sleep disorders

A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of the sleep patterns of a person or animal. Some sleep disorders are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental and emotional functioning. A test commonly ordered for some sleep disorders is the polysomnography. Disruptions in sleep can be caused by a variety of issues, from teeth grinding (bruxism) to night terrors. When a person suffers from difficulty in sleeping with no obvious cause, it is referred to as insomnia. In addition, sleep disorders may also cause sufferers to sleep excessively, a condition known as hypersomnia. Management of sleep disturbances that are secondary to mental, medical, or substance abuse disorders should focus on the underlying conditions.

Our sleep disorders Blogs

Insomnia, paranoia and hallucinations: Sleepio CBTi at the OASIS

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Jack Barton publishes his debut elf blog on the huge OASIS randomised controlled trial, which explores the effects that improved sleep can have on our mental health.

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Investigating the link between loneliness and sleep quality in young people

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Ahmed Al-Shihabi and Farhana Mann report on a recent twin study that explores the links between loneliness and sleep quality in young adults.

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Childhood sleep disturbance and risk of psychotic experiences

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Joanne Wallace explores the relationship between nightmares/night terrors at age 12 with psychotic experiences at age 18, which has been confirmed by a recent UK birth cohort study.

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CBT for insomnia in people with active psychotic symptoms

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Sarah McDonald appraises the Better Sleep Trial (BEST), a pilot RCT which shows that CBT may be a promising treatment for insomnia in people with active psychotic symptoms.

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CBT plus taper may help reduce short-term benzodiazepine use

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John Baker summarises a recent Cochrane systematic review of psychosocial interventions for benzodiazepine harmful use, abuse or dependence.

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Sleep problems in children with learning disabilities. Can a group delivered sleep management intervention help?

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Rachel Allan
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Lack of sleep for parents has been associated with depression, stress and anxiety and sleep problems for parents of children with learning disabilities are common.

Here, Rachel Allen looks at an evaluation of the effectiveness of a sleep management intervention that was delivered through support to groups of parents.

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Sleep disruption during and after pregnancy may be associated with postpartum mental illness

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Susie Johnson
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Susie Johnson summarises a systematic review that explores the relationship between sleep disruption and postpartum mental illness, which reports a link between self-reported poor sleep during and after pregnancy and the development of postpartum depression.

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CBT for insomnia in psychiatric populations: an effective alternative to hypnotics?

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Amy Green
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Amy Green appraises a systematic review of CBT for insomnia (CBTi) in people with comorbid mental illness, which concludes that cognitive behaviour therapy could be an effective alternative to hypnotics. However, concerns about the review methodology cast some doubt on the findings.

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Meta-review presents the risks of all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders

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Raphael Underwood
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This recent and well-conducted meta-review concludes that the impact on mortality and suicide of mental disorders is substantial, and probably poorly appreciated as a public health problem. Raphael Underwood’s blog summarises the data for all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders.

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Childhood nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking and psychotic experiences

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Joe Judge
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I was a terrible sleeper as a child. I remember lying awake on one particular occasion because I had read a book about space and thought that the sun might swallow up the earth. I was intrigued then, when I was asked to review a paper for the Mental Elf about parasomnias and childhood psychotic [read the full story…]