New Indpress

Bangalore, Oct 9: Sleep disturbance was a common disorder found mainly among the elderly until a few years ago. With modernisation and radical change in lifestyles, more and more youngsters complain of the problem.

“Though the figures are high, lack of awareness among people about this disorder has kept the numbers under cover,” said Dr Samhita Panda, Neurologist, on the third day of the annual conference of the Indian Association for Neurologists Conference (IANCON) at NIMHAMS.

She said that very few know that sleeplessness is a disorder. Only 14 per cent know that they have a health disorder, while only four per cent came for medical intervention, according to an exclusive survey conducted by Dr Samhita and her team in urban areas.

She added that this has assumed epidemic proportions but only awareness can lead to successful treatment. Sleep disorders can be identified by the following manifestations:

Inability to fall sleep, inability to maintain good sleep, early morning awakening or sleep insomnia

Sleep Disorder Breathing: While snoring, a person fails to breathe for a short interval. This is known as sleep apnea. This leads to frequent interruptions and continues throughout the night. It person feels unrefreshed when he awakes.

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness: This mostly affects call center and BPO employees. Due to change in shifts, their circadian rhythm alters, which in turn leads to various other health-related problems.

Some of them being: reduction in quality of life, proneness to accidents that can even result in death (here the person may put himself and others in trouble).

It can also result in sleep apnea, which, in turn, results in hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular disorders, morbidity and mortality along with poor mental attention.

Parasominias like sleep-walking, sleep-talking, etc. Such people suffer from social stigma, too, due to lack of knowledge about the disease.

Some sleep disorders can be genetically inherited while some other types are related to diet like, restless leg syndrome in people who are anaemic. Correction of anaemia can cure the patient of the disorder, said Samhita.

The three-day conference marks the 50th year of the neurology department. There were speakers not only from India but also from countries like UK and the USA.

“This is the first time that 800 neurologists gathered under one roof,” said Prof Satish Chandra, organising secretary of IANCON.