The holiday season has arrived! Not only should you be excited, but there is so much to look forward to. Time with family and friends, shopping and traveling are all many things that we take part in during the holiday season. However, for patients with mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), going untreated while traveling can put them in line for serious health consequences, not to mention limiting the enjoyment of their trip. And, let’s face it, sleep apnea doesn’t take a holiday but here are a few quick tips to make traveling with sleep apnea a little less cumbersome.

Getting Older Often Means More Sleep Problems

As you get older, the likelihood that you will develop or report sleeping troubles will increase. This is because as you age, your sleep patterns will change, requiring you to acquire sleep differently than you did when you were, say, 20 years old. Generally speaking, as you get older your sleep pattern changes in the following ways:

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

As an adult, you should be averaging between 7-9 hours of sleep every day. These figures are extensively researched and you should be dubious when someone says that they can do fine with 5 hours of sleep. The key work here is 7-9 hours per day, not just at night.

When you are younger, you likely had little trouble getting 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. But your sleep pattern changes as you age. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep, let alone even 5 or 6 hours, at one time may seem impossible when you get older.

While your pattern might change, your need for getting a certain amount of sleep won’t. So to get the full amount of sleep when you're only getting 4-5 hours at night, you might need to start supplementing your nightly sleep with a long nap or two, or by having two long periods of sleep at night with a break of several wakeful hours in the middle of the night. The point is that you will have to be more conscious of when and how you get your sleep.

These sleep changes happen for life reasons (stress, children, jobs), hormonal changes, and natural physiological changes that make you more susceptible to certain sleep disorders. Let’s look at some of the sleep disorders that are more common in older people.

Should I Be Worried I Have a Sleep Disorder?

Some sleep disorders are actually fairly common and they all have one similarity: they disrupt healthy sleep.

Chronic sleep disruptions have the uncanny effect of making you the “less optimal” version of you. Sometimes, chronic sleep disruption can even make you feel and behave like a completely different person.

If you are reading this, you might be wondering if you have a sleep disorder or problem. Here are causes and symptoms of the most common sleep disorders.

It may help to know that you're not alone in your quest for better sleep. Research studies demonstrate that approximately 25% of people suffer from some form of sleep disorder. Yet, sleep deprivation can impose detrimental effects on individuals and the people around them.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is a waxing and waning disease characterized by diarrhea, abdominal pain and weight loss. IBD, which include Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affects as many as 1.6 million Americans, most of whom are diagnosed before age 30. Since there is no cure to these diseases, patients are relieved when they go into remission.

It’s not surprising that the week of Thanksgiving was chosen as GERD awareness week, especially with our tendency to indulge in a little too much of everything!  GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is a common disease that affects millions of Americans.