Sleep plays an important role in maintaining our health capital. Conversely, a lack of sleep will of course impact the body. The experience of a sleepless night easily demonstrates this. This lack of rest will have physiological, physical and intellectual repercussions.
While insomnia remains the most common pathology, with one in five French people complaining about it, various disorders can affect a good night's recovery. When a problem persists even though you have adopted good sleep hygiene, you should talk to your doctor about it. It can be a pathological sleep disorder:sleep apnea syndrome, restless legs syndrome or more rarely narcolepsy. Your doctor may suggest that you take a check-up at a sleep centre.
Difficulty falling asleep or disturbances in the second part of the night can be a sign of temporary insomnia due to an unsuitable lifestyle or a stressful event, for example. The cause of this cyclical insomnia having disappeared, the quality of sleep is gradually returning. On the other hand, insomnia which sets in and becomes chronic , and claims support.
Sleep apnea syndrome would affect between 5 and 15% of the adult population, depending on age.
During sleep, the person suffering from this syndrome (obstructive form) experiences a narrowing of their pharynx partly linked to muscle relaxation. This leads to more difficult airflow and snoring due to air vibrations. If the airways close completely, the person temporarily stops breathing:they have obstructive apnea.
Such an event can last 10 seconds or more. It can be frequent and occur up to several hundred times per night. Sleep is disturbed without the sleeper necessarily being aware of it (brief awakenings after each apnea). This has the immediate consequences of sleep disorganization, with daytime sleepiness, attention and mood disorders during the day. In the long term, this syndrome promotes cardiovascular disease.
Specific treatments exist aimed at eliminating these episodes of apnea.
It is a fairly common disease:8% of French people suffer from it at least once a year. It is a neurological disorder that is manifested by unpleasant sensations in the legs. This disease, often described under the term "impatience", is favored by immobility, calmed by walking or movement, and occurs especially in the evening and at the beginning of the night.
This syndrome can cause insomnia by making it difficult to fall asleep or by interrupting sleep.
It is all the more important to consult that there are effective treatments.
The person suffering from narcolepsy has sudden and transient episodes of drowsiness during the day.
Narcolepsy is a rare disease most often associated with other disorders such as cataplexy (sudden muscle weakness following an emotion), visual or auditory hallucinations during sleep onset or sleep paralysis (sensation of paralysis of the muscles when falling asleep or waking up).
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a neurological disease characterized by excessive sleepiness during the day.
There are medications aimed at reducing the frequency of occurrence of these episodes of daytime sleepiness and restoring a certain quality of life.
Specific tests are offered in sleep centers to diagnose these sleep pathologies:polysomnography (PSG), the Iterative Sleep Latency Test (TILE) and/or the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (TME).
Persons to contact in case of questions:sleep doctors, somnologists, sophrologists or hypnotherapists specialized in the field of sleep.
Go to a sleep center (see map) if necessary; do not hesitate if suspicion of sleep apnea.
We speak of chronic insomnia when a person has problems falling asleep, maintaining sleep or early awakening, this 2 to 3 times minimum during a week and for at least a month, with repercussions on the quality of daytime life, such as fatigue, impaired vigilance, etc.
The right solution to chronic insomnia is to look for the cause or causes (poor lifestyle, hyperactivity, hyper vigilance, overwork, anxiety, etc.) and to try to remedy it without having to resort, even occasionally, to sleeping tablets. Most often, simple rules of hygiene of life make it possible to find the sleep. Otherwise, do not hesitate to consult your doctor:it may be a pathological sleep disorder.
In France, between 13 and 20% of adults occasionally use sleeping pills, and 10% use them regularly. Taking a hypnotic over a period of a few days does not present any major disadvantages. On the other hand, regularly taking “something to sleep” for months or years is never the right solution and can have serious consequences.
Many drugs used for sleep have not been shown to be effective and have potentially dangerous side effects:disturbance of alertness on waking even when one does not feel drowsy, slowing of reflexes, disturbance of concentration, memory problems, addiction, etc. Pay particular attention to the risk of accidents related to reduced alertness in certain working conditions or while driving your vehicle. Particular care must be taken with the elderly who, night and day, present an increased risk of falling after taking sleeping pills with a potentially increased risk of fracture at this age.
Nightlife, snug under the duvet, can bring its share of unexpected phenomena. Some of these sleep disorders are collectively referred to as parasomnias. They designate non-conscious behaviors such as getting up, walking, or verbal (speaking, singing), or even sensory (hearing, smelling), which occur when falling asleep, waking up or in full sleep. Benign most often, they are nonetheless sometimes disturbing.
In children there are night terrors which are different from nightmares. It occurs mainly in boys between 3 and 6 years old. These are brief attacks of panic occurring in deep sleep, at the beginning of the night. The child does not wake up and he does not remember this event when he wakes up. Night terrors can be due to stress, severe fatigue, or changes in sleeping habits. If this happens very often, do not hesitate to talk to your doctor.
During deep sleep, some people will perform certain actions as varied as walking, talking, sitting, cleaning objects... without being aware of it. These people have their eyes open. They usually don't remember anything when they wake up. The cause of sleepwalking remains to be discovered. Lifestyle, stress, sleep deprivation, genetic factors could be explanations with certainly a combination of these factors between them. The main measures to take in this case concern protection (close doors, windows, hide dangerous objects) as well as having a healthy lifestyle (avoiding lack of sleep). If sleepwalking attacks are too frequent, do not hesitate to consult.
The person has repeated contractions of the jaws producing a grinding noise that can disturb those around them, potentially with abnormal wear of the teeth. It is advisable to consult a dentist if the phenomenon occurs regularly.
Bruxism is often linked to periods of stress.
Enuresis specifically concerns childhood when sleep is sometimes too deep to allow waking up.
While the benefits of sleep are well understood today, the repercussions of a lack of sleep on the body are gradually being revealed to our knowledge. In addition to the fact that it is sometimes difficult to live with, with disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea syndrome, certain diseases such as narcolepsy, disrupt its recovery role. This period can also be particularly agitated with manifestations such as night terrors or somnambulism which are part of the “parasomnias”.
In any case, maintaining a good quality of sleep represents for some a real challenge with regard to our social rhythms.
