Do you have trouble sleeping at night because of strange or unpleasant sensations in your legs? Would you describe these sensations as creeping, pulling, itching, burning, throbbing, or any other uncomfortable feeling? Do your symptoms occur only when relaxing or trying to rest? Do these sensations cause an uncontrollable or overwhelming urge to move your legs to relieve your discomfort? If so, you may be suffering from restless leg syndrome.

Have you been told by your bedpartner that your legs move frequently while you sleep? Have you noticed that you're feeling tired during the day, even after you've had a full night's sleep? If so, it's possible that you may be suffering from periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD).

Do you find yourself having difficulty going to sleep because of chronic back pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia, or any other painful afflictions? Does the pain regularly wake you in the middle of the night, leaving you to stare at the ceiling, unable to return to sleep because of the constant aches in your body?

Roughly 100 million Americans suffer varying degrees of chronic pain, which is estimated to cost $600 billion a year in medical treatments and lost productivity at work (1). However, there is another cost of chronic pain that often goes unmentioned– the hours of lost sleep that are directly resulted from experiencing continuous pain.

There are more than 70 recognized sleep disorders that can plague people's nightly slumber. Many of these sleep disorders are caused by physiological problems, neurological disorders, medical problems, psychiatric troubles, environmental factors, and even disruptions to one's biological clock.

Unlike these other disorders, Insufficient sleep syndrome (commonly referred to as sleep restriction, sleep deprivation, and inadequate sleep) is a behavioral induced sleep disorder in which the sufferer simply fails to make adequate time for sufficient sleep.

You wake startled in the middle of the night, terrified from whatever nightmare you were just experiencing. You try to sit up, but discover that you can't move your body. You try turning your head in your wife's direction, hoping to get her attention, but quickly realize that not only can you not move any part of your body, but you can't even speak. Not so much as a whispered plea to your wife, a desperate entreaty to get her attention so that she can rouse you from this terrifying state.

We are living in a 24/7 global society in which many businesses, industries, and services around the world operate non-stop, which is great for production, customer satisfaction, and even safety.

We can hop on a jet at 1:00 a.m. to fly halfway around the world, we can visit a hospital at 1:30 a.m. to seek treatment for a bad case of the flu, we can head down to a convenient store at 2:00 a.m. to pick up a box of diapers, we can call tech support at 2:30 a.m. when our internet stops working, we can even hit the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant to get a late night snack at midnight.

Sleep plays a vital role in both your physical and mental health, from healing and repairing your heart and blood vessels, to building up your immune system to fend off disease. In other words, we absolutely need good sleep to stay healthy.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, active duty military personnel have a high prevalence of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and short sleep duration. Results also show that these sleep disorders lead to medical issues, such as depression, anxiety, and more.  With sleep research growing for active duty military personnel, many are getting the help they need through professional sleep clinics.

Sleepwalking is often portrayed in movies, on television, and even homemade Youtube clips in either one of two lights: hilariously funny or supernaturally terrifying. But for the sleepwalkers themselves and the loved ones they share a home with, the reality of sleepwalking may be found somewhere in the middle.