Sleep Disorders

There are four main types of sleep disorders: insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and night terrors. Insomnia is a disorder in which you can either not be able to fall asleep or if you are able to, you cannot stay asleep for very long. This is very detrimental since we need REM sleep and sleep in general to regenerate our body and our bones. However, fortunately there is medication for it that helps you fall asleep but that medicine blocks REM sleep so you still cannot regenerate. Narcolepsy is a genetic disorder in which your body goes into cataplexy or body paralysis. You just fall asleep in random places and at random times. This is extremely dangerous for example when you are driving on the road, and you just fall into deep REM sleep. These people with narcolepsy usually lack hypocretin so there is medication that gives them more of it. Sleep apnea is a disorder that is common in overweight people in which your airways get constricted for about a minute or so, and you are not able to breathe in that time (you are considered asleep). After that minute, you take a huge gasp of air because you were not breathing and the lack of oxygen causes you to wake up and take the gasp of air. The "funny" thing is that you don't even know when it happens or know what is flying when it happens. The not so funny thing is that it could lead to heart attacks, diabetes, and worse. They treat you with ridolin, which keeps you awake to help you. The disorder that sounds by far the worst, night terrors, is actually not bad at all. It is when you just freak out and go nuts for a few moments in the middle of the night. It seems like you are terrified, but you are really not. You scream so much, it is as if you are being murdered. You talk, you scream, you eyes are wide open, yet if someone asks you something, you do not respond at all. You cannot be woken up at all when you get the attacks. I think that narcolepsy is the worst disorder because you could just fall into deep sleep randomly and potentially get killed, and I think that night terrors are the least detrimental but most interesting disorder.