Identifying Sleep Disorders is vital to one’s health. Adequate sleep is essential to our ability to function to our fullest capacity. Although it would seem that such a normal, everyday activity would be easy, it involves a complex physiology which frequently does not work effectively. Simply being in bed for the night does not guarantee sufficient amounts of good sleep. Frequent awakening, even when they go unnoticed, can leaving us tired and sluggish during the day.

Good sleep habits can be affected by a variety of psychiatric or physiologic diseases. It is important to identify the underlying cause as sleep disorders may be a symptom of a more critical underlying process. Additionally, sleep disorders not only lead to chronic tiredness, they can directly contribute to cardiac and pulmonary diseases leading to, or significantly worsening or aggravating pre-existing heart or lung diseases.

Common sleep disorders include:

• Obstructive Sleep Apnea or other obstructive sleep disorders
• Parasomnias: including sleep walking, sleep eating, sleep talking, sleep sex, sleep terrors, tooth grinding, bedwetting, and restless leg syndrome.
• Narcolepsy
• Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep such as insomnia, delayed sleep phase disorder

Because the treatment of sleep disorder varies depending on the underlying cause, appropriate diagnosis is crucial to successful treatment. We at Psychiatric Associates of Pennsylvania can help correctly diagnose sleep problems and develop a treatment plan specific to your needs.