Sleep Related Disorders on the Rise Due to Repeated Power Cuts at Night in Pakistan

The number of people diagnosed with sleep-related medical and psychiatric disorders in Pakistan is on the rise due to repeated power cuts for long hours, especially at nights, health experts warned..

Medical experts say sleeplessness causes a number of complications even among healthy people, the News International daily reported.

About Sleep Disorder
Sleep disorders can either be having difficulty in getting sleep or dozing off at inappropriate time.

Lack of sleep may cause serious complications like stomach problems, hypertension and heart disease. People may also face stress-related physical and mental disorders, experts said.

Sleep Disorders in Children - Overview, Types, Diagnosis, Management
Sleep disorders are problems in sleep that meet diagnostic criteria for a disorder. They include insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, parasomnias and narcolepsy.

Residents of the capital are facing at least four hours of power outage at night since the past two weeks.

Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders - Types, Causes, Health risks, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis
Circadian rhythm (also known as sleep/wake cycle or the body clock) is a biological process that follows an internal cycle of roughly 24 hours.

"Sleeplessness may deteriorate health of a normal person within a month," a doctor named Sohail Tariq told the daily.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea - Overview
Obstructive sleep apnea should be suspected in overweight middle aged adults who snore loudly and which can cause interruption of breathing for 10 seconds or more and this results in reduced blood o

Getting no proper rest at night also highly affects the recovery of a chronic patient, he said.

Many patients have also reported increasing levels of stress, anger and aggression, said Farid Aslam Minhas, head of the Institute of Psychiatry and WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Research and Training at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi.

He said sleepless nights also lessen people's productivity at work.

The level of tolerance among the population is also decreasing consistently, and needs immediate attention, Minhas said.

He said this has also led to youths participating in destructive activities and inhumane acts like burning of vehicles, trains and buildings without thinking they may contain children and women.

Source-IANS