How to manage stress and parasomnia?

Question

Hello doctor,

I have been dealing with a lot of mental stress lately, and it is impacting my daily lifestyle. It has also impacted my sleep levels greatly, due to which I am not able to concentrate on anything. Please suggest tips to help me cope with this situation. Also, my wife says I exhibit some weird behavior during sleep. Am I having parasomnia? If yes, what do I do? Please guide me in detail about parasomnia.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I am so sorry to hear about your recent problems. Stress can affect the quality of life, attention, concentration, reactions and anger response, and sleep quality. When somebody's emotion and function are affected notably due to an identifiable stressor and it continues equal to or more than three months, with notable effect on the individual social or occupational function, it is called ‘adjustment disorder’.

You have not provided the data on when your stress-related problems started. So, I am not sure if I can make such a diagnosis or not. Given my diagnosis is correct, then you need psychotherapy to learn how to cope with your problem, and meanwhile, you need medication to help you correct your sleep problem.

In the majority of cases of adjustment disorder, learning how to cope with stress and correcting sleep deprivation with medication usually will improve concentration and occupational problems.

For psychotherapy and medical therapy, you will need consultations with a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

About your weird behavior during sleep time, I need to have a detailed description of what happens during your sleep and the frequency of occurrence of it to be able to conclude what is your sleep problem.

I hope this helps.

Thank you.

Regards.