Sleep Disturbances And The Multifactorial Nature Of Insomnia

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It can have a devastating impact on one’s emotion, physical, occupation and social life. While it occasionally can be seen in the clinical setting as a primary diagnosis, it most often presents as a comorbidity to a medical or psychiatric issue;

In my paper, I will tackle insomnia from various perspectives: definitions, types, causes, effects, and means of solutions.

Martha is a 65 year old lady who suffers from insomnia based on the preliminary symptoms of sleeplessness. She is also under severe stress from her mum’s dependence condition which makes her unhappy with her retirement. Martha’s mum’s condition is of great influence to her insomnia disorder for she only thinks of her through out the day, caring for her leaving Martha with little time to check on her health. Insomnia is a disorder that mostly affects the elderly though it may affect people from all ages. It is the lack of sleep even when one feels to have some sleep. It is not a stand alone disease but a symptom which is defined by the duration one lacks quality sleep. Transient insomnia is not having sleep for a week, short term insomnia is lack of adequate sleep for 2-3 weeks, while sleeplessness for a month is termed as chronic insomnia. Various studies have shown that insomnia affects women more often than men and that 30%-50% of elderly Americans experience difficulty in initiating and maintaining adequate sleep. Diagnosing insomnia in a patient the health practitioner would evaluate the patient medical record and other factors that may contribute to insomnia. For example, snoring, psychological factors such as stress levels and drug use. Martha’s physician would check on her medical

Sleep is important not only for promoting healing, but also for the overall well-being of the individual. When there are problems with the sleeping pattern, it impacts the overall health and safety of the older adult. The person will not have enough rest and will be too tired to perform activities surrounding daily living. We have to assess the risk factors contributing to the problems of sleep disturbance and these might be “related to poor sleep hygiene, including an irregular sleep schedule, environmental noise or light, and the use of stimulants” (Mauk, 2014, p. 581). If the sleeping pattern is not assessed, possible complications will happen, such as falls that could lead to bodily injuries.

Different age groups of people require different hours of sleep. Children and adolescents require nine to eleven hours of sleep per day. Adults need 7-9 hours, yet some people feel better sleeping lesser hours even with those guidelines. It is true that alcohol helps people sleep faster, but sleep is disrupted once the level which is in the blood starts to fall. It might lead to waking up and difficulties to fall back to sleep. It is true that depression and anxiety may lead to lead to insomnia but for a short time. People should understand that insomnia is not only brought by depression, but chronic pain, bad side-effects of a particular medication, worries and stress are also known to cause long-term insomnia (Okun et al., 2009). Depression and anxiety should not keep an individual awake for a long time but only for a short time. Additionally, the myth that it is right the lie in bed sleepless is not true. Everyone requires sleep during the day or at night, and it is necessary for the body and the brain to function properly. Notably, sleep is good for relaxing the brain in adults and in children, sleep is important for development (Szelenberger, 2006). One should not be fooled that sleep is not necessary, but those people with insomnia should practice relaxation techniques for them to fall asleep. It is true that people tend to sleep few hours as they

Sleep disturbance among the older adult population is known to be a prevalent issue (Gooneratne, Pack, Staley, Schutte-Rodin, Dinges, & Pack, 2011). Much study has

Sleep is a vital component to sustaining life in humans. Even though everyone participates in sleeping, many individuals do not understand the true significance of sleeping, and what benefits and consequences come with too much or too little sleep. Sleep comes in different stages throughout the period of rest, with some stages being more important than others. By interrupting various stages, different types of problems can arise from which stage is being affected. In particular, elder adults are affected in larger numbers to a more extensive depth of issues. “However, aging does not mean elders should encounter sleep disorders; it merely increases the possibility that more elders will seek help to manage the problem” (Song, Hollenbeck, Blair, Schatzkin, Chen. 2012. p.316) By understanding possible causes for sleep disorders, what kinds of physiological effects this has on the aged anatomy, and the types of problems that appear in the psychological aspect, it becomes achievable to begin working towards reversing complications and promoting elder sleep health.

PSQI, a 19-item tool, assessed self-rated sleep quality measures over the prior month, and with a score of 5 or greater associated with poor sleep. ESS, an 8-item self-rated questionnaire, evaluated the impact of subjective perceived sleepiness on daily functioning in eight different environments with a score of 9 or greater being associated with a burden of day-time sleepiness. ISI, a 7-item tool, identified the presence, rated the severity and described the impact of insomnia with a score of 10 or greater identified as positive for

Insomnia can be defined as a purpose or apparent complexity in falling and staying asleep. Dissimilarities in variables used for measurement sleep-onset time, time asleep, and time awake by some, sleepiness, irritability, or other impairment of daytime function by others, make difficult comparisons between studies. The insomnia treatments for which there is confirmation of efficacy include sleep restriction, in which the patient is instructed to remain in bed only as long as he is actually sleeping, stimulus control no activities in the bedroom except sleep and sex, and a variety of relaxation methods, particularly in the circumstance of multimodal sleep clinics (Rowe, 1995).

The Psychology and Health journal focuses on the approaches to health and illness and contains topics such as physical illness, treatment processes and recovery; psychosocial factors, health attitudes and behavior, the individual health care system interface. The journal publishes original research, accepts meta-analyses work and presents psychological methods and efforts in health-related fields. The objective of the study Subjective age and sleep in middle-aged and older adults was to assess chronological age and how it is used to explain changes in sleep.

The research article Poor sleep quality is associated with increased cortical atrophy in community-dwelling adults is a correlational study that concluded there was a correlation between longitudinal measures of cortical atrophy and lack of sleep quality. The hypothesis of the researchers was that atrophy within the orbitofrontal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex would be associated with poor sleep quality. These researchers also hypothesized that the frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices may also be affected by poor sleep quality, which would reflect the many cognitive deficits that are brought about by lack of quality sleep.

The design of the study was a correlation base study among different age groups, explored effect, and efficiency, latency, and assessed sleep duration. The researcher viewed and measured the participant's PSQI and MRI scans by an average of 3.5 years. The outcome of the research showed that poor sleep quality was associated with an increase of atrophy in frontal, parietal, and temporal regions, and reduced volume in the right upper frontal region. Correlations for the age of 60 and above, could not be explained by any of the variation in BMI, blood pressure, physical activity, and were linked to decrease in sleep efficiency. With the graphs and tables of the research, from the data, we can conclude that the measure of the atrophy was widely correlated with sleep quality. The conclusion for this article was largely driven by correlations from elderly age adults, could not be explained by characteristics that are being

This chapter has helped me to understand the experience of changing sleep patterns for older adults and how this can affect health. According to Saxton, Etten & Perkins “Changes in sleep patterns sometimes result in significant sleep deprivation and may have negative consequences for health.” (P.68). Older adults can struggle to get “good” sleep because the change in sleep pattern as we get older involves getting less REM sleep. As we age, we have a harder time falling asleep and trouble staying asleep. We also spend more time doing light sleep instead of deep sleep or (REM). As a result, older adults find themselves taking daytime naps. According to the National Sleep Foundation “Many older adults, though certainly not all, also report being

Objective: To evaluate the impact of insomnia severity on wellbeing, quality of life, and healthcare costs.

The topic that I read is sleep. I read about people who get older don't sleep enough due to their busy schedule. There's a higher chance of people getting insomnia and other symptoms. Adults older than 65 have a difficult time falling asleep and staying asleep. I learned that there are two types of insomnia: primary insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. Primary insomnia happens while you are sleeping and obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder, an example can be snoring while your asleep. To fall asleep, it's recommended to read a book for 20 minutes and by that time you will be