Custom Abnormal Psychology essay paper sample

Primary Insomnia

In primary insomnia there is no direct cause of sleeplessness related to environmental causes or medical reasons. The problem is brought about by the affected individual having had prolonged periods of non-restorative sleep going up to a month or difficulty sustaining sleeping time. Sometimes long periods of fatigue, distress and proper functioning can be an outcome to lack of sleep if the disorder is primary insomnia (Pressman, 2000).

Primary Hypersomnia

This is a sleep disorder that is characterised by heavy sleep at all times. People with this problem tend to sleep even during the day while in their normal work schedules or while eating. This disorder is caused by depression, brain damage and uremia and is classified as a symptom of other sleep disorders given under dyssomnias. Another cause is as a factor of withdrawal symptoms from drug related medications which make the person under treatment recline to long periods of sleep (Chokroverty, 2009).

Narcolepsy

This disorder is characterised by EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness) whereby the patient falls asleep inappropriately as a factor of disturbed night sleep. An abnormal feature with narcoleptics is that they experience rapid eye movement within the 10 minutes of sleep instead of 90 minutes. This disorder is caused by a lack of proper neural control of sleep that renders individuals seem like they have a seizure (Chokroverty, 2009).

Breathing-Related Sleep Disorder

This disorder is characterised by a lack of sleep due to poor breathing patterns. People with this disorder find their sleep disrupted during the night hence affecting their daytime functioning. The breathing problems can be as a result of snoring or inability to breathe properly while sleeping. This may be caused by being overweight leading to the apnea syndrome or if not overweight can result from a tonsils infection and large adenoids which disrupt proper breathing during sleep time (Chokroverty, 2009).

Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder

People with this disorder have a weakness in dictating their waking up time for normal activity which can be going to work or school. Although they have quality sleep during sleeping hours, their circadian rhythms influence their waking time greatly. The cause for this can be attributed to the inability to set the biological waking and sleep cycle that works in tandem with the environmental time changes. This makes this condition classified as behavioural problem where individuals fail to respond to physiological and physical factors (Pressman, 2000).