Delayed Sleep Disorder

Commonly known as Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD) and other names, is a disorder in which the persons internal body clock is not in sync with the morning-rise evening-sleep pattern of the majority of people. Individuals with this disorder are not able to sleep and wake at the times that are regulated by normal work and school hours. They usually get enough sleep to keep them at a functional level through the day but not enough to be considered “well rested”. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for some sleep disorders to determine the illness. The cause of Delayed Sleep Phase can include a variety of reasons; puberty being one of the main causes, but some people are born with the disorder. The short term and long term effects of this illness is unfortunate for a person’s overall health. Overall cures to this disorder have not been found yet. Doctors have suggested sleeping pills to help or other alternatives. The disorder affects the timing of sleep, peak period of alertness, the core body temperature rhythm, hormonal and other daily cycles.

The measurements used were the Social Rhythm Metric, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition. The PSQI was used to measure perceived sleep quality within the past month. Once the Sleep Quality Index was obtained, the participants were categorized as good sleepers (5) based on scale ranging from 0 to 19. The SRM was used to assess social rhythms. The overall activities performed by a test subject, the number of activities performed involving social interaction, and the number of activities involving minimum to no social interaction were analyzed. The SRM also tracked the regularity of activities, so a “hit” meant an activity was performed within 45 minutes of the habitual time. The BDI-II was used to calculate participants’ levels of depression.

Sleep is a beautiful thing, but people do not get enough of it. It is a time for the body to rejuvenate and process the events of the day. Sleeping is something that we seek out. Getting the recommended amount of sleep allows our body to function properly the next day. Without it, there could be detrimental consequences. The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke says that without sleep, neurons could be “polluted with byproducts”. In severe cases, people who get very little sleep often experience mood swings, hallucinations and cells do not continue to reproduce.

Universal to every human from birth to death, sleep is a necessary function to survival, productivity, and happiness. While most fall asleep at night with ease, it is estimated that 50-70 million Americans battle sleep or wakefulness disorders. Although sleep disorders do not immediately present with a threat comparable to other common disorders such as depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia, sleep disorders prove very disruptive to one’s quality of life. Insufficient sleep may result in difficulty concentrating, difficulty with memory, trouble with personal care such as hygiene, driving, or managing finances, and poor performance in the workplace. While there is a wide array of sleep related illnesses that may plague any given individual,

I know that personally, I take sleep for granted. Having the ability to lie down after a long day and close my eyes, knowing that in the morning I will wake feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, is something that I haven’t really thought twice about. From reading this chapter, I have learned that many individuals are not so lucky. Sleep-wake disorders can affect a person’s life in tremendous ways. This broad category is broken down into two more specific categories – Dyssomnias and Parasomnias.

The effect of disturbing circadian rhythms are quite worry some to me. Being a college student I feel the pressure to get things done on time and I don’t get to sleep as much as I should. I can see how it affects me and I worry for those who have even more going on than I do. I think we need to make sleep a priority just like we make eating. In class Truelove told us that you can die from staying up for and extended amount of time. Which, can also happen if you go a long time without eating. It’s very important for us to take care of bodies especially while were young so we will be in better shape as we

Causes of this disorder are not well known except for the fact that the circadian clock within the “scn” or suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain is thrown off, or shorter than normal. Unlike other sleep disorders, this one isn’t as common only affecting about 1% of adults. “Advanced sleep phase affects both genders equally, and has a strong genetic link. Studies on familial advanced sleep phase have shown that as many as 40 to 50% of people with a familial link to the disorder will themselves have it”

Alterations in sleep neurophysiology have been found associated with premature loss of slow- wave sleep, increased REM sleep, reduction in sleep time and other abnormal sleep parameters. Immunological disturbances have also been implicated. Imaging has revealed increased frequency of abnormal hyperintensities in sub-cortical regions. Hereditary factors and genes have also been implicated. Psychosocial factors include life events and environmental stress, personality, cognitive processing and learned helplessness

The in-depth quality of the “Sleep-Wake” paper may be linked to the qualifications of its authors. All three sources were written by some level of expert within the field. Keith J. Anderson, the writer of the article “College Students try to Cheat Sleep Needs” for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has a Ph D., yet is only a counselor for Gallagher Health Center. The four authors of the Biological Rhythm Research study are all very highly specialized in this area. As workers and researchers for the Physiology Department for the Chronobiological Laboratory in Natal, Brazil, they deal with the intricacies of sleep and its effects on the human body daily. The people who wrote the “Sleep-Wake” pattern are also very well educated and conditioned to address the topic of sleep and its effect on college students. Two of these authors are professors with the Department of the Sciences of Education at an international university, while the third author works directly with the Sleep Disorders Unit inside of the

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between sleep and social cadence in college students. This study tries to assess the effect of sleep in daily activities like academic study, meal consumption, mood, and social relationships. The hypothesis of this study is, sleep helps to maintain good regularity of social rhythm. Good sleepers are more active in social activities, whereas poor sleepers have less regularity in their social life. In this study, sleep is the independent variable and social regularity is the dependent variable.

A person who is known as a night owl has a circadian phase sleep disorder known as Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome/Disorder (DSPS), this is when the person falls asleep “2-6 hours later relative to desired and socially conventional rise times”. This condition leads to societal and health disadvantages, resulting from inadequate amount of hours spent sleeping. With chronic inadequate sleep, DSPS can lead to weight gain, depression, anxiety disorders, diabetes, heart disease; however given the right environment a person can live with DSPS without ill effects. (3)

Delayed sleep phased syndrome (DSPS) is a disorder in which a person’s sleep is delayed by 2 or more hours greater than the socially acceptable or conventional bedtime. This article proves that this delay in falling asleep causes difficulty in waking up at the desired time. DSPS is a disorder that is linked to the Circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a day and night cycle that helps to compel humans to remain awake during the day and sleep during the night. The article contained helpful tips for ameliorating a teenager’s sleep cycle back to normal. This piece of advice included getting up at the same time in the morning, avoid the computer and reduce bright light exposure 2 hours before bed, develop a bed time routine repeating the same

What do the effects of sleep deprivation have on people? When a person does not get enough sleep, he or she is depriving his or her body of something that it needs. A delightful sleep is one of the most satisfying human experiences with a role to play in supporting a good mood and cognitive acuity as well as in promoting physiologic balance and resilience (Chittora, Jain and Suhalka). People think because they get an insufficient number of hours of sleep, they will not have an emotional impact by it. Sleep is a required need for peoples’ day to day life to be able to perform and stay healthy emotionally and physically. The effects of sleep deprivation are an issue because it affects mood, performance, and health.

The circadian clock in humans has influence over many processes in the body. The most prevalent of those arguably is its determination of our sleep and wake cycles (Joseph et al. 2008). Sufficient sleep is an essential part of human health and a lack of sleep can have severe repercussions on the human body and mind (Hamet and Tremblay 2006). Disruption of the body’s circadian cycle, by genetic means, can cause: ineffective homeostasis of the sleep cycle, imbalances in the amounts of time spent awake and asleep, and the timing of sleep’s onset, all of which can contribute to dangerous sleep-related disorders (Hamet and Tremblay 2006).

Sleep is very important for proper human functioning. Sleep deprivation occurs the body does not get an adequate amount of sleep regularly. The lack of sleep can affect many aspects of life. This topic affects many Americans especially college students. American culture values being very busy and cramming in many activities to daily schedules in which often requires sacrificing sleep. Different age groups reactions to sleep deprivation was investigated. Physical effects of lack of sleep were examined by looking at the change in the level of alertness and ability to notice details. The effects of sleep deprivation on stress regulation, and emotional response were also tested.