Running Head: SLEEP DISORDERS1

Sleep Disorders
Shadaye E. Byfield
Ocean Lakes Math & Science Academy

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What I Know, Assume, and Imagine

Before I came to high school, I didnt know anybody my age diagnosed with a sleep disorder.
My dad and grandma both have sleep apnea, but that was my only exposure to sleep disorders. Once
high school started, I started to hear a lot more about sleep disorders from my peers. I was surprised
because I wasnt aware that sleep disorders could start while in high school. The truth is that in most
countries, 11% of teenagers between ages thirteen and sixteen experience insomnia at some point.1 To
put it on an even broader scale, over 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, with over two
million of them being children. Sleep disorders are a huge medical problem globally, affecting up to
45% of the worlds population2.
This is important because everybody sleeps, we all need to sleep to function throughout our daily lives.
This is personally important because I have members of my immediate family that have sleeping
problems whether it be sleep apnea or that they are self-proclaimed night owls. Locally, this is
important because in high school and college as students, athletes, volunteers, and employees, our sleep
schedules are all over the place during the school year trying to get homework and projects done while
still maintaining a social life and playing sports. This topic is globally important because in some
countries they have found that lack of sleep can lead to other health problems as well as depression and
anxiety. This topic is professionally important because in the workplace employees have to be able to
communicate and network well with their coworkers and customers, and lack of sleep may change their
attitude towards others. So because of the importance of this topic, I really wanted to know what is it
that makes someone is more susceptible to be diagnosed with a sleep disorder. What aspect of their life
or personality makes them prone to developing a sleep disorder throughout their lifetime?
From previous research, I already knew some basics of insomnia. Insomnia is a sleep disorder
that makes it hard to fall asleep and/or stay asleep. Some symptoms of insomnia include general
tiredness, difficulty falling asleep, waking up often at night and having trouble going back to sleep,

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waking up too early in the morning, and/or feeling tired once waking up. There are two types of
insomnia; primary and secondary. Primary insomnia is when someone has sleep problems not
associated with other health conditions. Secondary insomnia is when someone has sleep problems as a
result of other health conditions, such as asthma. Insomnia can be short term, acute insomnia, lasting
anywhere from one night to a few weeks. Insomnia can also be long term, chronic insomnia, lasting at
last three nights a week for a month or longer. Causes of acute insomnia could be significant stress in
ones life, illness, environmental factors, medications, and interferences in ones normal sleep schedule.
While some cause of chronic insomnia include depression, anxiety, chronic stress, or discomfort at
night.
With my basic knowledge of insomnia, I wanted to learn more about other sleep disorders and
the causes behind them as well to find a general connection between sleep disorders. I was really
interested in the timing of sleep disorders, meaning when in someones life are they most likely to
develop a sleep disorder and why. Is there a specific group of people, such as gender, that is most likely
to develop a sleep disorder? With that being said, I thought it would be a good idea to find out the most
prominent causes of sleep disorders. So that once people know the causes, maybe there could be a way
for them to avoid sleep disorders by living a healthy life. Once I started thinking about lifestyle, I
started to think if maybe technology such as cell phones or laptops negatively affect our sleep, besides
the fact that they can be extremely distracting. Once I thought of something that could negatively affect
sleep, I thought of something that is said to have a positive effect on sleep, exercise. We hear it all the
time from all sorts of doctors, if one exercises they will be able to sleep better and longer at night. So I
wanted to research that and find out if thats really true because from what Ive experienced as an
athlete and have heard from other athletes, that isnt always the case. Then, I started thinking on a
bigger scale, I started to wonder about how someones sleep quality can affect their work performance
at different types of jobs. We all know that little to no sleep makes people grumpy, but I wanted to

