"I spend several days at a time without enough sleep. At first, normal activities become annoying. When you are too tired to eat, you really need some sleep. A few days later, things become strange. Loud noises become louder and more startling, familiar sounds become unfamiliar, and life reinvents itself as a surrealist dream."

 –Henry Rollins

People suffering from sleep loss may not realize just how many causes to their sleep troubles are out there.

External factors, personal choices, other people, medical conditions, and sleep disorders can all work independently or jointly to rob you of much needed sleep.

Here we compile a list of the most common sets of sleep disturbances that may be causing you to ask "why can't I sleep?"

Most likely you have a favorite sleep position. For most of us, this is the first position in which we lay after getting into bed.  It’s usually our most comfortable position, and most likely the position you’ve been sleeping in for years.

Have you ever thought that your favorite sleeping position may be affecting your sleep? And if so, are there better positions to enhance your sleep?

More Americans are overweight or obese today than ever before. This upward shift in weight has been triggered across the board by easier access to food and, over the course of the last two decades, a movement toward sedentary jobs. PublicHealth.org also notes that fast food, which makes up more than 10% of the average American’s diet, has played a major role in the obesity epidemic.

Trying to cut out sugar?

Getting a good night’s sleep could be your answer.

Despite much research, how sleep, ADHD, medication and other disorders are related remains uncertain. Scientists are working to develop a clearer idea how the different regions of the brain interact and overlap for attention, sleep and functioning.

November is National Diabetes Month and Alaska Sleep Clinic is dedicating this month’s blog posts to raising awareness for diabetic complications and how they correlate with sleep disorders and overall tiredness.

SLEEP PROBLEMS AND SNORING MAY PREDICT DIABETES

Studies have shown that individuals who consistently have a bad night's sleep are more likely to develop conditions linked to diabetes and heart disease.

With Memorial Weekend right around the corner, it's impossible to deny that summer is officially here. The sun is shinning longer and brighter during the day, the birds are singing sweetly, and the flowers and trees are in full bloom.

And while there's no denying the absolute beauty of a warm early-summer afternoon, nearly 1/3 of Americans associate this period as a time to dread: allergy season.

The field of sleep medicine is constantly evolving as more research is being conducted to better understand the symptoms, causes, and best treatments for sleep disorders. Organizations such as the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) have been at the forefront in advancing the field since 1970.

Throughout the decades as more research and studies were conducted, the amount of sleep disorders being discovered began to rapidly increase. In 1990 The AASM, along with other professional societies including the European Sleep Research Society, The Japanese Society of Sleep Research, and the Latin American Sleep Society published the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD), which is a "primary diagnostic, epidemiological, and coding resource for clinicians and researchers in the field of sleep and sleep medicine."

We all crave a full night's sleep and recognize it's amazing benefits to our body and mind. Unfortunately for many people, the need for a good night's sleep often gets left unsatisfied. Whether it's due to work, school, or activities demands; gets sacrificed for social, personal, or entertainment reasons; or is a side effect of a medical condition or sleep disorder, a staggering number of people are still getting less sleep than their body and mind need to function adequately.

If good rest is necessary to function sufficiently during the day, but a large percentage of people aren't getting enough sleep, then what happens when sleep gets deprived for too long? What are the adverse effects of sleep deprivation?

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.