What is the condition called when a person who is asleep finds it very difficult to wake up?
915951
Hey there Orditz!  Hope you are doing well in Australia...  Greetings to you from us in Singapore.\n\nI don't think it's "narcolepsy."  That's a condition where somebody who is awake can't stay awake.  Somebody with narcolepsy will fall asleep at any time, including while driving (a very dangerous problem).\n\nThere are a number of reasons why somebody might have trouble "waking up."  If, for example, you've been working out a lot, your body might be in need of extra rest as a way to repair what you're doing to it (in a good sense).  I know that if I'm doing a lot of extra/different physical training, this will happen.\n\nMy partner Alain suffers from apnea sometimes, and this disrupts his sleep patters once in a while.  This will (naturally) impact his ability to "wake up" at a normal time (albeit we have a cat named Malcolm who has figured out how to wake each of us up...  for me, he'll push off the covers, but for Alain he'll bite his ears!).  \n\nThere's a part of the brain called the renticular activating area that sort of makes us wake up or become alert...  We can control that to some degree, but sometimes not, depending on the level of fatigue.\n\nThat zone between wake and sleep can be really fun...  Not to be too silly here, but this afternoon Alain and I had some "quality time without the cat" (you can figure out what I mean here...), and it happened to be in the afternoon after I got back from my 14k run.  We were dozing a little, and it was cool to be able to sort of direct the "dreams" that I'd have in the short segments of dozing afterwords...  You can direct the little dream partitions that way, and it's really nice...\n\nOf course, Malcolm the Cat came in at 5:00pm and started chewing on Alain's ears since it was dinner time as far as he was concerned!!!\n\nBut normally if we can't seem to "wake up" at our normal time, we're probably either staying up too late or doing something with our bodies (like working out in a different or harder way) that is making us need more rest.\n\nHope this helps, and all the best to you!\nmz
1098808
Alternative names:-\nLoss of consciousness - first aid; Coma - first aid; Mental status change; Altered mental status \nDefinition:-\nUnconsciousness is when a person is unable to respond to people and other stimuli around him or her. Often, this is called a coma or being in a comatose state.\n\nOther changes in awareness can occur without becoming unconscious. Medically, these are called "Altered Mental Status" or "Changed Mental Status." They include sudden confusion, disorientation, or stupor.\n\nUnconsciousness and any other SUDDEN change in mental status must be treated as a medical emergency.\n\nIf someone is awake but less alert than usual, ask a few simple questions -- What is your name? What is the date? How old are you? If the person doesn't know or answers incorrectly, then his or her mental status is diminished.\nConsiderations:-\nBeing asleep is not the same thing as being unconscious. A sleeping person will respond to loud noises or gentle shaking -- an unconscious person will not.\n\nAn unconscious person cannot cough or clear his or her throat. This can lead to death if the airway becomes obstructed.\nCauses :-\nUnconsciousness can be caused by virtually any major illness or injury, as well as substance abuse and alcohol use. \nBrief unconsciousness (or fainting) is often caused by dehydration, low blood sugar, or temporary low blood pressure. However, it can also be caused by serious cardiovascular or neurologic illness. Your doctor will determine if you need to be tested for such underlying disorders. \nOther causes of fainting include straining during a bowel movement, strenuous coughing, or hyperventilating\nSymptoms :-\nUnresponsiveness (does not awaken when spoken to, touched, or otherwise stimulated) \nUnconsciousness may be brief and temporary (fainting) or prolonged \nDisorientation \nLight-headedness \nPalpitations \nHeadache \nDrowsiness \nStupor
465648
Difficulty breathing to sleep? Sleep apnea is the answer, bipap, loosing weight is the help. Allergies and asthma is worse at night time..  go to the doctor they can halp
472535
Not personally but I know about it\n\nSleep Paralysis (SP) is a common medical condition and usually tagged nowdays as a Sleeping Disorder.\nThe symptoms can sometimes include complete to partial paralysis of arms, legs and upper torso, a tight or heavy pressure on your chest sometimes with a choking sensation and almost always experienced as you are about to fall into sleep or just come out of sleep.\nThe most remarkable symptoms of SP are the accompanying audio and/or visual hallucinations often causing extreme terror and panic in it's sufferers, who more often than not mistakenly believe they are being visited by aliens, malevolent beings and other evil presences. \n\nResearch shows that SP is linked with REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When in REM sleep you are usually dreaming, your body does not act out your dreams as you will hurt either yourself, or someone else, so evolution has worked its merry little way of getting your brain to switch off your muscles (so to speak) and relax you while dreaming, essentially paralyzing you to a degree
