Are you suffering from sleep deprivation? If you have trouble getting to sleep, wake up in between short naps, get up way too early in the morning and end up feeling tired through the day, then you are indeed suffering from sleep deprivation.

More than 25 per cent of working adults suffer from this syndrome and the first thing that a patient suffering from sleep deprivation should do is to find out the cause for it.

Carolyn Shur, a sleep and fatigue management specialist has founded the Associated Sleep Services in Saskatook, Canada. She was quoted as saying in the Vancouver Sun that insomnia is the most common disorder that cases sleep deprivation.

More than two-thirds of those suffering from less sleep can be classified as insomnia patients. Of course, it is another matter that excessive fatigue and sleeplessness sometimes gets classified as insomnia.

Experts believe that insomnia cannot be treated as just one entity but as an indicator of other ailments related to sleep disorders. People with high anxiety levels find it hard to settle down to sleep at night and present a marked likeness to insomniacs.

Trauma is yet another cause for sleep deprivation and it is only through calming of the nerves that such patients can get to sleep. Another such disorder relates to sleep apnea where the air passage is blocked by the soft palate collapsing into the back of the throat.

This results in heavy snoring or even momentary blockage of breathing. Such stoppages, known in medical terms as episodes, can happen 10 to 100 times each hour and up to 300 times every night. Patients of sleep apnea report day long tiredness and stress.

The oxygen levels drop in such patients and in some serious form of apnea could result in high blood pressure and cardiac problems. The only way people suffering from sleep disorders can get proper treatment is to first make the right diagnosis.

This can only be done through use of overnight studies that monitor oxygen and heart rates, in addition to measuring chest and abdomen expansion.