Very much more common than most people realize is the best answer to this question. The national prevalence has been established for only one specific disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, at 24 percent of adult males and 9 percent of adult females. Restless legs syndrome has been estimated to afflict at least 12 million Americans. A recent Gallup Poll has established a national prevalence of 14 percent for chronic insomnia.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
My list includes obstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, chronic insomnia, and the violent parasomnias. Though less common, I also include sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), narcolepsy, and Fatal Familial Insomnia. SIDS manifests as a single catastrophic event and narcolepsy often reaches its full severity in a relatively short time. Fatal Familial insomnia, a genetically transmitted disease, inevitable causes death about one year after its onset, but is extremely rare.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
Sleep specialists currently diagnose 88 specific disorders, all of which (with two exceptions) were discovered and characterized since 1970 when the world’s first sleep disorders clinic opened at Stanford. Some are both very common and very serious. Altogether, at least three quarters of all adults have one or more diagnosable sleep disorder. This makes the continuing failure of the health professions to address this clinical area effectively all the more amazing and sad.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
It is absolutely clear that individuals all fall asleep, wake up, and deny having been asleep. In sleep deprivation situations, there can be microsleeps which subjects deny.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
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