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know what jobs are most negatively affected when employees dont receive adequate sleep. I was also
really interested in finding out how other countries treat sleep disorders. In the United States, we have
sleep facilities and sleep medications, so I was curious as to if other countries also had sleep facilities
or if maybe theyd found a more effective, creative way to combat sleep disorders.
The Story of My Search
My search lasted about 3 weeks. I started off my research by looking for sleep disorder
statistics. I figured the statistics would help me to understand how many people are affected by sleep
disorders both in and out of the United States. I was also hoping that they would give me some more
basic information on all the different sleep disorders that have been discovered as of now. I found a
pattern in all of my sources which really helped me later on in my search to answer one of my research
questions. I was very happy that I was able to find statistics from other countries on Psych Central.
Once I had a good grasp on how many people are affected by sleep disorders, I thought it would
be a good idea to look at how most people develop sleep disorders. In this search, I found the three
most common sleep disorders which helped me to save a lot of time because now that I knew the main
ones, I could focus on finding information on them rather than raking the internet for information on all
the sleep disorders, which probably wasnt even there. Here is when I also got a general idea of the
three main sleep disorders. I tried to look for one, big universal cause for the top three sleep disorders,
but I couldnt find a clear one.
When I went to research on how technology affects sleep, I found that most websites had the
same information and ideas behind them. Which was good to help me answer my question, but I was
thinking that there would be more reasons why technology affects our sleep patterns. I was very
disappointed to find that there hasnt been many studies on how exercise affects sleep, I really thought
that there would be a lot on this because people usually talk about exercise like its a cure-all. I did find

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one study but it wasnt done on a group of people that Id expect would yield the best results on
exercises effectivity on sleep.
My most difficult searches were for how sleep disorders affect different jobs and on how other
countries handle sleep disorders. When searching for how poor sleep quality affects jobs, I noticed that
most of the information out there is for more extreme jobs. I didnt find much on how sleep disorders
affect more normal, everyday jobs. But, I kind of understood why it was that way because sleep
disorders are going to have a general negative effect on any job, bad work performance and bad quality
of work. While searching how other countries combat sleep disorders, I found nothing. I thought there
wouldve at least been information from countries like England, China, or Japan, but I couldnt find
anything. I thought it would be interesting to see how different countries and different people treat
different sleep disorders, but there wasnt any information on that on the internet. So with that being
said, I had realized that I didnt really know what happens at sleep clinics, so I thought it would at least
be a good idea to figure that out.
For all of my research I would do searches on Google. In those searches, I would always try and
use websites that were either for a college, a sleep facility, a sleep foundation, a national foundation, or
a news network blog that I trusted. I ended up using the National Sleep Foundation website quite often,
as well as the website for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. My searches wouldnt always
yield information from one of the websites I listed above so I had to make compromises and use some
sources Ive never heard of, but in that situation, I did a background check on either the author or the
website. If I didnt find anything telling me to trust the author or the website, I didnt use the
information the website provided.
What I Discovered
Through research, I have found that people are more likely to be diagnosed with a sleep
disorder after the age of 40 especially those that live an unhealthy lifestyle with bad eating habits, lack

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of daily exercise, and phone use in bed. Women are more likely to develop a sleep disorder. Over half
of the Americans diagnosed with sleep apnea are aged 40 and over, and women are two times more
likely than men to have difficulties falling and staying asleep. Researchers agree that pregnancy,
menopause, and hormonal changes tend to worsen sleep patterns.
The three most common sleep disorders are sleep apnea, insomnia, and narcolepsy. One out of
every three people have insomnia at some point in their lives, researchers have actually found that 20%
to 40% of adults experience insomnia at some point every year. There are eighteen million Americans
suffering from sleep apnea, and ten million of them arent even diagnosed. Even though I stated that
women are more prone to sleep disorders, sleep apnea individually is actually more common in men
than women, this is also true with narcolepsy2. Narcolepsy is said to affect 200,000 Americans, where
50,000 of them have yet to be diagnosed. Researchers have found that other countries such as
Bangladesh, Vietnam, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, India, and southern Africa show the same trend where
more women have been diagnosed with sleep disorders than men3.
Insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea may be caused by a number of reasons. My research
indicates that insomnia is extremely common because of all the different things that can cause it.
Insomnia can be caused by excessive caffeine, psychiatric and medical conditions, unhealthy sleeping
habits, specific medications, and biological factors. Some medical conditions that can cause insomnia
are nasal and sinus allergies, gastrointestinal problems like reflux, endocrine problems like
hypothyroidism, arthritis, neurological conditions like Parkinsons disease, chronic pain and back pain.
Medications taken to treat the common cold, nasal allergies, high blood pressure, heart disease, thyroid
disease, birth control, asthma, and depression can cause someone to develop insomnia.
Psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety can cause insomnia where psychological
problems associated with depression can make it hard to sleep. Certain symptoms of anxiety such as
tension, getting caught up in thoughts about past events, excessive worrying about future events,

