Sleep Disorders and Treatments Quiz

Common Sleep Disorders and Their Treatments

• Idiopathic insomnia is a lifelong inability to obtain adequate sleep due to a neurologic deficit in the sleep-wake cycle, requiring long-term treatment with improved sleep hygiene, relaxation therapy, and sleep-inducing medication.
• Insomnia due to a mental disorder, medical condition, or substance use may not be completely eliminated by treating the underlying cause, but can be managed with medications, sleep hygiene measures, and avoiding stimulants.
• Hypersomnolence Disorder involves excessive sleepiness for at least 1 month, with treatment usually involving stimulant medication.
• Narcolepsy is characterized by chronic excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks, and is treated with stimulant medication, modafinil, and behavioral structuring such as scheduling naps.
• Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders include obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, and central alveolar hypoventilation, commonly seen in obese individuals and the elderly, and are primarily treated with surgical interventions and continuous positive airway pressure machines during sleep.
• Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorders result from altered functioning of circadian rhythm and can be managed with sleep hygiene measures, melatonin, and bright light therapy.
• Parasomnias are disorders involving abnormal behavioral or psychological events associated with sleep, specific sleep stages, or sleep-wake transition, including nightmare disorder, sleep terror disorder, and sleepwalking disorder.
• Nightmare disorder involves frightening dreams leading to waking from sleep, with no widely accepted treatment.
• Sleep terror disorder involves abrupt awakenings from sleep associated with a panicky scream or cry, often affecting children and tending to go away in adolescence.
• Sleepwalking disorder involves episodes of complex motor behavior initiated during sleep, mainly affecting children and tending to dissipate by adolescence, requiring no treatment.
• Sleep disorders related to another mental disorder may involve insomnia or hypersomnia, commonly associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and other psychotic disorders, requiring treatment of the underlying mental disorder to resolve the sleep disorder.