Restless? One of these 7 common conditions could be affecting your sleep

Maybe you’ve turned down the lights, tucked in for the night, but find your brain won’t quiet down. Or perhaps you’ve picked up your phone at bedtime and started scrolling through social media feeds, only to emerge hours later, bleary eyed but unable to sleep.

We know a good night’s sleep matters to our overall health. Yet most of us have trouble sleeping at some point. In fact, about 1 in 3 U.S. adults say they aren’t getting enough rest or sleep every day, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Losing out on a restful night here or there can be remedied by brushing up on your sleep habits, says Donald Berry, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep-medicine expert at PeaceHealth in Bellingham, Washington. But some people have more persistent sleep deprivation.

If that’s the case for you, Berry says it’s important to have a conversation with your healthcare provider. Research shows that long-term lack of sleep raises the risk of a number of health conditions. These include heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and depression.

There are lots of factors that affect how well you sleep. Your primary care provider or a sleep specialist can help you find the cause and take steps to address it.

7 common sleep-related conditions

If you consistently have a hard time sleeping, take note of what’s keeping you up. It could be one of these common conditions:

1.  Sleep apnea: People with this condition experience pauses in breathing when asleep, often with loud snoring. This leads to disrupted sleep and decreased oxygen levels. CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines can help by regulating your breathing while you sleep.
2. Insomnia: People with insomnia regularly have a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep. This lack of rest can affect your ability to function during the day.
3. Restless leg syndrome: This condition causes an uncomfortable feeling in the leg and an irresistible urge to move them. It usually gets worse in the evening or at night.
4. Parasomnias: This includes a range of unusual behaviors that happen during sleep. Sleepwalking, night terrors and sleep-related eating disorders are all parasomnias.
5. Circadian rhythm disorders: This happens when disruptions in your body's internal clock make it hard to fall asleep when you want to. It can lead to excessive sleepiness at inconvenient times.
6. Shift work sleep disorder: If you work irregular hours, it can disrupt your sleep-wake cycle. This can make it hard to get restful sleep during the day.
7. Narcolepsy: This is a condition of the nervous system. It causes severe sleepiness, sometimes accompanied by muscular weakness. These symptoms usually arise from emotional situations.

Care for sleep-related conditions

When you get care for a sleep-related concern, your provider will work with you to gather more information about what's keeping you awake. They may recommend doing sleep study to identify your patterns of wakefulness. If that’s the case, you may have the option of doing the study at home or at a sleep center. 

PeaceHealth’s sleep centers include experts such as:

• Pulmonologists: Respiratory health doctors.
• Neurologists: Doctors who focus on the brain, spine and nervous system.
• Polysomnographic technologists: Professionals who carry out, review and analyze sleep study results. They also work with patients and CPAP machine manufacturers to make sure CAP masks fit well and are not hard to use.

These providers work with you to understand your needs and priorities, so you can get the rest you’ve been missing. Depending on your diagnosis, treatment may include medication, lifestyle changes and/or devices like CPAP machines.  

The sleep-medicine doctors at PeaceHealth are all board-certified, Dr. Berry says. “This means we meet strict standards of care and offer a full range of services for people with sleep disorders.”

The bottom line is, you don’t have to go it alone when it comes to getting a good night’s rest. Setting up good habits at home can go a long way — and so can partnering with your healthcare team for solutions tailored to your condition.