5 strange sleeping disorders
 

very interesting article. i had only heard of one of these, the others are very bizarre...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/perso...per/index.html

My best friend used to sleep eat, we would have to lock her in her room, but it started out with her waking up and having empty bags of chips or leftover containers with crumbs and stuff all over her bed, she would come into my room and eat my food (when we lived in the house, on the same floor) but it got really bad when she started going 3 flights down to the kitchen and cooking food, making hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, micorwave dinners, but even pickles, condiments... it was CRAZY.
she moved out of the house and moved to MO and doesn't do it anymore... it was bizarre.

i've also heard of sleep paralysis but not the other 2... did anyone else notice that there was only 4 disorders listed? did i miss a page??

i used to be narcoleptic and had sleep apnea and it was bad, but i was treated for it.

funny you should mention that, the 5th was forget-what-you-read-somnia...:D j/k, someone fell asleep in that fifth paragraph!

In college, my brother would sleep eat. We proved it to him when he saw an outline of a piece of bread on the counter top. It was outlined in mustard.
We still tease him 25 years later and my sister-in-law says she hides the mustard jar when they go to bed.

I have been treated for two severe sleeping disorders- sleep apnea and idiopathic hypersomnia- and through that I learned that you can't be "cured" of either of these conditions. Are you no longer treated?
I have a CPap for my sleep apnea and I was on medication for the hypersomnia, but chose to go off it and deal with it in a different method. Narcolepsy is not really about sleep as much as it is about the brain's way of sleeping.

Anyway, I am ranting I just remember all the crazy test I have been through and although it isn't always easy, if you think you or someone you know may have any sleep disorder have them get help- it can increase your quality of life!

i'm not sure I fully buy into the whole sexsomnia thing........I think some of it may be legitmate but other parts I can see being used to let sex offenders get away with their crimes.

It doesn't address the one when a person kicks or otherwise has spasms in his or her sleep. Thank heavens, I've never had that!

What I have done (when I was younger), was to get fully dressed in my majorette uniform (fully dressed - polished my boots, polished my batons, fastened all my medals, etc), and try to leave the house in time for a some "parade". My family will never let me forget all the times I've done that!

It happened to a friend of mine. She woke up and her pants or whatever were under her bed.

Yeah, the sleep study was one of the worst experience of my life, i was so tired that I passed out while in the middle of crying because I was so uncomfortable and scared, that's how bad it was, i would sleep in the middle of conversations, while driving, in class... anywhere...!
I had my tonsils taken out because they (and I) thought that was the primary culprit of my sleep apnea bc they were so large and blocked my airway normally, plus I got strep throat and pnuemonia like it was going out of style....! Once I got my tonsils out, things were better, I sleep a lot better, I'm able to share a bed with someone without them thinking I'm dying or disturbing them, I still am exhausted most of the time, so I think I need to see someone still. but I'm glad you got treatment as well, it was so crazy b/c ppl know so little about them.

Both me and my cousin are insomniacs. We are just alike. She and I are rarely able to fall asleep on our own. We used to think we were just night owls. But, then we noticed in college that both of us were able to stay up all night and then the next day. We'd still have trouble falling asleep the next night. Both of us have trouble being places on time in the morning, because we are exhausted. But, we can very rarely get to sleep naturally.

Believe it or not, both of us are REALLY bad about sleepwalking, sleep eating, etc. When I played basketball, I would act out the game in my sleep. When I was 3, my parents had to install keyed deadbolts on all of the exterior doors. I used to actually run out of our house screaming bloody murder because someone was chasing me in my dreams. They literally had to lock me in the house to keep me from getting out of the house.

It's kind of scary. Lunesta is the only sleeping medicine I can take. Ambien doesn't knock me out enough. I only end up 1/2 asleep. I ACTUALLY RETURNED A NEW CELL PHONE BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT HAD BEEN USED! There were text messages to people I didn't know. Turns out, I HAD WRITTEN them in my sleep!

I took a Sexuality class as a psych elective and we talked about this, but it was just called "sleep sex." Sexsomnia was a nickname for it. I don't remember very well, though, it could've been the other way around.

I used to have sleep paralysis (quite possibly one of the scariesst things in the world) and a bad hypnic jerk (where you spasm as you're falling asleep or just after you fall asleep). That still happens sometimes if I'm really tired, which is often a I've had insomnia since high school. That's what pisses me off so much about this whole "Restless Legs" crap--most people just have a hypnic jerk, but don't know that such a thing exists. Of course a doctor won't recommend it, there's no expensive medicine for a hypnic jerk.

