Sleep Disorder Specialists Cantonment FL

Experts say children ages 10 to 17 need approximately 9 hours of sleep each night. But after-school activities, homework, television and online distractions make getting this much rest challenging for many.

It hardly seems fair that the hormonal changes associated with puberty exacerbate the problem since biologically adolescents are driven to go to sleep later and sleep longer. Evidentially, Mother Nature hasn't adapted to our 24/7 culture.

Given the fact that early school start times require students to be out the door by 7 a.m., high schools are full of sleep-deprived teens. Like zombies they find it hard to stay alert and focused in class and many report feeling sleepy all day.

Insufficient rest has emotional, behavior, and cognitive consequences. It affects every part of life—from relationships with friends and family, to school performance and health. Lack of sleep is bad for the complexion and causes teens to gain weight as well. If your teen seems moody it could be the serotonin in her body is out of whack. Sleep helps keep hormones and chemicals in the body regulated, too.

But perhaps the most serious side affect occurs when drowsy drivers get behind the wheel. More than 100,000 traffic accidents occur each year and teens are in more than half of the crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Michael Banov, MD is a triple board-certified adult, adolescent, and addiction psychiatrist and the medical director of Northwest Behavioral Medicine and Research Center in Atlanta. He says most teens have poor sleep hygiene. "They stay up late and don't understand the importance of going to sleep at regular times," says the expert who is also the author of Taking Antidepressants: Your Comprehensive Guide to Starting, Staying On, and Safely Quitting (Sunrise River Press, 2010).

Stress combined with poor sleep habits, can put a teenager who may be genetically predisposed to depression at greater risk for developing the condition, Banov warns. "Lack of sleep alone usually doesn't trigger depression," the Harvard-trained doctor explains. "However, sleep disturbances—either insomnia or getting too much sleep—can be signs of depression and should not be ignored."

The National Sleep Foundation's 2006 Poll, Sleep in America found that of the 1,602 adolescents polled, 58 percent said they worried about things too much and/or felt stressed out/anxious (56 percent). The results also showed that 73 percent of those adolescents who reported feeling unhappy, sad, or depressed also reported not getting enough sleep at night and being excessively sleepy. See how you can help your teen get better sleep.

If you think your teen is depressed, don't assume that just fixing his sleep is sufficient. While sleeping better is healing to some degree, Branov advises consulting a health care professional who can determine if there are other issues at play, such as undue stress, bullying, or drugs/a...

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi film, but paralysis resulting from a temporary disconnection of the body from the brain is a fairly common sleep disorder. Although it is considered harmless, and even normal, by sleep experts, it can be terrifying for those who are afflicted.

What It Feel Like

It only lasts for about a minute, but during sleep paralysis, you cannot move your head or body, and you cannot speak. You can breathe, and you may be able to move your eyes slightly. Although they do not occur in all cases of sleep paralysis, hallucinations are a trademark side effect, or accompanying symptom. There may be a physical sense of someone or something sitting on your chest or otherwise touching you. You may hear voices and you may also feel as though you are floating or flying above your bed.

Why It Happens

The reason sleep paralysis is considered normal is because it occurs during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep, when the body and brain are essentially in the sense that the body is not receiving signals or direction from the brain. This disassociation serves a real purpose during normal sleep. It prevents us from acting out physical movements in our dreams so we don't fall out of bed or hurt our sleep partners or ourselves. During REM sleep is also when we experience our most intense and vivid dreams. Although no one knows exactly why sleep paralysis occurs, it is thought to be an extension of this state.

Who It Affects

Sleep paralysis is often associated with narcolepsy, a condition that causes people to fall asleep suddenly and often, can include a paralysis effect, and is also associated with abnormalities in REM sleep. People who do not have narcolepsy, however, also experience sleep paralysis. And unlike narcolepsy, which is associated with falling asleep, sleep paralysis is associated with the wakening stages of sleep.

How You Can Prevent It

Although isolated incidents of sleep paralysis are fairly common, ongoi...

Thanks to our natural internal rhythms, or biological clock, we tend to (or at least hope to!) fall asleep with the moon and wake up with the sun. What happens in between, however, is a bit more complicated.

Sleep happens in stages, and these stages are measured by brain wave activity, which cycles up and down throughout the night.

• Stage 1. As you begin to dose off, you drift from relaxation into stage1 sleep. This very beginning, and very light, stage of sleep is characterized by theta waves, which are very slow frequency brain waves.  Theta waves are similar to what our brain waves look like when we are awake.

• Stage 2. Just minutes later, you enter Stage 2, where you are still in a light sleep characterized by theta waves, but every minute or so, the waves become more frequent. If you are woken up during either one of these theta stages, you might not even realize you had fallen asleep.

• Stage 3. About half an hour after you first fall asleep, you enter stage 3 and the beginning of a deeper level of sleep. This stage is characterized by delta waves, which are the slowest brain waves.

• Stage 4. Within about the first hour of sleep, you enter stage 4, the deepest level of delta sleep. If you are woken up during delta sleep, you are likely to feel groggy and disoriented.

Collectively, these four basic stages are known as non-REM (non-rapid-eye-movement) sleep and they represent about 80 percent of your entire night's sleep.

What About REM Sleep?

The REM (rapid eye movement) stage is the period of time during which you dream. REM sleep occurs periodically thoughout the night and accounts for the remaining 20 percent of time you spend sleeping. If you are woken up during REM sleep, you are most likely to have a clear memory of your dreams.

This is how it works: Your brain cycles up and down through the four basic stages of sleep about four or five times a night. So, in a normal night's sleep, you  repeatedly drift into stage 1, move down through to stage 4, then back up through stages 3, 2 and 1 again.  After the first stage, however, REM sleep takes the place of stage 1 sleep. Each full cycle generally lasts around 90 minutes so that you go into a dream state approximately every 90 minutes. As the cycle continues through the night, REM stages last longer and delta stages get shorter, until the morning, when there is no more delta stage and you wake up.

Sources:

Hall, R.  "Psychology World: S...