At Home with Dr Christian Jessen - 94

News ﬂash!
There were 30,500 admissions for
sleep disorders in 2013, a 3.6%
increase in admissions from the
previous 12 months. Adults in their
late forties and ﬁfties made up
one of the largest groups, with
45-to 49-year-olds accounting
for 9.8% and 50- to 54-yearolds for 10.4 %.

RESTLESS LEG
SYNDROME

Common characteristics of this
disorder include an intense urge
to move your legs - an urge which
gets worse when resting. People
with this condition often ﬁnd that
the limb twitching, or spasms, get
worse at night, and the symptoms
are only improved by moving their
legs. As a result, restless leg syndrome
(RLS) often interferes with getting
to sleep or sleep quality, and as a
result you're left with discomfort,
sleep disturbances and fatigue.
As many as one in 10 people in
the UK are thought to have RLS
and women are twice as likely to
develop it than men. Although the
causes aren't fully understood,
people with RLS have low levels of
dopamine, a brain chemical that
helps control movement. Many
people with a severe iron deﬁciency
have RLS, as the body needs iron
in order to produce dopamine.
HELP YOURSELF: For many
people, simple lifestyle changes,
such as maintaining a consistent
bedtime routine, doing regular
exercise and avoiding caffeine and
094 | MARCH 2015

THE EMOTIONAL REPERCUSSIONS

Sleep disorders particularly put a strain on relationships. A 2013
sleep study by Silentnight (www.silentnight.co.uk) revealed that
51% of Brits are regularly kept awake by a partner's snoring and
more than half are kept awake by a talking partner. It also revealed
that women suffer most with their man's bad habits, with 30% of
them now sleeping in a different room - never mind different bed.
While almost one in four (18%) people have changed their mattress
to help them get a better night's sleep. And money worries (26%),
stress (25%), noisy neighbours (25%) have all disturbed your shut
eye, too, according to the same Silentnight study.
Of course, sleeping in separate beds will affect your sex life. It
means you and your partner will have to schedule time for sex. A
2013 study by mattress company, Ergoﬂex (www.ergoﬂex.co.uk)
- which polled 2,010 men and women aged 18 and over in a
co-habiting relationship - states one in six British couples report that
they regularly, if not always, sleep in separate beds. When asked
if sleeping separately had impacted upon their relationship with
their partner in any way, two thirds admitted that it had a 'negative
impact' on their relationship. Problems and arguments caused
through lack of sleep have caused 7% of people to ﬁle for divorce.
Not getting your 40 winks signiﬁcantly affects your work life, too.
Lack of concentration, forgetfulness and lack of focus can have a
direct effect on your daily performance. 'If you regularly get less than
eight hours of sleep, you're not at your best,' says Thomas Balkin,
PhD, director of behavioral biology at the Walter Reed Army Institute
of Research in the US. 'The less sleep you get, the worse you do.'

DR
CHRISTIAN
SAYS

'Sometimes dreams
can feel so real
that you start
acting them out!
Did you know that
this could be part
of a Rapid Eye
Movement (REM)
sleep disorder.
Twitching, jerking,
shouting, talking
and walking are all
common signs of
this behaviour.'
http://www.silentnight.co.uk http://www.ergofl http://ex.co.uk
At Home with Dr Christian Jessen

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