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Insomnia is characterized by an inability to sleep and/or to remain asleep for a reasonable period. Insomniacs typically complain of being unable to close their eyes or "rest their mind" for more than a few minutes at a time. Both organic and nonorganic insomnia constitute a sleep disorder. It is often caused by fear, stress, anxiety, medications, herbs or caffeine. An overactive mind or physical pain may also be causes. Finding the underlying cause of insomnia is usually necessary to cure it.\nThree different types of insomnia exist. Insomnia may be classified as transient, acute (short-term), and chronic. Insomnia lasting from one night to a few weeks is referred to as transient. This is generally the case for most people, as one often suffers from jet lag or short-term anxiety. If this form of insomnia continues to occur from time to time, the insomnia is classified to be intermittent. Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of three weeks to six months. However, after this time, the person does not experience insomniatic episodes. Insomnia is considered to be chronic, the most serious, if it persists almost nightly for at least a month, and sometimes longer.\nA person can have primary or secondary insomnia. Primary insomnia is sleeplessness that is not attributable to a medical or environmental cause. Secondary insomnia means that a person is having sleep problems because of something else, such as a health condition, an example of which would be generalized anxiety disorder.\nSome of the most common causes of insomnia are:\nCircadian rhythm sleep disorders cause insomnia at some times of the day and excessive sleepiness at other times of the day. Common circadian rhythm sleep disorders include jet lag and delayed sleep phase syndrome. Jet lag is seen in people who travel through multiple time zones, as the time relative to the rising and falling of the sun no longer coincides with the body's internal concept of it. The insomnia experienced by shift workers is also a circadian rhythm sleep disorder. \nParasomnia includes a number of disorders of arousal or disruptive sleep events including nightmares, sleepwalking, violent behavior while sleeping, and REM behavior disorder, in which a person moves his/her physical body in response to events within his/her dreams. These conditions can often be treated successfully through medical intervention or through the use of a sleep specialist. \nGastroesophageal Reflux Disease causes repeated awakenings during the night due to unpleasant sensations resulting from stomach acid flowing upward into the throat while asleep. \nMania or Hypomania in bipolar disorder can cause difficulty falling asleep. A person going through a manic or hypomanic episode may feel a reduced need for sleep. Sleep deprivation can worsen a manic episode, or cause hypomania to develop into mania. \nPain can produce insomnia and finding effective ways to treat pain can provide relief. A common misperception is that the amount of sleep one requires decreases as he or she ages. The ability to sleep for long periods, rather than the need for sleep, appears to be lost as people get older. Some elderly insomniacs toss and turn in bed and occasionally fall off the bed at night, diminishing the amount of sleep they receive. \nInsomnia is a common side-effect of some medications, and it can also be caused by stress, emotional upheaval, physical or mental illness, dietary allergy and poor sleep hygiene. Insomnia is a major symptom of mania in people with bipolar disorder, and it can also be a sign of hyper-thyroidism, depression, or other ailments with stimulating effects.\nIn addition, a rare genetic condition can cause a prion-based, permanent and eventually fatal form of insomnia called Fatal Familial Insomnia.\n\nTreatment for insomnia\nIn many cases, insomnia is caused by another disease or psychological problem. In this case, medical or psychological help may be useful.
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A coma is a deep state of unconsciousness, during which an individual is not able to react to their environment. Someone in a coma cannot respond to any form of stimulation whatsoever. Coma can be caused by an underlying illness, or it can result from head trauma. A comatose person is still very much alive, but he or she is not simply asleep. The brain wave activity in a comatose person is very different from that of a sleeping person; you can wake up a sleeping person, you can't wake a person in a coma. A coma usually does not last for more than a few weeks. Many people recover their full physical and mental functioning when they emerge from a coma. Others require various forms of therapy to recover as much functioning as possible. Some patients never recover anything but very basic body functions.\n\nSometimes, following a coma, a person may enter what is known as a persistent vegetative state; patients in persistent vegetative state have lost all cognitive neurological function but are still able to breathe and may exhibit various spontaneous movements. They may even be awake and appear to be normal but, because the cognitive part of their brain no longer functions, they are not able to respond to their environment. A vegetative state can last for years.\n\nThere are various other terms, in addition to coma and vegetative state, that are used to describe varying levels of unconsciousness and a person's ability to respond to stimuli. These include stupor, in which a person is unconscious but will eventually respond to repeated, vigorous stimulation; and obtundation and lethargy, which are used to describe a person who is not entirely unconscious but does not respond to stimuli.\n\nUsually, coma and other altered states of unconsciousness are considered neurological emergencies, and actions need to be taken quickly to avoid permanent damage.\n\nThe Human Brain\nThe human brain is made up of three basic parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brainstem. The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and makes up about 85% of the brain's total weight. It's divided into two hemispheres, the cerebral hemispheres, one on each side of the head. The cerebrum is where all of the body's most complicated mental and sensory functions are controlled - intelligence, reasoning, memory, emotions, vision, our ability to feel things, etc. The cerebellum is a smaller part of the brain that lies behind the cerebrum. It plays an essential role in coordination, posture and balance. The brainstem is the stemlike part of the brain that connects the cerebral hemispheres to the spinal cord and is responsible for controlling many basic bodily functions, such as breathing, blood pressure, and being awake and alert.