Overview of Sleep Wake Disorders

Sleep-wake disorders occur when your body's inner clock is out of sync with day and night. These disorders are often related to the amount of light you get. An estimated 50 to 70 million people in the U.S. have ongoing sleep disorders , including sleep apnea, insomnia, and sleep-wake disorders .

Causes There are many different types of sleep disorders , and the causes vary widely. Sleep disorders are often grouped according to why they happen or their effects. Sleep disorders also can be grouped based on behaviors, problems with your natural sleep-wake cycles, breathing problems, difficulty sleeping or how sleepy you feel during the day.
What are Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders (or sleep-wake disorders ) involve problems with the quality, timing, and amount of sleep , which result in daytime distress and impairment in functioning.
Sleep-wake disorders occur when the body's internal clock does not work properly or is out of sync with the surrounding environment.

PDF Sleep
Sleep-Wake Disorders In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), sleep-wake disorders encompass 10 conditions manifested by disturbed sleep and causing distress as well as im-pairment in daytime functioning. These conditions, which include both individual disorders and several disorder groups, are approached categorically and dimensionally.
Sleep disorders are among the most common clinical problems encountered in medicine and psychiatry. Inadequate or nonrestorative sleep can markedly impair a patient's quality of life. [1] Sleep disorders may be primary or may result from a variety of psychiatric and medical conditions. Primary sleep disorders result from an endogenous disturbance in sleep-wake generating or timing mechanisms ...

Overview of Sleep Wake Disorders
Conditions known as sleep disorders impact the quantity, quality, and timing of your nighttime sleep . sleep paralysis, Insomnia, restless legs syndrome,
Psychiatric disorders are often associated with persistent insomnia. Depression is usually associated with fragmented sleep , decreased total sleep time, earlier onset of REM sleep , a shift of REM activity to the first half of the night, and a loss of slow wave sleep—all of which are nonspecific findings.

Sleep Disorders
Visit the pages below to learn about different types of sleep disorders and their symptoms, how they're diagnosed and treated, and more.









Learn about the common and over 80 types of sleep disorders that affect your quality, amount and timing of sleep . Find out how to diagnose, treat and prevent sleep disorders and their complications.