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Sleep Disorders

Omoniyi Oluwarotimi

Popoola Daniel

Ikuborije Praise

Rabo Godiya

Seimiebo Ayibatarelayefa

Shaibu Mariam

Rufai Mudassira

Shior George

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Outline

  • Introduction/Definition of terms
  • Epidemiology
  • Risk factors
  • Classification
  • Insomnia
  • Hypersomnia
  • Narcolepsy
  • Breathing related sleeping disorder
  • Parasomnia
  • Conclusion
  • Reference

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Introduction

Sleep is an essential process for proper brain functioning and serves a restorative, homeostatic function, and appears to be crucial for normal thermoregulation and energy conservation.

It is one of the most significant of human behaviors, occupying roughly one-third of human life.

Lack of sleep can lead to the inability to concentrate, memory complaints, deficits in neuropsychological testing, and decreased libido. Additionally, sleep disorders can have serious consequences, including fatal accidents related to sleepiness.

Disturbed sleep can be a primary diagnosis itself or a component of another medical or psychiatric disorder. Careful diagnosis and specific treatment are essential.

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Epidemiology

  • Approximately 30% of adults in the United States experience a sleep disorder during their lifetime, and over half do not seek treatment.
  • Data concerning sleep disorder among the Nigerian population is currently not well defined.
  • However, a study carried out in the University college hospital in Ibadan, Oyo state found that about 7 out of 10 patients that reported to their family medicine clinic all had a sleep disorder of one form or the other (O.A Adewole, 2017).

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Risk factors

  • Female sex
  • Advanced age
  • Medical disorders like diabetes, CVS disease, GERD, thyroid disorders
  • Mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder
  • Substance abuse
  • Obesity

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Classification

The DSM-5 classifies sleep disorders on the basis of clinical diagnostic criteria and presumed etiology.

DSM-5 are only a fraction of the known sleep disorders; they provide a framework for clinical assessment. The current classification includes;

  • Primary sleep disorders
  • Secondary sleep disorders

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Primary sleep disorders

  • Dyssomias;

They are associated with difficulty initiating or maintaining the sleep or daytime sleepiness;

  1. Insomnia
  2. Hypersomnia
  3. Narcolepsy
  4. Breathing related sleep disorder
  5. Circadian Rhythm sleep disorders

  • Parasomias;

Abnormal behavioral or physiological events occurring during sleep.

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Insomnia

DSM-5 defines insomnia disorder as dissatisfaction

with sleep quantity or quality associated with one or more of the

following symptoms: difficulty in initiating sleep, difficulty in

maintaining sleep with frequent awakenings or problems returning to

sleep, and early morning awakening with inability to return to sleep.

Insomnia can be categorized in terms of how it affects sleep (such as.,

sleep-onset insomnia, sleep-maintenance insomnia, or early-morning

awakening).

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Insomnia can also be classified according to its duration

(e.g., transient, short term, and long term).

Primary insomnia is diagnosed by nonrestorative sleep or difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep, and the complaint continues for at least a month (according to ICD-10, the disturbance must occur at least three times a week for a month).

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Causes of insomnia

The causes of Insomnia can be split into 2 categories:

1. Conditions causing difficulty falling asleep

  • Stress
  • Substance abuse
  • Lesions of the central nervous system such as:
  • Anxiety
  • Change of environment

2. Conditions that make it hard to remain asleep

  • Depression
  • Restless leg syndrome
  • Effects of substance withdrawal
  • Schizophrenia
  • Post traumatic stress disorder

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Symptoms

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Diagnosis

The diagnosis of insomnia involves careful history looking to rule out any underlying medical conditions, also to find out any effects on personal life.

There aren’t any tests that can diagnose insomnia directly. Instead, tests help rule out other conditions with similar symptoms to insomnia. The most likely tests include:

  • Sleep apnea testing involving an overnight sleep study in a sleep lab (polysomnography) or an at-home sleep apnea screening device.

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  • Actigraphy: this is a technique to measure your activity. A wearable device called an actigraph measures your movement. It looks like a wristwatch.

It can detect sleep disorders or patterns in your sleep-wake cycle that affect your health. You may need to wear this device for up to two weeks.

  • Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT): it is a diagnostic test that involves recording multiple systems in your body while you sleep.

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Treatment

  1. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia can help you control or stop negative thoughts and actions that keep you awake. It's usually recommended as the first treatment for people with insomnia. Typically, CBT is as effective or more effective than sleep medicines.

