, but that’s a point that remains in limbo.This is a problematic issue that can be a reason to keep someone up at night because the pain can be unbearable with the tingling and achiness in the muscles. This drives many who deal with this to endless and chronic deprivation of sleep. Those who suffer fibromyalgia also note issues with memory and other neurological issues, but the most frequent is the issues with sleeping that individuals go through when they deal with painful, annoying flare-ups.Other issues that surround this problem, which can make sleeping very difficult, are irritable bowel syndrome with constipation, which affects mostly women and few men. Skin disorders like dermatological disorders, headaches, myofacial twitching, and symptomatic hypoglycemia. Stress, excessive physical exertion, lack of sleep, changes in temperature and baromic pressure. This condition can worsen when individuals don’t sleep or getting the proper rest and not overdoing on things in their daily lives.The American Medical Association had officially recognized fibromyalgia as a medical condition back in 1987 when the disorder was around since the 1800s. It’s been said that flare ups are not identical to the ones that are found in people with rheumatoid arthritis, but ibuprofen like Advil, Acenomenofen (Tylenol), and Neproxine (Aleve) which are anti-inflammatory and can bring some comfort to those with fibromyalgia flare ups. Massage has also been ideal in helping those who deal with fibromyalgia to find comfort when they have flare ups. Massage helps to transfer fluids from the muscles and joints and increases circulation to the affected areas to bring some temporary relief for inflammation and flare ups.Which can actually help improve sleep for someone in pain, but it’s best to get a massage when you’re not on any medication due to the high risk of side effects that can be triggered from massaging tissue and muscles. Fibromyalgia is a manageable problem if you follow your doctor’s instructions and take your medication as directed and getting the right amount of sleep and getting plenty of exercise and eating a nutritious diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water and limiting things in the diet that can also aggravate flare ups. When you take care of yourself properly you can actually improve the quality of sleep as well as decreasing the debilitating pain. That can keep someone up all night long instead of allowing them to sleep and getting in a decent amount of time for rest and feeling stress free and more relaxed, so that they can face the day with no painful flare ups and discomfort that can be annoying.

Nightmares and Night Terrors - A Frightening Sleep Disorder

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

At some time in their childhood almost all children experience the sleep disorder of having a nightmare. They are common in children and can begin as early as two years old. They are most common in children between three and twelve years old and are considered part of the normal developmental process. However, only about 3 percent, experience night terrors, also called sleep terrors. Both of these sleep disorders can be very frightening to a child.Nightmares are dreams that are so frightening that they wake the person up. Everyone has had nightmares occasionally throughout their life and they usually are not something to worry about. Nightmares occur several hours after going to sleep during the REM stage of sleep when there is general body paralysis and active dreaming.A child can remember the nightmare once they awake and they still remember it in the morning. Sometimes this nightmare sleep disorder can become a problem if the child has nightmares very often and becomes afraid to go to sleep or becomes sleep deprived. When a nightmare occurs it is important that the parent remains calm and reassuring. There are several things that a parent can do to prevent nightmares. Discuss calm and comforting things with your child just before putting then to bed. Reading to them, or telling them a story can also be very comforting. Don’t let a child watch violent or scary shows on television, especially just before going to bed. Maintaining a relaxing bedtime routine is also important. Sometimes, nightmares indicate a more severe emotional problem within your child.Night terrors usually occur during the first few hours of sleep, during deep non-REM sleep. They often occur at the same time each night. Night terrors are characterized by screaming, crying or moaning. It is not unusual for a child experiencing a night terror to sit straight up in bed and scream. Their heart rate is increased and they experience rapid breathing. An episode of this sleep disorder can last from 10 minutes to over an hour. Although the child’s eyes are open, they are actually still asleep and when they wake up in the morning there is no memory of what happened during the night.Although night terrors can be frightening, they are not dangerous. They usually are not a sign of any type of mental distress. A parent should not try to wake the child, or comfort them, during a night terror. The best thing for a parent to do when their child is experiencing a night terror is to make sure they are safe. Generally, most children outgrow this sleep disorder after a few months or years.Several of the factors that can contribute to night terrors include being overly tired, staying up extremely late, eating a heavy meal just before going to bed, and taking certain medications. Although nightmares and night terrors can seem like a very scary type of sleep disorder to both the parents and the children involved, they are generally harmless.

Fatal Familial Insomnia

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

This is probably by far one of the rarest forms of sleeping disorders around. This is an inherited disorder that has only been found in 28 families in the world that have the dominant gene for it. The offspring of a parent(s) of developing the disorder is about 50% and there is no cure for this. The age of onset is around the ages between 30 and 60 and the disorder’s time frame runs between 7 to 18 months. This disease has 4 stages that it goes through and 1st stage of the disease starts off with the sufferer dealing with increased insomnia leading to severe panic attacks, and various kinds of phobias, this stage lasts about 4 months, 2nd stage sufferer deals with hallucinations and panic attacks become more obvious and lasts about 5 months, 3rd stage Complete and total inability to sleep. And follows with drastic weight loss and lasts about 3 months, 4th stage Dementia sets in and progressively becoming irresponsive and mute over a course of 6 months and this is the final progression of the disease.This sounds a lot like Alzheimer’s because if you notice the time frame it’s a lot less shorter than the actual time span of someone who deals with Alzheimer’s because the sufferer is dealing with it for several years instead of a year where the disease progressively degenerates the mental capacity to such a degree that the sufferer has a hard time with memory.As far as treatment is concerned sleeping pills don’t have any effect for people suffering from Fatal Familial Insomnia and not even non-medicinal therapy doesn’t work either. Medical science has no idea why it’s a fatal disease and how they can create effective treatment options to combat this problem. And more effective genetic testing for diseases that are inherited to find out what can be done medicinally and therapeutically to deal with this sleeping disorder.It’s a matter of how much attention the medical world takes note of this and pushes the funding to finding a cure and effective genetic testing of families and tracking diseases through the generations to be able to have some kind of record of the disease passing down through generations or skipping generations which is what some diseases have done in some families for those who have a disposition for certain things.This doesn’t get nearly as much attention as all the other sleeping disorders because of it being rare, and only turning up in so many people and births making it not rare enough for it to get the recognition as regular insomnia and to qualify for the treatments. That are currently out there to help those 60 million people who are dealing with some kind of sleeping disorder(s).With the way medical science is going it will be a matter of time before medical science catches up and helps the many people who are looking for a cure of being deprived of a restful night’s sleep. The moment a cure is found is one more person who will be helped to have a good night’s rest.

Fun Family Reunion Activities

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

The-Baby-Bump.com is a Build a Niche Store / Blog template designed by The Niche Store Builder. The site is powered by WordPress Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).