ANCSLEEP BLOG

Why Alaskan Winters Can Be Bad for Sleep

Much of the year in Alaska, we live in either extreme darkness or extreme light. These extreme conditions affect our lives in many different ways:

• Psychologically
• Physiologically
• Habitually
• Emotionally
• Sociologically

Unfortunately, the long darkness affects our lives in ways that aren’t usually conducive to sleep. Perhaps you suspect that you have developed a sleep disorder or your existing sleep disorder has flared up.

Alaskans have to work harder to maintain a normal sleep schedule in winter. The good news is that there are many tricks you can use to help maintain a normal sleep schedule, though some people will need more direct intervention from sleep specialists or healthcare practitioners. 

What is Insomnia?

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that prevents you from falling asleep, staying asleep throughout the night, or sleeping until a reasonable hour in the morning. The result of insomnia is mild to severe sleep deprivation, which can have severe consequences. Furthermore, it’s an extremely frustrating disorder.

Insomnia can negatively affect several domains of your life:

• Emotionally
• Cognitively
• Physically
• Socially

Every area of health can be negatively impacted by sleep deprivation related to insomnia. If the cause of your insomnia is medical, insomnia can be a vicious cycle where your medical symptoms worsen, which, then, worsens your insomnia.

There are two types of insomnia:

• Primary insomnia – insomnia with no clear, underlying issue
• Secondary insomnia – insomnia as a direct result of something else 

Insomnia can also be acute, short-term, or chronic, long-term. Medical causes of insomnia tend to be chronic and primary. These causes could include:

• Disease
• Medications
• Psychological factors
• Demographic factors

What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a frequent and sometimes uncontrollable desire for sleep. This can result in sudden lapses of sleep at any time, in any place. This results in abnormal sleep patterns and rhythms. For example, someone suffering from narcolepsy may end up sleeping several times during the day and then having trouble sleeping at night. Irregular sleeping patterns are not only inconvenient, they can have medical, emotional, and psychological consequences. Continue reading to learn more about narcolepsy to assess if you may be experiencing any of these symptoms.

Are you lying awake at night, stressed out, mind racing in circles? For many Americans, this is a nightly routine that prevents sleep and leads to poor sleep habits. Rumination and stress can, together, severely inhibit the ability to get a good night's sleep.

Beyond the stress that actively keeps you up at night, the demands of modern life – parenting, work, school, health, finances, chores – can also make sleep feel like a secondary necessity. The day gets so busy and at the end, you feel like you haven't done anything for yourself.  This can lead to you staying up an extra hour to relax and do something enjoyable like watching television, cruising the web, or watching a movie, which further inhibits sleep.

Also, all of us are different and can deal with varying amounts of stress, be they short-term or long-term stressors. Understanding stress is about understanding stress for you – how you react, how it impacts your life, and how it impacts your sleep.

What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a frequent and sometimes uncontrollable desire for sleep. It is incredibly disruptive for maintaining a normal sleep schedule and requires many accommodations for everyday activities.

About 75% of people with Narcolepsy will also suffer from what is called Cataplexy. Cataplexy is an episode in which strong emotion causes a sudden loss of muscle tone. Cataplexy is important because it determines if one has Type 1 or Type 2 narcolepsy. Type 1 narcolepsy presents with cataplexy whereas Type 2 does not.

Currently there is no cure for Narcolepsy.

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.