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Mrs. Marsh
Psychological Disorders
Unit 12: Abnormal Psychology
Recurring problems
in falling or staying
asleep.
 Associated Features
 It is not an occasional inability to sleep when anxious or
excited.
 Chronic or persistent difficulty with sleeping:
 Trouble falling asleep.
 Frequent awakening.
 Getting a full night’s sleep but not feeling rested.
 Poor Treatment
 Many mistakenly try to treat the problems using
sleeping pills or alcohol.
 These tactics reduce REM sleep, leaving people feeling groggy
and tired the next day.
 Treatment
 Exercise.
 Avoid caffeine and rich food in the afternoon or before
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bedtime.
Drink milk before bed to generate serotonin.
Relax before bed, use dim light.
Sleep on a regular schedule.
Hide the clock.
Manage your stress levels.
A sleep disorder characterized by
uncontrollable sleep attacks; the sufferer
may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at
inopportune times.
narco = numbness
lepsy = seizure
 Associated Features
 Overwhelmed with sleepiness; collapses into REM sleep.
 Release of muscular tension.
 “Attacks” usually lasts less than 5 minutes
 Some lasting between 10-20 minutes
 Associated Features
 “Attacks” sometimes occur at inopportune times:
 For example
 After taking a terrific swing in baseball.
 When laughing loudly.
 When shouting angrily.
 During sex.
 Etiology
 Research has been discovering that the disorder is a
brain disease.
 Genes may play a role.
 Absence of a hypothalamic neural center that produces
orexin (a neurotransmitter associated with alertness).
 Treatment
 Medication
 Hope of treating the disorder with a drug that mimics the
missing orexin.
 Insomnia
 Affects 10% of adults
and 25% of older adults.
 Narcolepsy
 1 in 2000 (0.05%)