Doctors say people need seven to eight hours of sleep every night. A sleep disorder is any condition that stops a person from having a good restful sleep and disrupts their sleeping pattern. Several factors can cause these disorders, such as an underlying health condition or poor lifestyle choices. Patients may experience irritability, lack of concentration, weakness, and other symptoms that can prevent them from being productive. Here are four common sleep disorders.

1. Insomnia
If a person cannot fall or stay asleep, they are said to have insomnia. Those with this health problem may wake up early and not be able to go back to sleep. They may also feel very sleepy during the day. Insomnia can result from exhaustion, underlying illness, or certain medications. Doctors treat the disorder using mild sedatives, antidepressant medications, and behavioral therapy.

2. Narcolepsy
A person is diagnosed with this disorder when their brain cannot control their sleeping and waking cycles. Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological condition that is characterized by uncontrollable daytime sleeping and muscle weakness. Any strong emotion, laughter, surprise, or unusual circumstance may trigger sudden sleeping episodes. Patients could even fall asleep while walking or doing physical activity. Doctors treat narcolepsy using medication, behavioral changes, and scheduled sleep routines.

3. Restless leg syndrome
Restless leg syndrome causes an uneasy sensation in the lower legs and pain throughout the leg. When people with this disorder sleep, they make movements like walking or kicking to relieve the sensation and pain. Since RLS is associated with reduced dopamine production, doctors treat it with medications that help produce dopamine.

4. Sleep apnea
Sleep apnea is caused by a breathing disorder where a person may stop breathing for a few seconds while sleeping as their airway narrows or gets blocked. It can also happen if the communication between the brain and respiratory muscles fails temporarily. Sleep apnea symptoms include snoring, morning headaches, daytime sleepiness, and gasping for air. Untreated sleep apnea can cause serious health consequences. As a solution, doctors recommend side sleeping, oral appliances like CPAP machines to supplement oxygen supply, surgery, and other techniques to stimulate the airway system.

These sleep disorders are common among seniors, people who work irregular shifts, and those undergoing treatment for mental illness or heart conditions. Some medications can also cause irregular sleep.

How to identify sleep disorders?
Many people have trouble falling asleep or wake up at midnight and cannot go back to sleep. If this happens regularly for more than two or three weeks, doctors may check whether the person has a sleep disorder. Some typical symptoms of sleep disorders include:

• Difficulty sleeping
• Staying awake in bed for long hours
• Waking up frequently
• Being unable to go back to sleep
• Having an irregular sleeping and waking time
• Daytime sleep
• Rapid movement and disturbances

If someone notices these symptoms consistently, they should contact their primary physician or a sleep specialist. Doctors use tools like polysomnography to record brain waves and check breathing patterns and heart rate while a person is asleep. The test also measures leg and eye movements and muscle activity during sleep. Once doctors diagnose a sleep disorder, they treat it with behavioral therapy and medications.