Part 3

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is a disorder that sends uncomfortable feelings through a person’s leg causing them to have the urge to get up and move. This mostly happens during the night which forces the person that is suffering to want to wake up and move around. Another disorder that could disrupt a person’s sleep is Periodic Limb Movement (PLM). PLM is a disorder that makes a person’s legs and arms twitch or jerk. This could last for more than an hour which is possibly annoying to the people suffering from it. PLM, much like RLS, does not have any known causes.

I was fortunate to be able to interview two persons that suffer from three of the sleep disorders discussed in my research. One of the women, Mrs. Stephanie Keever, suffers from both insomnia and RLS, while Mrs. Verita Woods suffers with sleep apnea.
Mrs. Keever realized something was wrong when she was unable to rest well while she was sleeping. She has suffered with these sleep disorders for approximately ten years. The steps she followed for treatment were testing at the sleep clinic followed by taking medication. She says her sleep disorders are most likely life-long but are not life-threatening. Her RLS is hereditary because her father suffers from it also. As far as she knows her insomnia is not hereditary. Her specific RLS symptoms include legs twitching and cramping to point where she would awaken and find herself kicking (even her husband). With her insomnia she just could not sleep.

With both she never felt rested once she woke up. Most days she is sleepy during the day. Her disorder affects her job because it causes her to become sick from not getting enough rest. Her disorder affects her family and friends because at times she can be irritable toward them. She states that sleep disorders cause problems that people do not realize and they are related to other health problems.
Mrs. Woods did not initially know that what she suffered from was a sleep disorder. What triggered her were people telling her about her consistent snoring. She suffers from sleep apnea and has been suffering with it for the last ten-fifteen years. The steps she took for treatment were to use a patch across her nose and a spray for her throat, neither of which worked. She then went to St. Joseph’s sleep program and had to stay overnight with monitors hooked to her body to determine if she was really sleeping. After this process she uses a snoring device, which is sometimes uncomfortable. But she especially uses it while visiting at someone else’s home. Her sleep apnea will not be life-long if she loses weight. It can be life-threatening because you can stop breathing while sleeping. She thinks it is hereditary because her father and others in her family snored. She also had a cousin that died from complications of sleep apnea. This makes it extremely important for her to be treated for her sleep apnea. Her specific symptoms are snoring and waking up tired.

Her better nights of sleep are when she uses her device. She is sleepy during the day but it does not affect her job. Her sleep disorder can affect her relationship with her family and friends because some people cannot sleep when others are snoring. She knows her options for treating her sleep apnea which are losing weight (which is the best option), wearing her C Pap machine during the night and the last resort would be to have surgery. Her sleep apnea does not affect her until she tries to go to sleep.