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feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities, and a general feeling of being overstimulated can lead to
insomnia. Doctors have found that the chances of having chronic insomnia are greater in patients with
major depressive disorders, and that symptoms of depression and insomnia such as low energy, loss of
motivation or interest, feelings of sadness or hopelessness can be linked together and actually make
each other worse. Examiners have also started to think of insomnia as a problem with someones
circadian clock, where the brain cant stop being awake, so if it cant stop being awake then it cant go
to sleep4.
When someone is awake their throat muscles keep their throat stiff and open so that air can flow
into their lungs and when they sleep their muscles relax narrowing their throat. Usually the narrowing
doesnt prevent air flow but when someone has sleep apnea their airway can become partially or fully
blocked5. Ones airway can become blocked for many reasons such as if their throat muscles and
tongue naturally relax more than normal, if their tonsils and tongue are large in comparison to the
opening of their windpipe, the shape of their head and the structure of their neck may cause them to
have a smaller airway size in their mouth and throat area, aging can limit the brain signals ability to
keep their throat muscles stiff while they sleep making their airways more likely to collapse, or if
theyre overweight where the extra fat tissue can cause the wall of their windpipe to thicken and narrow
the inside thus making it harder to keep it open for air flow5.
Narcolepsy is not as easily caused as its predecessors. Narcolepsy is a brain disorder where
someone has poor control of their sleep-wake cycles. Most people with narcolepsy have low levels of
hypocretin, a neurotransmitter that promotes wakefulness. In almost all cases, narcolepsy occurs in
people with no family history of the disorder, but there are some extremely rare cases where narcolepsy
can be caused by a genetic defect that prevents normal production of hypocretin molecules. Narcolepsy
can also be a result of a traumatic injury to a part of the brain involved in REM (rapid eye movement)
sleep or from the growth of a tumor and other disease processes in that area of the brain6.

Sleep Disorders 8

How much technology someone uses and when they use it can negatively affect their sleep. A
recent poll done by the National Sleep Foundation shows that 95% of people use a computer, video
game, or cell phone within an hour of going to sleep at least a few nights a week. This is bad because it
can take the brain some time to calm down from the technologys alerting signals. The bodys circadian
clock, or internal clock, is sensitive to light with short wavelengths, most particularly if its blue. This
light is typically given off by electronics such as cell phones and computers and is known to delay the
release of the sleep hormone, melatonin, causing lack of sleep. This light also sends alerting signals to
the brain that can disrupt sleep or keep someone awake much later than intended7. Using a selfluminous display two hours before bed, can subdue melatonin by 22%8. The LED lights in most
devices signal to the brain that its daytime, causing our circadian clocks to shift9.
In contrast, exercise has a positive effect on sleep leading to a deep and longer sleep. Research
shows that daily exercise increases total sleep time as well as slow wave sleep time when the body
repairs itself, decreases REM sleep time which is when dreams take place, and prolongs the time before
REM sleep10. When someone exercises their temperature rises, and doctors believe that the drop in
temperature afterwards may help to promote falling asleep. Exercise of any kind is said to significantly
improve the sleep of people with chronic insomnia11. But, exercise only improves someones sleep if
they do it daily for an extended period of time, it does not give immediate relief12. There was a study
that found that people who exercised in the afternoon had fewer disruptions during their sleep than
people who exercised in the morning. Most experts agree that its best to avoid working out a few hours
before going to sleep13.
As work hours in the United States have increased, our sleep habits have worsened. Over the
past decades, US workers annual work hours have gradually risen and now surpass annual work hours
in Japan and most of Western Europe. As work hours increase, sleep habits worsen. In 1910, the
average amount of sleep was 9 hours, then it went down to 7.5 hours in 1975, currently American

Sleep Disorders 9

adults receive an average of 6.8 hours of sleep per night. Even though the recommended sleep time is
7.5 to 8 hours of sleep every night, one-third of adults get less than that. Studies show that being awake
for 18 hours produces impairment equal to a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05, and after 24 hours of
being awake someones BAC can reach 0.10, showing that a drowsy driver can be just as dangerous as
a drunk driver14.
After doing my research, Ive concluded that sleep disorders can be brought on by many
factors. Its more than likely that everybody will experience, if not the three I discussed in this paper,
some type of sleep disorder during their lifetime. The best way to avoid them or keep them from
becoming severe, is to live a healthy lifestyle and have good time management so that the brain will be
calm when its time to go to sleep.
Whats Next?
If I were to continue researching this topic, I would look into the parts of the brain that control
our sleep-wake cycles. I would look at what else those parts of the brain control and see if there is a
connection. A professional I could contact for more information could be my grandmas sleep doctor.
My grandma has had several sleep studies done on her by her sleep doctor so maybe I could go to the
doctor with my grandma in the future and see what goes on. I could go on to explore psychiatric
problems such as depression or anxiety because they have a big impact on how well people sleep. I
think it would be interesting to see what other types of medical conditions they could cause and why
they are so important in the medical world. A problem I saw while I was researching that interested me
was the genetic cause of narcolepsy. Even though it isnt a huge cause for narcolepsy, it is still
contributing to it. So I was wondering if the hypocretin molecules could be replaced or substituted with
another molecule in the brain. I could look into the different molecules and hormones associated with
sleep and try to find one suitable to substitute the hypocretin molecule. An additional experience I
could have to give me more insight into this topic would be to either witness a sleep study, it could be

