Dubai: On average, nearly one person in four in the UAE have symptoms of — or suffer from — a sleeping disorder.
And if you’re one of those people, chances are you don’t even know. But daytime headaches, frustration and a lack of concentration are clues you’re not sleeping properly at night.
Putting it in perspective, if there are nearly 10 million living in the UAE now, there are two million people right now who are suffering from sleep disorders.
“It’s a huge number,” Dr. Hady Jerdak of Harley Street Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi told Gulf News, adding that diagnosing sleeping disorders is harder than most patients think.
“The complaints don’t come from people noticing that they have an obstruction during the night,” Dr. Jerdak said. “They are the end result of people not feeling well during the day.”
It’s a view that’s shared by doctors who specialise in sleep disorders in the UAE.
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A recent study, conducted by Dr. Mohammad Al Houqani of the Sleep Medicine Laboratory in Al Ain, found that at least 5 per cent of road traffic accidents are caused by drowsiness behind the wheel.
“The number one concern is if the patient wakes up and is not feeling refreshed, are tired or fatigued, they should visit the nearest sleep lab to consider having a test,” Dr. Al Houqani told Gulf News.
That’s one approach -- but there’s another that’s gathering impetus.
“The pressure in the modern world has changed the way people sleep,” David Samson, a clinical hypnotherapist based in London on Harley Street, told Gulf News. “Now people seem more fearful of their jobs — suddenly things are a problem that weren’t before,” he said. He has been practicing clinical hypnotherapy for the past 14 years.
To Samson, the reason people can’t sleep boils down to a fear of loneliness or abandonment. And while alternative, Samson’s sleep medicine method is far from uncommon.
“The reason people can’t sleep has nothing to do with conscious thought,” Samson continued. “What we do is we actually access the subconscious, to find out whatever the triggers are, which causes the person to be anxious or stressed.”
So with all the different schools of thought, isn’t it enough to give you sleepless nights?
“In a nutshell, the three main disorders of sleep are those who are unable to fall asleep, those who sleep but have problems while they doze off, and miscellaneous — which includes narcolepsy and other rare diseases.”
According to the sleep doctors, the most common disorder by far is obstructive sleep apnea, a condition characterised by pauses in breathing while people are asleep.
And sleep apnea is on the rise because there are higher levels of obesity.
“Although [obstructive sleep apnea] is common among older male adults, it generally affects people who are overweight or obese,” Dr. Al Houqani said. “So when it comes to treatment, what we do first is advise people to work on losing weight and being healthy.”
But while you might have some symptoms, you don’t necessarily have the disease. And while sleeping disorders are more common the older you get, young people aren’t immune.
“What you are facing with teenagers is they are experiencing sleep deprivation,” Dr. Jerdak said. “This is because they sit in bed with all the technology in their hands and don’t put it down.”
It’s a common complaint: Technology in the bedroom interferes with sleeping patterns. And a poor night’s sleep means teens have difficulty concentrating and learning in the classroom.
Aside from keeping healthy, Dr. Jerdak also advises not to sleep in a cold room and keep televisions out of the bedroom. Why? The prolonged use of technology at night can affect a person’s circadian rhythm — the body’s internal clock.
“I see a lot of young adults using their smartphones, laptops and watching television before going to bed,” Dr. Al Houqani said. “What they don’t know is that the rays from the screen lower the melatonin levels in the body — and this causes people to sleep late and wake up late.”
But for those who struggle between choosing sleep clinics or hypnotherapy to solve their sleeping woes, one thing should never be doubted: People need more sleep than they think.
“An adult is supposed to sleep between seven to nine hours,” Dr. Jerdak explained. “When you go below 15-years’ old, you need to add more hours. Ten- to 12-year olds’ should be getting between nine to ten hours a night.”