Psychiatric Mental Health Chapter 20

Psychiatric Mental Health
Chapter 20: Sleep Disorders

•Sleep is a major function of daily living and mental health.

•The average adult should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily.

•However, many people are in the habit of frequently cutting back on sleep to meet other social needs.

•The most common and major consequence of sleep loss is excessive sleepiness.

•Sleep deprivation is another consequence of sleep loss that complicates health, safety, and quality of life for individuals.

•Prolonged sleep deprivation can produce psychomotor impairments equivalent to excessive alcohol consumption symptoms.

•Sleep is a neurological process that involves interaction between the central nervous system and the environment.

•The normal sleep cycle is divided into two states:
Primary Sleep Disorders are further subdivided into Dyssomnias and Parasomnias

1.Dyssomnias are sleep disturbances associated with the intiation and maintenance of sleep or of excessive sleepiness. They include: * Primary Insomnia: patients complain that they have difficulty with sleep intiation, sleep maintenance, early awakening, or non-refreshing non-restorative sleep. This condition must persist for at least 1 month and not related to any known physical or medical diagnosis. * Primary Hypersomnia: excessive sleepiness for at least 1 month, evidenced by either prolonged sleep episodes or daytime sleep episodes that occur almost daily and cause significant distress and social and vocational impairment. * Narcolepsy is described as episodes of irresistible attacks of refreshing sleep, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hypnagogic