Sleep Disorders

Question 1

Define Insomnia [2]

Answer 1

Chronic inability to obtain the necessary amount/quality of sleep [1] to maintain adequate daytime behaviour [1]

Question 2

What are the types of insomnia? [2]

Answer 2

• Chronic Primary where there’s generally no identifiable cause
• Temporary Secondary due to pain, grief or other crisis

Question 3

What are the differences between nightmares and night terrors? [3]

Answer 3

• Nightmares occur during REM sleep
• Night Terrors occur in Deep Sleep
• Nightmares are remembered
• Night Terrors aren’t remembered
• Nightmares stop when you wake up
• Night Terrors involve thrashing, screaming, sit/standing and opening eyes

Question 4

At what stage of the sleep cycle does somnambulism occur?

Answer 4

Mostly Stage 4, but can be other parts of Slow Wave Sleep

Question 5

At what age is somnambulism most common?

Answer 5

in children and young adults.

Question 6

What is narcolepsy?

Answer 6

Sudden descent from awake state to REM sleep

Question 7

What causes Narcolepsy? [2]

Answer 7

Dysfunctional Orexin [1] release from excitatory neurons in the hypothalamus [1]

Question 8

What is a circadian rhythm?

Answer 8

Biological Systems show oscillations within a 24 hour period

Question 9

Where is the ‘master clock’ for sleep? [1]

NB The neurons here contain an inherent 24 hour cycle

Answer 9

In the SupraChiasmic Nuclei of the Hypothalamus

Question 10

What trains the 24 hour cycle of the SCN neurons? [1]

Answer 10

External cues such as light and dark (maybe because optic nerve fibres feed into the SCN at the chiasm)

Question 11

What happens if the SCN is destroyed? [1]

Answer 11

You lose the circadian rhythm of sleep