The sleep disturbances increase with the crisis and now affect 40% of the population

Madrid, 16 March of 2012- the sleep disorders affect around 40% of the Spanish population at some point in his life and alter the quality of life of people with them. At times as the current one, in which is experiencing an economic crisis may appear more a sustained State of anxiety disorders emphasizes the left doctor Antonio Yusta, neurologist in the Hospital USP San Camilo in Madrid on the occasion of the celebration of the world sleep day Friday.

Sleep disorder more prevalent is insomnia, explains the expert, that detailed arriving to affect 20% of the population of chronically. It has many causes, from psychological to neurological. The amount of sleep that a person needs is very particular and varies according to the age. In children newborn newborns can be up to 20 hours and very fragmented; at maturity it is usually between 6 and 8 hours; and in old age between 6 and 7, turning to fragment sleep ”, advises Dr. Yusta left.

The neurologist emphasizes that insomnia should be treated if alter the performance of the activity of the daytime life, not if it makes only nervous to not be able to sleep the hours that we believe that we need.

Phases of sleep

The human being can be in three situations: awake, asleep in the phase of sleep noREM and asleep in the phase of REM sleep. REM is an acronym of rapid movements of the eyes (rapid eyes movements). Each of these phases has different characteristics:

1) being awake is characterized by consciousness, we perceive what happens to us around and we can respond to different stimuli, have tone muscles to maintain posture, etc.

(2) In the phase of sleep noREM have muscle activity (we are moving in the bed) and brain activity is slowing gradually. (

3) During the REM sleep there is no muscle activity except in the muscles of the eyes and the breathing and also appears the dream-like activity (there are dreams that cannot or do not remember).

These three States are organized and regulated by the so-called circadian cycle or biological “clock”. So at any given time of the day we will have sleep, hunger, more capacity for concentration, etc. Also at times of the day resulting a certain type of hormones, such as steroids in the early hours of the morning or growth hormone while we sleep ”, assures doctor Yusta.

In the brain, describes the neorólogo, there are structures that control this circadian rhythm, the most important are the hypothalamus and the nuclei of the brainstem, as the ‘ locus coeruleus ’-involved also in the panic and stress – response and the nuclei of the ‘ rafe ’ – that serve to facilitate the detection and response to stimuli external-. Drugs acting here will have an effect on the regulation of the sleep ”, says.

Phase in the insomnia disorder: pace ‘ advanced ’ and ‘ delayed ’

It is normal that we start to have dream from the 23 hours of the day; If we slept 7 hours of media it will mean to the 6 or 7 in the morning we’ll be rested. Insomnia could be conciliation, when it is hard to stay asleep, or waking early, when we woke up too early.

One of the most frequent Insomnia causes is called phase disorder. There are people who have the circadian rhythm ‘ advanced ’ to the average of the population and others delayed. (

1) In the first case, to have a circadian cycle ‘ advance ’, people have dream already to the 8 or 9 in the afternoon, therefore at 3 or 4 in the morning awaken without sleep and complain of insomnia early awakening.

(2) On the other hand, if you suffer from circadian rhythm ‘ delayed ’, the person will not begin to sleep before 3 or 4 in the morning. Because most stands around 7 p.m., during the early hours of the morning this person you need much sleep. This type of insomnia, very common, should not be treated with drugs but with the so-called hygiene of dream, which consists of go accommodating, gradually, the hours of sleep to the rhythm of the average of the normal population.

Other disorders of sleep and parasomnias

One of the features of one of these phases in which humans can be displayed in the other is when there are sleep disturbances, are called parasomnias ”, relates the doctor Yusta. So when in the phase of being awake is the muscular atony (characteristic of the REM phase of sleep) we will talk about cataplexy. If appear an intense sleepiness and we quickly went from being awake to being asleep in the REM phase, the patient will have a narcolepsy.

The term narcolepsia-cataplejía refers to these alterations in which sleep is desestructura and is the commonest parasomnia, with an incidence of 0.2% of the population (similar to Parkinson’s disease). Stands out because occasionally; the patient cannot move any muscle in your body – except the breath and to move the eyes – at the end of sleep (sleep paralysis), or suffers from hallucinations, as if it soñase awake, nothing more lie in bed at night or before getting up in the morning (hipnopompic or hipnagogic hallucinations). This disease has a genetic component and with proper treatment they have very good control of the symptoms ”, assures doctor Yusta left.

There are other rarer parasominias as when I get muscle activity during REM sleep. In this disease, common in older people, the patient moves as if act in her dream, and can suffer injuries by falling off the bed or even assaulting his companion without being aware of it. Diagnosis of this disease is important because it may be the preamble of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease ”, warns.

Confusional awakening, for its part, is characterized by an intrusion of the oniric contents or that appear during the REM phase the patient upon waking dream. Occasionally can be confused with seizures ”, in this case indicates the neurologist.

There are other more common parasomnias such as somniloquy, which consists of talk in dreams, and some appear more at an age determined as nightmares, night terrors and sleepwalking most seen in children and young people.

Dr. Antonio Yusta concludes that whatever the pathology that suffering, should always avoid self-medication, as chronic abuse can have significant side effects.