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Sleep disorders

from Medical topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Jason Ellis
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Jason Ellis
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Introduction

Even though sleep disorders are a major public health concern and have been shown to cause and exacerbate various psychiatric and medical problems, their assessment, diagnosis and treatment in research and clinical practice remains largely inconsistent. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the various types of sleep disorder that exist and provide a background to the complex relationship between diagnostic criteria and the conception of sleep disorders by the clinician, the researcher and the individual. Moreover, through an examination of the most commonly reported sleep disorder, insomnia, the effect of differing diagnostic criteria on epidemiological estimates are exemplified.

What is a sleep disorder?

It is common for people to experience the odd sleepless night or feelings of fatigue and sleepiness during the day. However, when these problems persist, cause significant distress, and result in modifications in behaviour, it is broadly termed a sleep disorder. Sleep disorders are generally defined under two main categories, parasomnias and dyssomnias, with parasomnias being an abnormality during sleep and dyssomnias being a disruption in the quality, quantity and timing of sleep episodes.

Parasomnias

Whereas parasomnias were traditionally assumed to be a product of an underlying psychological or psychiatric disorder, or physical manifestation of a dream state, more recently they have been attributed to an intrusion of one sleep stage on another or disruption in the transition between sleep stages or between sleep and wakefulness.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 887 - 889
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

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