Sleep Medicine and Research Center at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah celebrated the International Sleep Disorders Awareness Day. And that was through holding the awareness exhibition, which included several health, diagnostic and awareness pillars; As the world celebrates this day on the third Friday of March every year, which falls this year on the seventeenth day of March 2023, under the slogan “Sleep is necessary for health.”
The Director of the Sleep Medicine and Research Center, Prof. Siraj Omar Wali, explained that the exhibition witnessed a great turnout. Where the number of visitors and patients reached about 200 visitors, as cases were examined and full medical consultations were provided for more than 70 people suffering from a sleep disorder, during the four hours that is the duration of the exhibition. and sleep apnea.”
He continued: Insomnia specifically is the difficulty of entering the sleep stage, and it may be due to considerations of pressures and work conditions or increased burdens that make the individual in a volatile psychological state, which negatively affects healthy sleep and its quality, and “insomnia” represents the most prevalent sleep disorder, and almost Everyone has suffered from this problem at some point in his life, and from a medical point of view, insomnia is of two types. The first is acute insomnia, which the individual complains about for one, two, or three nights. It may be caused by many causes, including stressful conditions, life and work pressures, and so on. One of the daily social matters, and there is chronic insomnia that occurs at least three times a week, and for a period of at least three consecutive months, and this type of insomnia requires diagnosis and treatment by sleep medicine doctors to find out its causes.
And he indicated that sleep angina is an interruption of breathing during sleep, and it is known scientifically as the cessation of air flow through the upper respiratory tract for ten seconds or more during sleep, and it is repeated from dozens to hundreds of times per night, and during an episode of apnea the oxygen saturation rate in the blood decreases below the normal level. Before each episode usually ends with a loud snoring sound, and sleep apnea syndrome is treated according to its level of severity, as in simple cases, treatment is done by changing the patient’s lifestyle, such as losing weight, not smoking, and treating allergic rhinitis, but in moderate and severe cases, treatment is done. In several ways, while surgery is the last solution to treat sleeping croup syndrome, and after the failure of previous treatments, it is suitable for a few.
Wali explained that these cases were directed on how to deal with insomnia, as they were given some advice to enjoy the quality of healthy sleep, namely: adhere to a specific and fixed time for sleeping and waking up, creating a comfortable, cool, dark and quiet sleep environment, avoiding caffeine in the evening, and avoiding alcohol. Eat heavy food before bed, exercise regularly early in the day, and avoid going to bed when you are not feeling sleepy.
He added: If you are unable to sleep within 20 minutes, you should leave the bed and do light activity. In the advice, avoid taking a nap after 3 pm, avoid performing tasks and homework at the end of the day, and avoid stimuli at bedtime (such as: mobile phones, television activities, and using computer, electronic games), writing a to-do list before going to sleep to reduce thinking about it during sleep, and making sure to practice light and quiet activities in the evening.
