Chronically disturbed sleep is common in the United States - nearly 40% of Americans sleep six hours or less per night. While the inability to sleep can become normalized through everyday conversation, the consequences of spending insufficient time are significant decreases in daily performance, mood, and health. Frequent or pronounced disturbances in sleep-wake cycles, which comprise a range of conditions called sleep disorders, are often associated with symptoms specific to the affliction. The impact of sleep disorders on an affected individual, therefore, is the manifestation of the condition through psychiatric symptoms, which often worsens the disorder, resulting in a bi-directional, complex relationship - an essential connection.
Findings in Insomnia Disorder and Narcolepsy
In Insomnia Disorder and Narcolepsy, for example, individuals are at a high risk of depression and anxiety due to altered brain-organ response and changes in standard activation of regulatory neurotransmitters. A study conducted by Mak et al. found a three-fold increase in the risk for patients to develop anxiety and depression with Insomnia Disorder, and the same study found that 20% to 30% of individuals with narcolepsy had depression and anxiety. Preliminary clinical trials provide evidence of an association between the emergence of anxiety and disorder in patients with insomnia or hypersomnolence, but are insufficient to develop proper care models that are crucial in managing manifestations and optimizing patient outcomes. On the outside, these increased risks prevent consistently-applied and controlled nighttime routines, increasing sleep disturbances. Future research can expand on the underlying mechanisms and establish effective strategies for evaluating condition-specific comorbidities along with the consideration of medical intervention.
Implications for the clinical practice
Implementing interventions and strategies against malignant sleep-wake patterns should be integrated into clinical practice: encouraging patient control, these methods lead to gradual improvement of health over time. This would include early recognition of sleep disorders and diagnosis of the type when applicable, targeted treatment based on evidence-based research such as expansive randomized controlled trials (RCT's), and continued evaluation on medication/drug effects including the impact of the use of substances. Future discoveries on the ultimate pathways that cause sleep disorders can improve diagnostic accuracy; Research on disorder-expression relationship can provide insight into preventing cyclic-recurrences and reducing risk of manifestations. Implementing efficacious solutions that match with consistent measures of symptomatic remission and functional improvement is a plausible approach toward addressing the range of conditions associated with sleep disorders; care models that incorporate the complex, bi-directional relationship between an individualized condition and expression, if aligned with with enhanced awareness, can drastically improve sleep quality and make the inability to sleep, and its consequences, less prevalent.
References:
Holder S, Narula NS. Common Sleep Disorders in Adults: Diagnosis and Management. Am Fam Physician. 2022;105(4):397-405.
National Institutes of Health, NICHD (2019) About Sleep. Retrived August 21, 2025, from https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/sleep/conditioninfo
National Institutes of Health, NHLBI (2022) What Is Insomnia?. Retrieved August 21, 2025, from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/insomnia
Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al. Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Sleep. 2015;38(6):843-844.