Strategies involved in this include:

  • Relaxation methods
  • Light therapy
  • Remaining passively awake

2. Use of pharmacotherapeutics such as Temazepam (Restoril), Triazolam (Halcion).

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Complications

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Hypersomnia

This is a disorder characterized by excessive sleepiness

It is diagnosed when there is no other cause found for greater than 1 month of excessive somnolence (daytime sleepiness) or excessive amounts of daytime sleep. Usually begins in childhood. Can be a consequence of;

  1. insufficient sleep

(2) basic neurologic dysfunction in brain systems regulating sleep

(3) disrupted sleep

(4) the phase of an individual’s circadian rhythm.

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Types of hypersomnia

  1. Kleine–Levin syndrome.

Rare condition consisting of recurrent periods of prolonged sleep (from which patients may be aroused) with intervening periods of normal sleep and alert waking.

  • Periodic disorder of episodic hyper somnolence.
  • Usually affects young men, ages 10 to 21.
  • May sleep excessively for several weeks and awaken only to eat (voraciously).
  • Associated with hyper sexuality, extreme hostility, irritability, and occasionally hallucinations during episode.
  • Amnesia follows attacks.

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  • May resolve spontaneously after several years.
  • Patients are normal between episodes.
  • Treatment consists of stimulants (amphetamines, methylphenidate [Ritalin], and pemoline [Cylert]) for hypersomnia and preventive measures for other symptoms. Lithium also has been used successfully.

b. Menstrual-related hypersomnia.

  • Recurrent episodes of hypersomnia related to the menstrual cycle, experiencing intermittent episodes of marked hypersomnia at, or shortly before, the onset of their menses.

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c. Idiopathic hypersomnia.

Disorder of excessive sleepiness in which patients do not have the ancillary symptoms associated with narcolepsy. It is associated with long nonrefreshing naps, difficulty awakening, sleep drunkenness, and automatic behaviors with amnesia. Other symptoms include migraine-like headaches, fainting spells, syncope, orthostatic hypotension, and Raynaud- type phenomena with cold hands and feet.

d. Other types include;

  • Behaviorally induced insufficient sleep syndrome
  • Hypersomnia due to a medical condition
  • Hypersomnia due to drug or substance abuse

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Treatment

  • Regularizing sleep periods
  • Wake promoting drugs like modafinil (Provigil)
  • Use of Traditional psychostimulants

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Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to control sleep-wake cycles. People with narcolepsy may feel rested after waking, but then feel very sleepy throughout much of the day.

Narcolepsy consists of the following characteristics:

  1. Excessive daytime somnolence (sleep attacks) is the primary symptom of narcolepsy. It is distinguished from fatigue by irresistible sleep attacks of short duration (less than 15 minutes). Sleep attacks may be precipitated by monotonous or sedentary activity. Naps are highly refreshing and effects usually last 30 to 120 minutes.

b. Sleep paralysis

Temporary partial or complete paralysis in sleep–wake transitions. Conscious but unable to move or open eyes. Most commonly occurs on awakening. Generally described as an anxiety-provoking, “scary” event. Generally lasts less than 1 minute. Reported by 25% to 50% of the general population though for a much shorter duration.

.

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c. Cataplexy

  • Reported by over 50% of narcoleptic patients. Brief (seconds to minutes) episodes of muscle weakness or paralysis. No loss of consciousness if episode is brief. When attack is over, the patient is completely normal. May manifest as partial loss of muscle tone (weakness, slurred speech, buckled knees, dropped jaw).
  • Often triggered by laughter (common), anger (common), athletic activity, excitement or elation, sexual intercourse, fear, or embarrassment. Flat affect or lack of expressiveness develops in some patients as an attempt to control emotions.
  • A diagnosis of cataplexy automatically results in a diagnosis of narcolepsy. If cataplexy does not occur, multiple other characteristics are necessary for the diagnosis of narcolepsy.

d. Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations; this refers to dreamlike experience during transition from wakefulness to sleep and vice versa. Usually associated with vivid auditory or visual hallucinations or illusions

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Onset and clinical course

Typically, full syndrome emerges in late adolescence or early 20s. Once established, condition is chronic without major remissions.

A long delay may occur between the earliest symptoms (excessive somnolence) and the late appearance of cataplexy.

