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Care of the Patient with a Sleep Disorder

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Family Medicine

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Abstract

Sleep is a periodically recurring physiologic state of lessened responsiveness from which one can be readily awakened. Quality and quantity of sleep vary with age. Newborns sleep an average of 16 hours each day in randomly fragmented fashion. As an individual matures, sleep usually coalesces into a single prolonged nighttime period, with an average length of 7 to 8 hours in adults. A few individuals function well with as little as 4 hours per day, whereas others require 10 hours or more. Transition into older adulthood produces a gradual increase in total daily sleep time. By age 90 the average is nearly 9 hours per day. In addition, older adults often take longer to fall asleep, take daytime naps, experience more frequent awakenings, and spend less time in the deep states of sleep.1 A wide variety of disorders can interfere with normal sleep patterns.

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Authors
  1. Thomas A. Johnson Jr.
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  2. James J. Deckert
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR, 97201, USA

    Robert B. Taylor M.D. (Professor and Chairman) (Professor and Chairman)

  2. Department of Family Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

    Alan K. David M.D. (The Fred Lazarus, Jr., Professor and Director) (The Fred Lazarus, Jr., Professor and Director)

  3. Department of Family Medicine, St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, St. Louis, MO, 63141, USA

    Thomas A. Johnson Jr. M.D. (Chairman) (Chairman)

  4. Department of Family Medicine, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Jackson, MS, 39216, USA

    D. Melessa Phillips M.D. (Professor and Chairman) (Professor and Chairman)

  5. Department of Family Medicine, University of California—Irvine College of Medicine, Orange, CA, 92697, USA

    Joseph E. Scherger M.D., M.P.H. (Associate Dean for Primary Care and Chair) (Associate Dean for Primary Care and Chair)

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Johnson, T.A., Deckert, J.J. (1998). Care of the Patient with a Sleep Disorder. In: Taylor, R.B., David, A.K., Johnson, T.A., Phillips, D.M., Scherger, J.E. (eds) Family Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2947-4_56

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2947-4_56

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-2949-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2947-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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