Conditions & Treatments
Beyond an occasional night when you might have trouble falling asleep, sleep disorders can affect your health and well-being more than most people realize. With at least 84 known types of sleep disorders, people who have sleep disorders experience diminished health, a lower quality of life and can become public safety risks due to the effects on driving and industrial accidents.
Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder, but there are as many as 80 other conditions that can affect the quality of your sleep and health. Inova's sleep disorder experts can help you address these pressing and potentially life-threatening conditions.
Common sleep disorders
Inova's sleep specialists evaluate patients while they sleep to identify sleep disorders such as:
- Sleep apnea
Apnea literally means "absence of breath" and is often associated with loud snoring or pauses in breathing during sleep. Sleep apnea is the most common cause of daytime sleepiness.
- Narcolepsy
This under-diagnosed but very prevalent sleep disorder is characterized by the sudden onset of sleep while active and by muscle weakness during strong emotion.
- Restless leg syndrome (RLS)
Sufferers of RLS experience unpleasant sensations in the legs and have an irresistible urge to move around when the sensations occur.
- Parasomnias
This broad category includes such difficulties as sleep walking and rapid eye movement (REM) behavioral disorders. Insomnia Insomnia is the inability to fall asleep. It takes many forms, has many causes and is treated in a variety of ways.
Learn more about common sleep disorders from our online health library 
Symptoms
If you or someone you care for suffers from one or more of the following symptoms, it may be the cause or the result of a sleep disorder.
- Daytime fatigue
- Daytime sleepiness
- Low energy levels
- Waking up feeling tired
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritability
- Personality changes
- Weight gain
- Reflux (heartburn)
- Snoring
- Difficulty sleeping
- Chronic pain
- Feeling the need to sleep more than 7-8 hours a day
- Frequent accidents
- Jittery legs
- Mild to severe depression
- Decreased sexual desire
- Nightmares
- Sleepwalking
- Bed wetting
- Sleep-time anxiety
- High blood pressure
- Heart problems
- Stroke
Treatment options
We offer a variety of treatments for sleep apnea, based on your symptoms and treatment preferences:
- CPAP/BIPAP therapy
- Behavior and lifestyle changes
- Oxygen administration
- Physical or mechanical therapy
- Surgery
Diagnosing a sleep disorder
In diagnosing a sleep disorder, we take into consideration which of the many symptoms you may experience, day or night. Read more about diagnostic tests, including sleep study