ETA: I don't mean to offend anyone who thinks they have RLS, but I'd look further into.

the hypnotic jerk thing definitely happens to me when i'm really tired, I also get RLS "like" symptoms when i'm exhausted or falling asleep, even at work, its very very uncomfortable, but I don't think i'll get treated for it...
I already have enough meds in my body that I'd rather not have.

my ex did that- as he fell asleep he would start spasming- not wildly, just small motions. I didn't know there was a name for it!

I first noticed it when I was little. I had just seen "Leprechaun" and was falling asleep with my hands under my pillow when they jerked really hard. I woke up screaming that there was an invisible leprechaun under my pillow trying to eat my thumbs....

What a little education will do for you. :rolleyes:

THAT is really freaky! Wow.

I didn't know there was a name for the hypnic jerk thing. I just thought that happened to people when they are really exhausted. Unfortunately, that happens to me quite often. :(. I've suffered from insomnia and sleep paralysis too. I agree christiangirl, waking up and not being able to move is quite scary.

I'm an insomniac. I reaaally don't want to use sleeping pills but it's getting to the point that I feel that I have to- I can't sleep at night! I am always exhausted!

I didnt know hypnic jerk is what that was. I also thought that happened to everyone now and then. :) I do have insomnia too and have since I was a little girl. It came and went through the years but then re-emerged itself full force when I started nursing school.

Ambien-CR has been a Godsend for me.......and my husband because when i sleep soundly that means he will sleep soundly because i will not be hitting him all night to get him to turn over to stop his freight train snoring or tossing and turning constantly............or be waking up every hour or two hours and being in a really bad mood in the morning.

I could write a book about things that people on Ambien have done. One man urinated into his grandson's crib (yes, with baby in it) because he thought he was at a baseball game; another went skinny-dipping in the high rise pool; dog walking; gardens dug - the list goes on & on. What's really sad is how many times a client of mine has been told they have dementia because of it, and yet, the minute Ambien is out of the picture, they're fine.

I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial ten-foot pole!

I think Ambien is like most other drugs. It is not and will not work for everyone. Different treatments must often times be tried before the right one is found.

However I find it really sad that the medical establishment (I see this in my practice too) would automatically label someone as having dementia without checking side effects and/or adjusting medications first:mad:

That's one of the major down-sides of working in geriatrics. Too many people are ready to dismiss an elderly person as having senile dementia or Alzheimer's instead of really checking out the brain patterns etc.

I do think that Ambien-CR has addressed a lot of the problems found in the original formula. Although the anctedote about the grandfather was someone in his Fifties!!

Has anyone seen that commercial for Cialis (sp?) - with possible side effects including "gambling"? That always cracks me up!

I have suffered from sleep paralysis since I was about 8. I do find that stress sometimes induces it and it always happens when I am sleeping on my back (hmmm I wonder if that is why I prefer to sleep on my side?). I had no idea what it was called until I read an article about it a few years ago. It is a very scarey sensation and I often do feel there is someone standing over me. You can hear everything that is going on around you but you cannot move (except my toes and sometimes I can move my feet, I do end up wiggling my toes through the episode). Sometimes it happens when I am taking a short nap at work-luckily I haven't had an emergency come in during this time, I am not sure how I would explain it to the staff. It comes and goes and when i experience an episode and then wake up, if I fall back asleep immediately I will continue to have episodes until I actually get up and walk around. I am fine after walking around and can go back to sleep. I also suffer from insominia but I think that has to do with working nights for the last 11 years.

This is one reason of many as to why I love working with the elderly and why i hope to be able to work with them in the future specializing in geriatrics/gerontology. I believe elderly people are often times not taken seriously or as seriously as they should be by medical professionals. They are truly a misrepresented, vulnerable population.

That's definitely possible. Just because it's a disorder doesn't mean everybody can't have it.:)

Me too.....however

I usually have a bad memory, but I have been forgetting the names of family members who I see at least once a week, I have been calling someone on the phone thinking I am speaking to speron A but it is actually person B. I am not sayingit is connected, but I am getting worse. I have been sooooo tense and on edge a lot lately, however I have been getting some good sleep.

Eek. I sleep eat when stressed. Usually pretzels, red vines, or a popsicle.
I have sleep paralysis on occasion which is related to night terrors, which yep, have--tho both of those are rare and act up also due to stress and sleep meds--lovely. and that psuedosomnia thing--have experienced that alot too.

And yet, I love to sleep. HAHAHAHA But all these things in me are brought out by stress.

Oh goody--as I just made leap out of traditional day job to work on my own personal projects and money is nil--i guess i can be expecting my old pals of sleep issues to visit.

good thing i don't have to be up and anywhere by any particular time in the morning these days.