Monday, August 10, 2009

Treatment for Sleeping Disorders

By Real Flaroty

The very notion of someone seeking treatment for sleeping disorders might at first seeking frivolous to those of us who have either never gone through any of these sleeping disorders, or lived with someone who was going through them. But the truth of the matter is that sleeping disorders can be extremely distressing both to the person who is afflicted of them, and other people close to that person, as the worst of these sleeping disorders tend to affect one's performance in all areas of life, not least in their social interactions.

It is important to take note that when we talk about sleeping disorders, we are not only referring to difficulties falling asleep (since many of us tend to equate the term 'sleeping disorder with the inability to fall asleep); as there is a great variety of sleeping disorders beyond insomnia, though admittedly, insomnia is probably the commonest of sleeping disorders. These other sleeping disorders beyond insomnia include those where a person has no difficult falling asleep, but rather in waking up, and those odds ones like narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder in which the person finds themselves just (spontaneously)falling asleep even at the most in the most inappropriate of venues and times.

Depending on the diagnosis made with regard to the sleeping difficulty one is going through, treatment can involve anything from rehabilitation (through focused change of sleeping habits) to psychotherapy and onto the use of medication.

Psychotherapy is used in the treatment of some sleeping disorders out of the understanding that a number of psychological problems like depression (that can be adequately addressed through psychotherapy) manifest through such sleeping disorders, and unless such an underlying psychological disorder is addressed, there is very little chance of dealing with the sleeping disorders adequately.

Psychotherapeutic treatments sleeping disorders, on the other hand, get their efficacy from the fact that many sleeping disorders occur due to psychological illnesses such as depression (which typically manifests as either too much sleep or inability falling asleep), and which is best treated through psychotherapy as a first line of treatment, before resorting to medication if psychotherapy proves inadequate.

Turning to medication-based treatments for sleeping disorders, these are typically the only viable route to sustainable treatment for sleeping disorders that are deeply rooted in biochemical deficiencies, which simply can't be adequately addressed by the psychotherapeutic or rehabilitative treatments.

About the Author: