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Sleep Disorder Signs

From time to time, all of us will experience a lack of sleep for any one of a number of reasons. For the most part, these times when we have trouble sleeping can be taken care of by just making enough time for sleeping each night. But if you are sleeping 7-8 hours each night but are still waking up feeling tired, or if you are fighting off feeling sleepy during the day these symptoms may be indications of a serious sleep disorder. Along with these, there are many other indicators of a possible problem. The following are some of the most frequent.

• It takes a long time to fall asleep at night (more than a half an hour)
• You wake up very early in the morning, regardless of when you went to bed
• Despite sleeping 7 to 8 hours, you still don’t feel that you have enough rest
• If you have a chance to nap you fall asleep within 5 minutes, or you fall asleep inadvertently during the day
• Your partner reports that you snore loudly or make other loud noises during the night, or that your breathing stops for brief periods
• You experience very vivid, lifelike dreams when first falling asleep or even just dozing
• You use stimulants during the day to stay awake

Adolescent Sleep Problems

If you are a parent concerned about a child’s sleeping habits keep in mind that, while kids can frequently exhibit these indications of a sleep problem, it is very rare that they also have the daytime sleepiness. In children the symptoms may be over-activity and problems with concentration and focus. Consult with your pediatrician as soon as you can to get an accurate diagnosis.


If you’re single and don’t have a bed partner the best way to determine if you may have a sleeping disorder is to keep a sleep diary. To get the best results, this diary must have as much pertinent information as possible. At the very least it should keep track of the following:

• The time you went to bed, the time you got up, and how many hours you slept
• How many times (if any) you woke up during the night
• How long it took to fall asleep
• What medications you took before bed (if any)
• How awake you were when you woke up
• Number of caffeinated drinks and when you had them throughout the day
• How many alcoholic drinks you had and when you drank them

There are sleep diary templates available online and one of the best is available free from the National Institutes of Health. This link also offers a “sleepiness Scale Graph Template”, a “snoring survey”, a “Sleep Specialist’s Evaluation Form” and more than 30 more pages of sleep related information. Since the NIH is a part of the Federal Government all the information in this link is pretty good. Although all of it is available in other places, this link is a very convenient single source for the most searched for information on sleeping problems.