Symptoms: How sleep disorders become noticeable

Poor quality sleep can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Typical signs of sleep disorders are: 

-long periods of lying awake until falling asleep (more than 30 minutes),
waking up several times during the night and having problems falling back asleep,
-dreaming during the night, which prevents falling asleep,
waking up too early before the scheduled time,
-problems getting up because sleep was not restful,
severe daytime fatigue, exhaustion and concentration problems,
-decline in physical and mental performance, and 
unconscious sleepwalking.
-In addition, there are also sleep disorders that do not necessarily limit the quality of sleep, but are more of a problem for the partner. These include, for example, talking during sleep, twitching and snoring. Here, those affected often have no complaints, but only disturb others.

 
Sleep disorders can have a significant impact on the quality of life of the affected person. Apart from increased fatigue during the day, which leads to reduced concentration and performance at work and in everyday life, people with poor sleep often suffer from mood swings, even depressive moods. This imbalance in turn often leads to problems in the partnership or family. Often a vicious circle begins, from which the sleep-disturbed person can break out only with difficulty.

People with increased daytime sleepiness are at increased risk of accidents, e.g., due to microsleep at the wheel or when working with dangerous machinery. Almost one in four car accidents in Germany is caused by brief nodding off at the wheel. More than 18,000 work-related accidents per year have been proven to be caused by sleep disorders.

New scientific findings suggest that lack of sleep leads to a decline in memory function and can affect sugar and fat metabolism.