7
Feb

Classification of sleep disorders may help you to find your best sleep aid

Author: Lee Shawn

If you do not know it by now, sleeping is a widely researched topic. Its importance keeps both the academic and heath system interest high and the research funding keeps flowing in. One key result of this research is a well developed classification system for sleeping disorders. I think it is both interesting to know the basics of it and could be beneficiary when looking for the best sleep aid. Below is a brief intro to this classification system, with some references. Since I am not a researcher or and MD, this by no means intends to be a scientific review, merely a summary that can give you a general idea.

Sleeping disorders are classified by the “International Classification of Sleep Disorders” (ICSD). The ICSD is a resource created by a group of sleep research organization from around the world. One interesting way of classifying sleep disorder is:

  • Dyssomnias
  • Parasomnias
  • Sleep Disorders Associated with Other Disorders

natural sleep aid
Creative Commons License photo credit: BoVa…

Dyssomnias are problems associated mainly with the process of falling asleep and maintaining a good night sleep, I guess that most of you (and me) fall in this category. The parasomnias are the problems that happen while we sleep and include anything from grinding your teeth while you sleep to sleep walking. Teeth grinding while you sleep is more common than you imagine and besides the damage it does to the teeth and joint at the base of the jaw, it (badly) affects the quality of sleeping. The last group disorders is associated mainly with mental, neurological and medical conditions, this group includes sleep disorders related wtih panic and anxiety disorders, alcoholism and mood disorders.
Another interesting grouping, mainly within the dyssomnias is to intrinsic and extrinsic sleep disorders. The intrinsic sleep disorders include narcolepsy, posttraumatic hypersomnia, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, the itching restless legs syndrome and the well known psychophysiological insomnia. The extrinsic sleep disorders include inadequate sleep hygiene, alcohol-dependent sleep disorder, nocturnal eating (drinking) syndrome and the self describing environmental sleep disorder.


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Now you might wonder why this is important to you, the answer is quite simple. As always, a good diagnosis is half of the solution. For example, if you understand that your sleep problem is due to environmental sleep disorder, one that has to do with inadequate temperature in your sleeping environment, the fix might be simple and your obvious sleep aid will be proper heating (or cooling). If it is noise, better isolation can do wonders. On the other hand, let’s suppose you grind your teeth, your first line sleep aid might be a mouth guard (also known as night guard) – a soft cover to your upper/lower teeth the reduces the damage and inhibits (to a limited degree) the urge to grind your teeth.
In the case of the way too common issue of inadequate sleep hygiene – the lack of persistent and effective sleep habits – a slow building of regular sleep habits, with a predetermined schedule will be a very good place to start.

To those of you who like numbers and great amount of details, here are 2 links where you can find a copy of the ICSD:

Further reading:
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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 1:43 pm and is filed under best sleep aid, herbal sleeping, natural sleep, nighttime sleep aid, sleep remedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or TrackBack URI from your own site.

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