Skip to content
EntityQ177190· pop 39· linked from 1,117 articles

sleep disorder

Sign in to save

Also known as somnipathy, non-organic sleep disorder, sleep disorders, Sleep disorders

disease of mental health that involves disruption of sleep patterns

Key facts

Specialty
Clinical psychology , Psychiatry , Sleep medicine , Neurology

via Wikipedia infobox

~38 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder that disrupts an individual's sleep patterns and quality. This can cause serious health issues and affect physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for diagnosing sleep disorders.

Sleep disorders are broadly classified into dyssomnias, parasomnias, circadian rhythm sleep disorders, and other disorders (including those caused by medical or psychological conditions). When a person struggles to fall or stay asleep without an obvious cause, it is referred to as insomnia, which is the most common sleep disorder. Other sleep disorders include sleep apnea, narcolepsy, hypersomnia (excessive sleepiness at inappropriate times), sleeping sickness (disruption of the sleep cycle due to infection), sleepwalking, and night terrors.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sleep disorder” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.