Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders are chronic sleep irregularities, which drastically interfere with normal nighttime sleep or daytime functioning. Sleep-related problems are the most common complaint heard by doctors and psychiatrists, the two most common being insomnia (inability to go to sleep or stay asleep), and hypersomnia (excessive daytime sleepiness). While most people experience both problems at some time, it is only when they cause serious intrusions into daily living that they warrant investigation as disorders.

Sleep disorders research is a relatively new field of medicine stimulated by the discovery in 1953 of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and the more recent discovery in the 1980s that certain irregular breathing patterns during sleep can cause serious illness and sometimes death. While medical knowledge of sleep disorders is expanding rapidly, clinical educational programs still barely touch on the subject, about which many physicians, psychiatrists and neurologists remain seriously undereducated.