\n\nUnconsciousness\nAs with most mental processes that occur in the brain, the biology of consciousness - also called arousal - is very complicated and not well understood. There are many tissues located deep within the brain that play a role in how conscious and alert a person is. Researchers believe that one of the important physiological processes that keeps a person conscious is the transfer, or neurotransmission, of chemical signals from the brainstem to the cerebral hemispheres of the brain. This continuous neurotransmission needs to be happening in order for a person to be aware of their environment. Abnormalities that interrupt it can lead to coma or other states of unconsciousness.\n\nAbnormalities that can cause coma include injury or damage to the brain that leads to swelling (edema) in the brain, which results in an increased intracranial pressure (pressure within the skull). Increased pressure, whether it is localized in one particular spot or spread over the whole brain, decreases the flow of blood and can lead to unconsciousness. Injury or damage to the brain can also cause some areas of the brain to shift within the skull and exert pressure on surrounding tissues and structures, including blood vessels
232219
yes, its called sleep apnea, you dont get enough oxygen and you pass out, it can actually be fatal
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He may suffer from sleep apnea.  First see if his health insurance would cover an overnight stay in the hospital to see if he suffers from that, if so get him in to get tested.  Alot of people middle aged to older aged individuals who are overweight and snore suffer from sleep apnea, which is the lack of air when sleeping.  So, he is actually not getting a restful nights sleep and may feel tired during the day.  If they do find out he has that, they will have him sleep with a breathing machine to help him get a GOOD RESTFUL night's sleep WITHOUT snoring!  ALOT of people suffer from this!
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my niece had those and they took her to the doctor, the doc said do not wake her up but be there for her when she does wake up to comfort her. me regaurds to you, i know how awful it can be
844969
What you describe is a normal phenomena.  There are four states or stages of sleep- the first being simply a drousy state when you would still consider yourself awake, or very nearly so.  The second stage is when you no longer have conscious awareness of your surroundings, and will awaken fairly easily.  Just prior to the third stage, the brain immobilizes muscles in preparation for the third stage- dream or REM state.  This prevents or at least inhibits to a large degree- muscle movement, so you don't act out your dreams.  The 4th stage is a very deep state, which takes a bit to rouse from.  If you awaken during the transition into or out of 3rd stage sleep, it is usual to be disoriented and to feel somewhat frozen and out of control of your body.    The brain has to "reboot" everything to allow you to take full conscious control.  Normally this only takes a few seconds, and is why when you first wake you usually yawn and stretch before really feeling fully awake.  It should pass within a few seconds, as you return to complete waking state. \n  It isn't anything as exotic as astral travel or projection, it's a normal sleepy brain reaction.  You have simply become wakeful before the system fully booted.  It's happened to most people, usually if they are woken when they weren't expecting to be, or earlier than they they probably should be.
259159
Generally by taking an EEG (electroencephalogram) reading.  The brain patterns of a sleeping person are very different from the brain patterns of someone in a (trauma-induced) coma.
507587
sleep requires different levels of total relaxation of the body muscles (except the diaphragm and the ocular muscles, and i'm talking only skeletal, voluntrary muscles) as well as cortical de-synchronization. i bet you don't want to be standing up for this. have you ever seen a narcoleptic? they go straight into REM sleep which is the strongest point of this inhibition. the fall straight to the ground.
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Sort of. Sometimes I know when i'm dreaming and I try to wake myself up but I feel like I can't move or talk. I'll lay there for a few minutes struggling with myself until I finally snap out of it abruptly. It's really strange.
658754
Science doesn't know enough about how the brain works to predict the behavioral outcome in this situation.  Sometime people wake up perfectly fine mentally.  Other times, their brain function is seriously reduced.  It can alter personality, intellect, emotions, and physical ability.  If he wakes up, as hard as it might be, try to be patient and take your cue from him.  If he wants to be close to you, be supportive, but his stress level will make it hard for him to be there for you in an emotional sense and forcing the issue will only make things worse.  This is a very difficult situation, you have my sympathy.
787742
Welcome to the real world. All of us have a hard time waking up early in the morning. Some have a harder time than others. It takes discipline and self control to wake yourself up.
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I was told by a doctor that not getting to sleep was anxiety and waking up in the night was depression.  You will know if this is an issue within your life or a sleep disorder.  I think that counselling or something of that nature could help. \n I would also look at sleep hygene such as going to bed and waking up at the same time.  Just use your bedroom for sleep no tv or computer.  Keep a sleep journal there might be a pattern to your sleep and an activity(also look at what your eating, could there be something stimulating you there ie food intolerance, cola or drinks that has caffine, some times medication has caffine).  Try and eat earlier you are doing something energy intensive when your body is winding down.  Make sure your room is dark.  Have you tried those hynotherapy cds.  I have found them very helpful.\nI think if this is a long term issue for you then sometimes a doctor maybe be a port of call but do not let them put you on tablets if that is not what you want
343850
People sometimes wake themselves with their own snoring...