Cerebral Palsy: Causes of Sleep Problems

Cerebral palsy is a congenital illness that is characterized by several motor disorders such as movement impairment. People with cerebral palsy experience difficulty in making movements because of poor muscle coordination and control. Because of muscle spasms, sleeping may not be an easy task for the person suffering from this illness. Getting some rest may be difficult but it’s definitely workable. Craftmatic Adjustable Bed, an advocate of better sleep, presents these causes of sleep problems in people with cerebral palsy.

Let us identify the top reasons why cerebral palsy patients have sleep problems. First on the list is muscle spasticity. As mentioned earlier, there is a great and constant deal of muscle spasms. This reduces the ability of the body to obtain relaxation. The body is almost always on a stiff position. Apparently, sleep only comes to bodies that are in a relaxed state. Intense muscle spasm and involuntary motor movements hinder the onset of sleep.

Sufferers of cerebral palsy also suffer from breathing difficulties since muscles also control breathing. The diaphragm is a major controller of breathing and it is a skeletal muscle. As we know, you cannot sleep well if you cannot breathe well. If luckily you are able to sleep, sudden gasping for air during the night will naturally wake and keep you up. This is more commonly called sleep apnoea. A person with sleep apnoea pauses his breathing involuntarily for five to thirty times in an hour at an average. An adjustable bed may help in preventing sleep apnoea by maintaining an upright position.

Another cause of sleep problems in people with cerebral palsy is the continuously active digestive system. Normally, when a person sleeps, the brain tells the digestive system to slow down its activity because it has nothing to digest. But in cerebral palsy patients where muscles are always overly active, the digestive system keeps working.  This can cause continuous digestion and constant swallowing during the night which conversely impedes sleep.

Apart from the condition itself, cerebral palsy may have complications that prevent the patient from getting his rest. An example of this is epilepsy. A person with the condition may experience episodes of seizure from time to time, mostly at night. This is an obvious cause of sleep problem. To add to this, the preventive medications of epilepsy may keep the person awake. Massages from an adjustable bed and the right mattress may help relax the muscles and prevent seizures and spasms.

A lot of environmental factors may as well contribute to a person’s ability to sleep. An example of this is the room’s lighting. Who sleeps well with bright lights on anyway? Cerebral palsy sufferers must sleep in a dark or dim-lighted room to induce sleep. Flashing lights and constantly changing brightness is a big contributing factor to a seizure episode. Additionally, a chilly temperature may give the person shivers and wake him up. A heated mattress or a built-in mattress heating in an adjustable bed may eliminate this factor.

People who suffer from cerebral palsy can be very sensitive to a lot of things. Proper care and preparation should be implemented to help them get proper sleep. Letting them sleep on adjustable beds may be a good start in giving them the adequate sleep they need.