Restless sleep syndrome

Sometimes you hear complaints from older people that when they wake up in the morning, they don’t feel rested, like in their youth. However, in the modern world there are many young people who face a similar problem.

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Epidemiology

Statistics claim that 1% of the adult population suffers from sleep apnea, 95% snore and 40% of this number are subject to fatigue syndrome. It is assumed that every 20th person experiences chronic fatigue, mainly residents of large cities. More often women than men, because they are busy not only at work, but also at home. Paradoxically, with the advent of various household appliances designed to make life easier for people, there are more and more people subject to chronic fatigue. Sleep does not relieve the problem, and vigor does not come with the onset of morning.

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Causes fatigue sleep syndrome

The ever-increasing dynamics of life, constant stress, the availability of various information that pours out on a person in a stream, not giving the opportunity to switch off even at night, exhaust him.

At the moment, the main explanation for the existence of fatigue sleep syndrome is the disruption of sleep cycles for various reasons. There are two main phases of human sleep: slow and fast. These two phases alternate in a certain sequence, forming cycles. It is believed that a person's well-being is directly dependent on the sleep phase in which he wakes up. If the sleeper was in the "fast sleep" phase when he woke up, he will feel alert and rested. Those who are not in this phase will feel tired and sleepy, regardless of the duration of sleep.

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Risk factors

In the pathogenesis of fatigue sleep syndrome, it is impossible to clearly determine the influencing factors. Depression and anxiety are big "sleep disruptors". When a person feels internal discomfort, dissatisfaction, a sense of anxiety, it is difficult to count on healthy sleep. One of the risk factors for the development of fatigue sleep syndrome is neurosis. The causes of neurosis are different. This can be a fear of not falling asleep, some external factors that do not allow you to go to bed on time, physical or nervous overstrain, genetic predisposition, pregnancy, complications during childbirth. It provokes sensitive sleep, apnea (temporary cessation of ventilation of the lungs), snoring.

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Symptoms fatigue sleep syndrome

Fatigue sleep syndrome is characterized by the fact that a person wakes up sleep-deprived, tired and sluggish. The patient complains of the inability to fall asleep quickly, anxious thoughts do not let go, fear of not falling asleep again, inability to find a comfortable position to fall asleep, early morning rise. Symptoms of fatigue sleep also include frequent awakenings in the middle of the night due to lack of air or numbness in the limbs. Many people are prevented from getting a good night's sleep by their own snoring and short-term cessation of breathing (apnea), as well as the "spinning head" syndrome, when a loud noise in the ears is heard at the moment of falling asleep or during awakening. Joint pain, memory loss, and various neurological problems are also possible.

First signs

Most people find it difficult to describe their feelings. This includes bad mood, irritability, dissatisfaction with life, sometimes loss of appetite, memory loss. Often there is a lack of desire, including sexual desire, self-doubt increases, and depression sets in. The main thing that should alert you is rapid fatigue during physical activity.

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Diagnostics fatigue sleep syndrome

Many doctors are skeptical about the existence of such a diagnosis, and those suffering from such symptoms want it confirmed by blood tests. Unfortunately, there is no blood test that would indicate the disease. However, researchers are working on this problem and, as they say, not without success. Information has appeared that while studying the problem of AIDS, it was possible to identify a certain class of immune cells that were increased only in a group of people susceptible to fatigue syndrome.

The other study group, who had no symptoms and were either healthy or had other diseases, did not have these immune cells. Activation of the immune system indicates the presence of a virus in the human body, which still needs to be identified. But the detection of cytotoxic CD8 cells (which appear in the body to fight the virus) in the first group of subjects could be a breakthrough in solving the problem of diagnosing fatigue syndrome. If this information is true, these cells will become a marker, since they are unique to the disease, which means that a blood test is possible to determine it.

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Differential diagnosis

Unfortunately, there are no instrumental methods (ultrasound, MT, MRI) to identify the cause of such conditions. They resort to differential diagnostics, which includes laboratory tests (to exclude anemia, alcoholism, drug addiction, chronic infections), ECG and chest X-ray (to exclude heart disease), etc.

Differential diagnostics of "anxiety" states ( neuroses and depressions ) is more difficult to carry out, since its criteria are not sufficiently developed. Therefore, in this case, clinical psychopathological, psychological and biological studies are appropriate.

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Treatment fatigue sleep syndrome

Treatment of fatigue sleep syndrome consists of normalizing the sleep cycle, which requires a comprehensive approach to eliminate the phenomena that provoke it. It is highly undesirable to resort to sleeping pills without consulting a doctor. This can aggravate the situation.

It is important to eliminate the causes of anxiety and tension. Warm milk with honey, tincture of valerian, hawthorn, and St. John's wort will help you relax at night before going to bed.

In cardiovascular diseases and hypertension, drugs are prescribed to lower blood pressure (diuretics, beta- and alpha-blockers, ACE inhibitors) and drugs that improve blood supply to the brain vessels. The latter includes cavinton (ethyl ester of apovincaminic acid). The drug has been on the market for over 30 years in over 40 countries. It is a vasodilator, normalizes the tone of arteries and veins, and has an antioxidant effect. It is available in tablet and injection form. It requires long-term use to achieve the effect.

In case of neuroses and depressions, they resort to taking small doses of H2 blockers, tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin reuptake inhibitors (fluoxetine-prozac). In each case, treatment involves an individual comprehensive approach to the patient.

Prevention

The best prevention is a healthy lifestyle. A balanced diet, including foods rich in vitamins and minerals, moderate physical activity, water treatments, and communication with pleasant people will help restore a good night's sleep. In the case of neuroses as the cause of the disease, the prognosis for its course is more favorable than in the case of depression. If the patient interrupted the course of treatment for depression, the probability of relapse is 50%, and in case of repeated acute attacks - 90%. Often a person needs to take a decisive step and turn his life around 180 ⁰, and if he is capable of this, the disease will recede.

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