Sleep Disorders
Peter Hauri
Abstract
Sleep disorders are widespread. According to a 1979 report from the Institute of Medicine, about one third of all adults in the US reported having had “trouble” sleeping within the last year. This is about 50 million people! About one fifth of them, about 10 million Americans, see physicians for sleep disorders within any given year, and more than half of that number receive prescriptions for sleeping pills. This chapter attempts to help clinicians to diagnose and effectively treat patients who complain of sleep problems. Data reduction is usually done by the human eye: the technician scores each 1/2 minute epoch for its predominant features important to that study, such as the stage of sleep, the regularity of respiration, or the density of eye movements. Computer programs for data analysis and reduction are being developed, and some laboratories do use FM tapes and electronic scoring.