Posted by admin on Jan 7th, 2010

Sleep Disorders Medicine...

we have created a new clinical specialty, sleep disorders medicine, whose task is to watch over all of us while we are asleep. —William Dement (1985) Organized sleep disorders medicine in the United States began with the founding of the Association for the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep (APSS) in 1961, an association comprised of sleep researchers, many with clinical interests. Sleep research led to...

Posted by admin on Jan 7th, 2010

Pathology of sleep...

Five billion people go through the cycle of sleep and wakefulness every day, and relatively few of them know the joy of being fully rested and fully alert all day long. —William Dement (1988) Sleep disorders were poorly described at the turn of the century, and, other than narcolepsy and sleeping sickness, few specific sleep disorders were recognized. In addition to general medical illness, environmental...

Posted by admin on Jan 7th, 2010

History of sleep and man...

Few physiological conditions have received as much attention through the ages by poets, novelists, scholars and scientists as sleep. From Aristotle and Ovid, to Shakespeare and Dante, writers have been fascinated with sleep and its impact upon emotions, behavior and health. The cause and reason for sleep have been pondered by some of the world’s greatest minds, including Hippocrates and Freud, who...

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

What Is Normal Sleep?...

Insomnia is a subjective complaint. The reason one experiences insomnia may be simple and obvious, or it may be complex, multifactorial, and elusive. In all cases, however, people conclude that they have insomnia by comparing their sleep and wakefulness with their personal expectations of normal sleep and subsequent alertness. The central question is, “What is normal sleep?” This question raises...

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

Education in Sleep Medicin...

Some degree of blame for the health care establishment’s deficiencies in adequately identifying and treating insomnia patients rests with traditions in medical education. Generally, sleep and sleep disorders have been ignored in medical and other health care training programs (Rosen et al., 1993). Many medical schools have no training regarding sleep whatsoever, and very few provide more than a few hours...

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

General Approaches to Trea...

The responses to insomnia vary enormously. Of course, the severity, duration, and presumed cause of the sleep disturbance influence what, if anything, one might do in the attempt to improve sleep. Many people do nothing purposeful to solve the insomnia and hope that their sleep will improve spontaneously. Some people turn to folk remedies or other solutions that they believe will be beneficial (e.g., a...

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

Consequences of Insomnia...

By definition, insomnia involves the experience of inadequate nighttime sleep. During the night there is a sense of wakefulness and possibly distress about the inability to sleep soundly. The potential daytime consequences are quite varied, with acute and chronic effects. A general tendency is for acute insomnia to result in daytime sleepiness but for chronic insomnia to be associated with daytime arousal....

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

Basic Epidemiology of Inso...

The prevalence of insomnia has been assessed through numerous studies ranging from questionnaires and telephone surveys asking general questions to structured interviews with stringent criteria. The general questions, such as whether one sometimes has trouble sleeping, elicit a relatively high percentage of positive responses. Surveys often suggest that about onethird to one-half of the adult populations...

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

What Is Insomnia?...

The word insomnia is derived from the Latin somnus (sleep) and thus suggests the state of not being in sleep. The term is used in many ways in our vernacular language as well as in medical and scientific literature but always with a negative connotation. Although most people agree about the general meaning of the word, it is ambiguous in not specifying a particular pattern of sleep difficulty or underlying...

Posted by admin on Jan 3rd, 2010

Insomnia Problems...

The Problems with Insomnia Insomnia has many consequences, yet it is difficult to diagnose precisely. Insomnia is a common problem in our society, and it represents a major clinical challenge. Sleeplessness is one of the most frequent complaints people present to their physicians. Millions of Americans suffer with it, and billions of dollars are spent annually trying to treat it. The consequences of...