Should I talk to my doctor about my sleep disorder symptoms?
If you're having trouble sleeping, it's key to talk to your doctor—but do your homework first, advises sleep medicine expert Dr. Carol Ash. Find out how to get the best help for your sleep disorder symptoms by watching the video.
Transcript
And typically, the doctor will prescribe a prescription medication without looking for the root cause. And you have to look for the root cause.
It's like having pain and not investigating why is the pain there in the first place. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Unfortunately, it's not uncommon when someone presents with a sleep problem to go to their doctor and not really get the answers that they need
to really solve the problem. Sleep problems can be very complex. We just assume we close our eyes and open our eyes
in the morning, and sleep is happening, but there's a very complex set of neural circuits that are important to maintaining good quality sleep.
And so when you go to your doctor and complain of a sleep problem, you want to make sure, write down when you're waking up
at night, when you're having difficulty falling asleep or finding that your sleep is disrupted, you want to keep a notebook at the side of your bed
and take some notes. So the very first thing you should be able to tell your doctor is, why do you think you're not sleeping well at night?
It may be pain. It may be anxiety or stress. So if you could go armed with that information, it'll help your doctor to focus better on the proper treatment
that you need, and not move directly to a sleeping pill because unfortunately, people will say,
I can't sleep at night, and typically, the doctor will prescribe a prescription medication without looking for the root cause.
And you have to look for the root cause. It's like having pain and not investigating, why is the pain there in the first place?
So you want to, again, try and do your own homework, a little bit of investigation. Why am I not sleeping at night?
There's also some devices you can get, over-the-counter devices that actually track your sleep nowadays, the home gadgets.
And if you can't get access to those, write it down in a notebook, bring the information to your doctor, and try and avoid the sleeping pills to start out and use some
of the natural substances that may help bridge you over to better sleep while you're working on finding better solutions.
sleep disorders
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