Causes

a. Plausibly caused by an abnormality of REM-inhibiting mechanisms.

b. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR2 and narcolepsy.

(1) Strong (>70%) association between narcolepsy and HLA-DR2, a type of human lymphocyte antigen.

(2) HLA-DR2 is also found in up to 30% of unaffected persons.

(3) Recent research involving hypocretin, a neurotransmitter, suggests that hypocretin is significantly reduced in narcolepsy patients.

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Treatment

  • Regular bedtime.
  • Daytime naps scheduled at a regular time of day.
  • Safety considerations, such as caution while driving and avoiding furniture with sharp edges.
  • Stimulants (e.g., modafinil [Provigil]) for daytime sleepiness. High-dose propranolol (Inderal) may be effective.
  • Tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for REM-related symptoms, especially cataplexy.

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Breathing related sleep disorder

Characterized by sleep disruption that is caused by a sleep-related breathing disturbance, leading to excessive sleepiness, insomnia, or hypersomnia. Breathing disturbances include

  • Apneas
  • Hypoapneas
  • Oxygen desaturations.

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Apnea

  • Apnea. This refers to a state of breathlessness during sleep. The two types of sleep apnea are (1) obstructive and (2) central sleep apnea (CSA), which have numerous subtypes. Greater than 40% of patients evaluated for somnolence using polysomnography are found to have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea may account for a number of unexplained deaths.
  • Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)

Caused by cessation of air flow through the nose or mouth in the presence of continuing thoracic breathing movements, resulting in decreases in arterial oxygen saturation and a transient arousal, after which respiration resumes normally.

Typically occurs in middle-aged, overweight men (Pickwickian syndrome).

Also occurs more frequently in patients with smaller jaws or micrognathia, acromegaly, and hypothyroidism.

Main symptoms include; loud snoring with intervals of apnea. Additional symptoms include extreme daytime sleepiness with long and unrefreshing daytime sleep attacks. Other symptoms include severe morning headaches, morning confusion, depression, and anxiety.

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  • Medical consequences include cardiac arrhythmias, systemic and pulmonary hypertension, and decreased sexual drive or function with progressive worsening without treatment.
  • Apnic events usually occur in both REM (more severe) and NREM (more frequent) sleep.
  • Each event lasts 10 to 20 seconds. There are usually 5 to 10 events per hour of sleep.
  • In severe cases, patients may have more than 300 episodes of apnea per night.
  • Patients are unaware of episodes of apnea.
  • Treatment consists of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), uvulopharyngopalatoplasty, weight loss, buspirone (Buspar), and SSRIs and tricyclic drugs (to reduceREM periods, the stage during which obstructive apnea is usually more frequent). If a specific abnormality of the upper airway is found, surgical intervention is indicated.
  • Sedatives and alcohol should be avoided because they can considerably exacerbate the condition, which may then become life threatening.

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Circadian rhythm sleep disorders

  • When the normal sleep-wake cycle is affected: Includes:
  • Jet lag type
  • Shift work type

Treatment of the circadian rhythm sleep disorder;

• Sleep hygiene

  • Cronotherapy

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Parasomnia

Characterized by physiologic or behavioral phenomena that occur during or are potentiated by sleep. Wakefulness, NREM sleep, and REM sleep can be characterized as three basic states that differ in their neurologic organization.

1. NREM sleep arousal disorders

a. Sleepwalking disorder (somnambulism)

Complex activity—with brief episodes of leaving bed and walking about without full consciousness.

Usually begins between the ages of 4 and 8, with peak prevalence at about 12 years old; generally disappears spontaneously with age.

About 15% of children have an occasional episode and is more common in boys.

Patients often have familial history of other parasomnias.

Amnesia for the event—patient does not remember the episode.

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  • Occurs during deep NREM sleep (stages III and IV sleep).
  • Initiated during first third of the night. Can usually be guided back to bed.
  • Can sometimes be initiated by placing a child who is in stage IV sleep in the standing position.
  • In adults and elderly persons, may reflect psychopathology— rule out central nervous system (CNS) pathology.
  • Drugs that suppress stage IV sleep, such as benzodiazepines, can be used to treat somnambulism.
  • Potentially dangerous. Precautions include window guards and other measures to prevent injury.
  • Treatment includes education and reassurance. Specialized forms of sleepwalking include sleep-related eating behavior and sexsomnia.

