Sleeping Disorders in Veterans

Sleeping Disorders in Veterans

Introduction

Sleeping disorders are common among all people but they appear to be more common among veterans. However, among all the risks faced by soldiers and veterans, sleeping disorders is not likely to top many priority's lists. But soldiers, like the human beings, face problems to health from poor and insufficient sleep. A recent research indicates they may be at significantly elevated risk for sleeping disorders and associated health issues. A number of reasons have been suggested for the high prevalence of sleeping disorders in soldiers. Environmental and physical conditions associated with stress may impact on sleep. This can be particularly the case for compact troops. Sleeping disorders are common by troops during or returning from the war zone.

As per information from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the amount of veterans gaining incapacity profits for rest issue has expanded to 61% in the previous two years. For veterans the finding and medicine of a rest issue is somewhat more perplexing on account of other military identified conditions, for example post traumatic anxiety issue.

Sleep problems have a number of implications for the veterans and their families. For veteran families, they are associated with high levels of stress and irritability. For the veterans they are associated with health issues and behaviour problems. The issues emphasise the need to take sleeping disorder seriously. However, sleeping disorder is not a priority issue in any country veteran's authority personnel problem.

Veterans experience disordered sleep

Difficulties with sleep may be the result of basic biological changes medical problems that interfere with sleep ruminations and substance misuse. PTSD is a growing concern in veterans and a relationship between PTSD and sleeping disorders problems such as fragmented sleep, insomnia, nightmares, night terrors, and night time anxiety attacks had been well reported from veterans Pre-existing sleeping disorder is believed to be a risk factor for a veterans to develop PTSD and restorative sleep appears to serve a protective function. Post-traumatic stress disorder appears to have a bi-directional relationship with sleeping disorder (Harvey, 2003).

Disordered sleep may be a risk factor for developing PTSD, and symptoms of PTSD lead to the development of disordered sleep. This is congruent with a bi-directional relationship demonstrated between a range of medical and psychiatric disorders and insomnia, as insomnia may reciprocally predispose patients to relapse, or exacerbate recurrence of the condition. Therefore, it appears treatment for sleeping disorder has the potential to improve physical and psychological health in veterans (Mundey, 2005).

Consequences of sleeping disorders

Sleeping disorder is a growing problem for population of all ages and significantly impacts many aspects of our life. In general, adults need at least seven hours of sleep per night. Sleep problems and a lack of sleep can have negative effects on soldier's physical performance in duty, and in social relationships (Ulmer, 2011). In spite of the fact that a few studies claim to feel rested on only a couple of hours of rest a night, research shows that individuals who rest so minimal over numerous ...