In my forum and in letters I receive in my email, I see the same beginning:
"I have sleep apnea and ……" "I suffer from insomniaand…………." I have narcolepsy. I also suffer from……………" You fill in the blanks. It may be another sleep disorder or it may be a completely (apparently) unrelated disorder or disease. But seldom do I hear from someone who is afflicted with one unaccompanied disorder.
I have two co-hosts who assist me in my chat room. Nancy has sleep apnea plus numerous other disorders. Conrad suffers from both narcolepsy and sleep apnea. They are definitely not exceptions to the rule, as a visit to one of my chats or to my forum will prove.
Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia often go hand in hand, and either or both can cause another sleep disorder - insomnia. Nightmares, night terrors and sleep paralysisare often brought on by some underlying cause that is disrupting sleep.
Recent research has discovered a link between hypothyroidism and sleep disorders, in particular sleep apnea. Epilepsy has also been linked to sleep apnea, as have heart disease and strokes..
Another study has recently revealed the fact that adults diagnosed with attention deficit disorder may actually be victims of sleep apnea. Your ADD Guide, Eileen Bailey,has that story.
As any of you who are regular readers or who have read my bioknow, my husband had sleep apnea and it was a contributing factor to the heart attack that took his life three years ago. He also had nocturnal eating syndromeand diabetes.
Why does this happen? Why the multiple afflictions? To the best of my knowledge, no single cause has ever been established. I would speculate, though, that some of these disorders are closely associated and spring from the same source, be it a nervous disorder, a mutant gene or a weakness somewhere in the system.
Some of these disorders and diseases, however, don't appear to have a rational connection.Still, they appear together time after time. This may be because, and this is my personal opinion only, one disorder weakens the body - perhaps the immune system or the nervous system, to such an extent that other afflictions find it easy to gain access.