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b. Recurrent isolated sleep paralysis

It is usually an Isolated symptom characterized by Hypnagogic hallucinations

It usually last one to several minutes

Episode terminates with touch, noise (some external stimulus), or voluntary repetitive eye movements.

c. Nightmare disorder

Nightmares are vivid dreams in which one awakens frightened.

About 50% of the adult population may report occasional nightmares.

Almost always occur during REM sleep.

Can occur at any time of night, but usually after a long REM period late in the night.

Good recall (quite detailed).

Less anxiety, vocalization, motility, and autonomic discharge than in sleep terrors.

No harm results from awakening a person who is having a nightmare.

No specific treatment; benzodiazepines, tricyclics, and SSRIs may be of help.

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d. Sleep terrors

  • Night terrors (sleep terrors) are sleep disorder in which a person quickly wakes from sleep in a terrified state.
  • Individuals may be difficult to arouse from the episode and when aroused can be confused and subsequently amnestic for the episode

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Other parasomnias

a. Sleep enuresis

(1) Primary

One urinates during sleep while in be

Continuance of bed-wetting since infancy

Parental primary enuresisincreases the likelihood in children.

(2) Secondary

Relapse after toilet training is complete and there was a period during which the child remained dry.

Associated with nocturnal seizures, sleep deprivation, and urologic anomalies.

Treatment modalities include medicines (imipramine, oxybutynin chloride, and synthetic vasopressin), behavioral treatments (bladder training, using conditioning devices (bell and pad), and fluid restriction).

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b. Sleep-related groaning (Catathrenia)

  • Prolonged, frequently loud groans during any stage of sleep.
  • There is no known treatment.

c. Sleep-related hallucinations

  • Usually occurs at sleep onset (hypnagogic) or on awakening (hypnopompic).
  • Common in narcolepsy.
  • Associated with vivid and frightening images.

d. Sleep-related eating disorder

  • Inability to get back to sleep after awakening unless the individual eats or drinks.
  • Mostly in infants and children.

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  • e. Sleep Bruxism
  • Is the grinding of the teeth as if you are crushing or chewing something while in real essence you are not. Done while sleeping. Leads to deformed teeth and Is uncomfortable for the person sleeping nearby.
  • f. Restless leg syndrome
  • Neurological disorder that is characterized by unpleasant sensations of legs and an urge to move them when at the rest and asleep.
  • Causes: Mostly unknown (idiopathic)  Treatment: underlying cause, some meds, and exercise.

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  • Secondary sleep disorders;
  • Sleep disorders related to another mental condition.
  • Sleep disorder related to General medical conditions.
  • Substance induced sleep disorder

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General Management of sleep disorders

  • Sleep hygiene
  • Behavioral treatments: normalizing the circadian rhythm e.g
  • Cronotherapy
  • Cognitive behavior therapy
  • Sleep restriction therapy
  • Pharmacologic treatment: Benzodiazepines e.g. midozelam  Melatonin receptor agonist e.g. Ramelteon

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  • Good Sleep hygiene includes:
  • Try to limit caffeine intake.
  • Have a light snack before bedtime. (no big meals before bedtime)
  • Set your bedroom for a comfortable temperature.
  • Minimize light exposure.
  • Try to follow a regular and consistent sleep schedule

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Conclusion

One who complains of insomnia for greater than 1 year is 40 times more likely than the general population to have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. In 35% of patients who present to sleep disorder centers with a complaint of insomnia, the underlying cause is a psychiatric disorder. Half of these patients have major depression. Roughly 80% of patients with major depression complain of insomnia. In patients with major depression, sleep involves relatively normal onset, but repeated awakenings in the second half of the night, premature morning awakening, decreased stages III and IV sleep, a short REM latency, and a long first REM period. Posttraumatic stress disorder patients typically describe insomnia and nightmares. Hypersomnia related to a mental disorder is usually found in a variety of conditions such as the early stages of mild depressive disorder, grief, personality disorders, dissociative disorders, and somatoform disorders.

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References

  1. Benjamin .J, Sadock .W (2016) Pocket handbook of psychiatry, 6th edition, Wolter kluwer, Philadelphia.
  2. Olanisun Adewole (2017). Pattern of Sleep Disorders among Patients in a Nigerian Family Practice Population. Ann Med Health Sci Res.; 7: 23-31
  3. Cleveland clinic (2024), Insomnia: what it is, symptoms, effects and treatment. Retrieved from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12119-insomnia