Bradycardia
Dependant on a patient’s current medical condition, bradycardia is a heart rate beating below 60 beats per minute.
Cataplexy
Relating to a form of narcolepsy when an arm, leg or face muscle suddenly become weak. Many people experience this when faced with strong emotions while laughing or surprised.
Cheyne-Stokes Respiration
May also be called periodic breathing. The unusual pattern of breathing characterized by oscillation of ventilation between sleep apnea and tachypnea while maintaining a crescendo-decrescendo pattern in the depth of respirations, to make up for the change in serum partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Also known as (CFS), a multi-systemic disease that is rare by comparison. Most often this disorder is given to a patient experiencing a variety of sleeping disorder symptoms where the doctor is uncertain of the cause.
Circadian Rhythm Disorders
A sleeping disorder that affects the timing of sleep. These people cannot awake at required times for normal work, school and social needs. They may or may not get the recommended hours of sleep per night. Occurs when the biological clock (circadian rhythm) is different from the norm or is almost non-existent.
Hypoxia
Occurs when there is not enough oxygen reaching the body as a whole or parts of the body.
Hypercapnia
Occurs when a patient has an excess build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood.
Hypersomnia
The term given to someone who is overly sleepy.
Hypnagogic Hallucinations
A parasomnia involving unwanted occurrences during sleep. Hallucinations involving mainly visual imagined events that seem very real that are generally felt while falling asleep. These hallucinations may incur senses of sound, taste, smell and touch, or may include a sense of movement or motion.
Insomnia
The four types of insomnia include difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, waking up too early and poor sleep quality. A person experiencing insomnia may feel tired and grumpy.
Macroglossia
The abnormal growth in size of someone’s tongue causing difficulty in sleeping, speaking, eating and swallowing.
Nocturnal Enuresis
Also known as bedwetting, this disorder occurs when the patient unintentionally urinates while still asleep after the age at which the bladder should be able to be controlled.
Narcolepsy
A sleep disorder characterized by excessive sleepiness that may be refreshed with a short nap but then the patient soon feels extremely tired again. Narcoleptics can fall asleep suddenly at anytime while doing remedial tasks like driving, walking or eating. Those experiencing narcolepsy may also have symptoms relating to sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, disturbed nighttime sleep and memory problems.
Pickwickian Syndrome
A condition relating to highly overweight people who cannot breathe fast enough or deep enough, which causes low blood oxygen levels and high blood carbon dioxide levels.
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
A parasomnia involving unwanted occurrences during sleep. REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is often ignored for years and occurs when a patient acts out what he or she is dreaming while asleep. These dreams may accompany actions that include violence that may be mild or intense.
Restless Leg Syndrome
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is an intense feeling of needing to move your legs making it difficult to fall asleep. It can be characterized by an itching or burning feeling deep in the legs with relief coming only when the patient stands and walks around.
Septoplasty
A surgical procedure to correctly straighten the nasal septum, the partition between the two nasal cavities.
Sleep Apnea (including obsturctive sleep apnea)
(OSA) A very common sleep disorder causing an interruption in the breathing cycle while sleeping. Oftentimes, sleep apnea includes signs of more than one sleep disorder.
Sleep Bruxism
The grinding of teeth or the tightening or clenching of the jaw. May be diurnal (occurring during the day) or nocturnal (occurring during the night).
Sleep Deprivation
The associated term for the disorder given to someone who is deprived from the needed amount of R.E.M. sleep.
Sleep (or Night) Terrors
A parasomnia involving unwanted occurrences during sleep. Sleep terrors are episodes usually involving getting up and suddenly screaming or shouting with intense fear and may lead to actions of violence. It may be difficult to wake the person up from an episode and generally takes time to comfort the person back asleep.
Sleep Paralysis
A parasomnia involving unwanted occurrences during sleep. Sleep Paralysis happens when your body cannot move when falling asleep (hypnagogic or predormital form) or waking up from sleep (hypnopompic or postdormital form). During sleep paralysis, “atonia” occurs, which is when your brain causes muscles to relax and be still while sleeping.
Sleep-Related Seizure Disorders
While asleep, the brain tends to "let its guard down" facilitating the occurrence of a number of different types of seizures. Examples range from mild twitches of one side of the face to repetitive hard body jerks, bizarre attacks of screaming and frantic behavior, and even generalized convulsions. Loss of urine, generalized muscle aching on awakening, and biting of the inside of the cheek or the tongue during sleep all suggest some type of seizure might have taken place while being asleep.
Sleepwalking (somnambulism)
A parasomnia involving unwanted occurrences during sleep. Sleepwalking in general is when you get up out of bed and walk around while still asleep.
Snoring
As you breathe air in, it’s the sound made at the top of the airway that causes tissue in the back of your throat to vibrate while you sleep. This sound can travel through the nose, mouth or both and is a general sign that your airway is being partially blocked. Snoring can occur during any stage of sleep but most commonly during the REM and slow-wave stages.