Sleep Disorders 10

someone in my family, or to have my own sleep study done. Then if while in the sleep study, and they
find that I dont have a sleep disorder, I could compare my brain waves and sleep stages to that of
someone already diagnosed with a sleep disorder. If they do find that I have a sleep disorder, then I
could still compare my brain waves and sleep stages to another person with a sleep disorder, but I
would also be interested in comparing them to someone without a sleep disorder. Lastly, some advice I
would like to pass on to my future high school self would be to manage my time more wisely so that I
can take time to fully develop my research and get as much capacity building as possible so that I could
understand all aspects of sleep and sleep disorders.

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Cited References
1. University of Adelaide. Teen insomnia linked with depression, anxiety. Science Daily [Internet].
2014 July 30 [cited 2014 Nov 18]; Available from: www.sciencedaily.com/2014/07/1407300935.htm
2. SleepMed of Santa Barbara. Sleep Statistics. Santa Barbara (CA): The SleepMed. [cited 2015 Jan
11]; Available from: www.sleepmedsite.com/page/sb/sleep_disorders/sleep_statistics
3. Wood J. Sleep Problems A Global Epidemic? PsychCentral [Internet]. 2012 Aug 5 [cited 2015 Jan
11]; Available from: psychcentral.com/news/2012/08/05/sleep-problems-a-globalepidemic/42692.html4.
4. National Sleep Foundation. What Causes Insomnia? Arlington (VA) The National Sleep Foundation.
[cited 2015 Jan 11]; Available from: sleepfoundation.org/insomnia/content/what-causes-insomnia
5. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. What Causes Sleep Apnea? The National Institutes of
Health. [cited 2015 Jan 11]; Available from: www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/healthtopics/topics/sleepapnea/causes
6. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Narcolepsy Fact Sheet. The National
Institutes of Health. [cited 2015 Jan 11]; Available from:
www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/narcolepsy/detail_narcolepsy.htm
7. National Sleep Foundation. How electronics affect sleep. Arlington (VA): The National Sleep
Foundation. [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available from: sleepfoundation.org/bedroom/see.php

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8. Big Brand Beds. How Technology Affects Sleep. West Sussex (ENG): Big Brand Beds Blog. 2014
Mar 24 [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available from: www.bigbrandbeds.co.uk/blog/how-technology-affectssleep/
9. Tech Timeout. Three Ways Technology Impacts Sleep. Tech Timeout. [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available
from: techtimeout.com/three-ways-technology-impacts-sleep/
10. National Sleep Foundation. How does exercise affect sleep duration and quality? Arlington (VA)
The National Sleep Foundation. [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available from: sleepfoundation.org/ask-theexpert/how-does-exercise-affect-sleep-duration-and-quality
11. National Sleep Foundation. How does exercise help those with chronic insomnia? Arlington (VA)
The National Sleep Foundation [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available from: sleepfoundation.org/ask-theexpert/how-does-exercise-help-those-chronic-insomnia
12. Reynolds G. How Exercise Can Help Us Sleep Better. The New York Times [Internet]. 2013 Aug
21 [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available from: well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/how-exercise-can-help-ussleep-better/?_r=o
13. Faherty E. The Surprising Science Behind Sleep And Exercise. The Huffington Post [Internet].
2013 Aug 28 [cited 2015 Jan 12]; Available from: www.huffingtonpost.con/2013/08/28/benefitsexercise-can-sleep-science_n_3823526.html
14. Elliot D, Kuehl K. Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Fire Fighters and EMS Responders [final
report]. Portland: Oregon Health & Science University; 2007 June [cited 2015 Jan 20]; Available from:
www.iafc.org/files/progssleep_sleepdeprivationreport.pdf

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