What’s messing with your sleep?

It’s not just insomnia. It could be a lesserknown sleep disorder that you don’t even know you have. By SASHA GONZALES

Arecent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians saw model Kendall Jenner reveal her fear of going to sleep because of a condition called sleep paralysis. “I wake up in the middle of the night and I can’t move,” she said in the reality TV show.

It can be frightening. “Sleep paralysis renders a person unable to speak or move just as they are about to fall asleep, or while they are transitioning to the wakeful state,” says Dr Cheryl Kam, a family physician at Mint Medical Centre, who has an interest in sleep disorders.

But sleep paralysis is actually a fairly common sleep disorder, affecting four in 10 people. There are others with less obvious symptoms, which make them harder to spot. to deteriorate because of psychological factors, among other things.

It’s more common in women, as well as people who have depressive traits, or who have a lot of mental stimulation before bedtime. It can be diagnosed through an overnight sleep study, where brainwave activity will indicate whether you have slept.

Treatment:

It can be managed with medication and cognitive behavioural therapy – which coaxes the body into uninterrupted sleep and minimises the anxiety that can come with the condition.