Vim & Vigor - Winter 2020 - UVA - 23

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Feeling
Anxious?
Think
Differently

That stigma probably comes from the perception of narcolepsy in pop culture, which
focuses on cataplexy, or attacks that cause
a sudden loss of muscle tone when awake.
("Imagine someone plopping their head into
a bowl of cereal," Dasgupta says.)
Such attacks, usually brought on by intense
emotions, are among the symptoms of narcolepsy. Other symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness, hallucinations, sleep paralysis
(lost ability to move for a few seconds or
minutes when falling asleep or waking up),
disturbed nighttime sleep and memory
problems, the American Academy of Sleep
Medicine says.
"Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological
disorder," Dasgupta says. "People are awake

You find it hard to relax
and regularly feel your
heart race, although
you're not exerting yourself. Sometimes you feel
a sense of panic or find
yourself worrying all the
time and unable to sleep.
Sound familiar? These may
be signs that you are experiencing anxiety, one of
the most common mental
health disorders.
People prone to anxiety tend to think about
situations negatively. You
can lessen anxiety by
learning to think in new
ways, research shows.
The University of Virginia
MindTrails Project offers
training programs to help
promote healthier thinking
patterns for people who
have anxiety and other
emotional difficulties.
UVA MindTrails
researchers are testing
which training programs
work best for different
people and problem areas.
By participating in this
research, you can not
only help yourself, but
also help improve these
programs for others. From
your smartphone, tablet
or computer, you can
do the program's five
15- to 20-minute sessions over the course of
five weeks.

when they should be sleeping, and when they
should be sleeping, they are awake."
To diagnose narcolepsy, doctors will perform an in-lab sleep study.
Treatment options include lifestyle adjustments such as maintaining a consistent sleep
schedule, stimulants to help people stay awake
during the day, and antidepressants to treat
cataplexy and other symptoms.

Circadian Rhythm Disorders

Circadian rhythms are your body's internal
clock telling you when to feel sleepy and when
to wake up. These signals respond to light and
darkness around you.
If you've ever flown to a faraway place and
had trouble adjusting to the time zone there,
you've experienced a type of circadian rhythm
disorder: jet lag. Your body wants to go to
bed at your usual time, which doesn't sync up
with bedtime in your new location. Jet lag is
a temporary condition that should resolve on
its own, when you adjust to the new time zone
or return to your usual time zone.
Other conditions are more long term:
delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, which
affects people who typically can't fall asleep
until well after midnight but sleep until late
morning or early afternoon; advanced sleepwake phase disorder, which is present among
so-called "early birds" who tend to go to bed
between 6 and 9 p.m. and wake up between
2 and 5 a.m.; and shift work disorder, which
occurs in people who work during times their
body tells them they should be sleeping.
People with sleep-wake phase disorders do
well when they align their lifestyles and work
around their internal body clocks. For example, if you normally stay up late, try not to
plan early-morning appointments.
Besides lifestyle changes, treatment includes
light therapy for help staying awake and sleep
medications and melatonin supplements for
help getting to sleep. *

A Free Program
to Find Your Calm

Learning healthier thinking patterns can
help relieve negative thoughts that might
keep you up at night. Find free training from
UVA researchers at mindtrails.virginia.edu.

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http://mindtrails.virginia.edu

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2020 - UVA

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