ANCSLEEP BLOG

When you wake up in the mornings, you should feel rested and full of energy. However, if there are times that you wake up feeling tired, even after 8 hours of sleep, then you may not be getting restful sleep. Closing your eyes and lying in bed is not enough. There are other aspects of sleep that determine the amount of rest that you feel upon waking.    

If you wake up feeling like you hardly slept, even if you slept all night, it’s going to impact your life because you'll  be tired all the time. When you are tired all the time, you may find that you experience more mood swings, have trouble performing well at work or school, lose motivation to do fun things for yourself, and struggle in your interpersonal relationships. Life is simply more challenging when you have chronic fatigue.

It can be especially frustrating when you feel like you're trying to get enough sleep, and therefore, should be rested and happy. If you struggle with chronic fatigue, even after getting adequate sleep, some factors that may influence that are:

• Bad habits and/or cognitive conditions
• Sleep disorders
• Bad sleeping environment
• Medical problem

Let’s look at these in more detail.

What is a Sleep Diary?

A sleep diary is a record of your sleeping that includes all of the aspects of your sleep such as patterns and habits in order to identify potential problems that should incur a sleep study. Sleep diaries are generally kept over a period of at least two weeks, however, longer durations are often better for more information.  

Sleep diaries might be requested of you by your doctor or a sleep center in order to get more accurate data about your sleeping throughout the process of working up your sleep concerns.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder and potentially serious medical condition. OSA causes you to stop breathing for 20+ seconds many times throughout the night. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself out of sleep to begin breathing again, thus preventing you from entering the deep, restorative stages of sleep. However, in the morning you will not remember rousing, but will just feel extremely fatigued!

Purpose of Sleep Studies

Sleep studies are important diagnostic tools for common sleep disorders like sleep apnea, insomnia, circadian and rhythm disorders. Sleep studies have proven to be particularly important in Alaska where the extreme darkness and lightness tend to either cause or worsen sleep disorders.

Sleep studies are non-invasive and painless. They monitor:

• Brainwave activity
• Eye movement
• Muscle movement
• Heart activity
• Breathing
• Blood oxygen level

In a sleep study, you will conduct your sleep study over night at our facility. The results from the sleep study will help either provide a diagnosis or clarify what may be causing concern.

Chronic Fatigue – Life Doesn’t Have to be Miserable

Being tired all of the time can have severely negative effects on your life. You may feel moody around friends and family, unable to perform well at school or work, have dissatisfaction in your physical or intimate life, and struggle to deal with minor inconveniences. 

If you know that you are not sleeping 8 hours a day, then you may be able to identify the cause of these issues. However, if you are getting the appropriate amount of sleep are and still having these symptoms, then you may be even more frustrated.  

If you find yourself in the latter category, you are not alone. There are conditions that will interfere with your rest regardless of how much sleep or rest you think you are giving. Overall categories include: 

• Sleep conditions
• Medical conditions
• Lifestyle conditions

In this blog post, we will discuss these three categories in more detail.

Overview of Insomnia

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that can cause sleep deprivation and subsequent frustration. Insomnia arises when you either can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or always wake up far earlier than necessary. The result of insomnia is mild to severe sleep deprivation, which can have catastrophic emotional, cognitive, physical, or social effects. In short, every area of your health can be greatly reduced from sleep deprivation related to insomnia.

What Happens to Sleep As We Age?

As an adult, you should be averaging between 7-9 hours of sleep every day. This is extensively researched and claims of success with less than 7 hours of sleep should be taken with a grain of salt.

Although 7-9 hours a day is recommended, these hours don't necessarily have to happen at night or all at once. People who sleep 4-5 hours at night will need to supplement their sleep with naps in order to get their necessary hours of sleep. When you are younger, you likely had little to no trouble getting at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. But your sleep pattern changes as you age, and after 65 years of age, getting 7 straight hours of sleep may seem impossible.

Generally speaking, as one gets older, their sleep pattern changes in the following ways:

• They will likely sleep less than 7 hours at night
• Their sleep may feel less restful during the night
• They may be more inclined to nap
• The times that they go to bed and wake up will also likely change

While sleep patterns might change, the need to get a certain amount of sleep won’t change. These changes happen for life reasons (stress, children, jobs), hormonal changes, and natural physiological changes that makes one more susceptible to certain sleep disorders.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition and sleeping disorder where you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 5 to 30+ times per hour. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself to begin breathing again, though in the morning you will not remember rousing.

Your throat becomes blocked because your breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax, causing the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially, blocking your airways. Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event.Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risks

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a serious medical condition with ride ranging emotional, physical, and cognitive side effects and risks. OSA can increase the risk of:

• Shorter life expectancy
• Lower quality of life
• Lower performance in many areas of life
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Stroke
• Heart disease

Fortunately, OSA treatment options can significantly or completely reduce these risks.

Sleep – More Than Just Mental

Sleep deprivation may appear to affect you most mentally and emotionally with the fogginess and moodiness. If sleep deprivation only affected us mentally, it might be easier to get away with. Unfortunately, chronic sleep deprivation can be a silent killer as it takes a large toll on your physical health and performance, as well as mental and emotional health. 

Sleep impacts many areas of your physical health:

• Immune system
• Brain
• Pain
• Safety
• Weight

Let’s look at how sleep affects these areas of your physical health.

Sleep Can Cause…Yes, Erectile Dysfunction (ED)

Sleep deprivation can cause erectile dysfunction (ED). This often comes as a shock to most men and, in cases where men deal with ED, it can be a sign of hope because it can be easily fixed if sleep is causing the ED. Sleep deprivation can affect your sex life in several ways:

• Reduced sex drive (libido)
• Inability to get an erection
• Inability to perform (maintain an erection)

Sleep deprivation is a result of getting less than your optimal sleep, which for adults, is 7-9 hours per day. A couple nights of sleep deprivation is not likely to cause ED, though you may feel decreased libido in that time period. Usually, chronic sleep deprivation triggers ED and reduced libido as opposed to short-term.