Sleep Disorders: What They Are and How to Recognize Them

Poor sleep is rarely "just tiredness" or a bad habit. Dr. Saulitis is clear: the inability to sleep normally is an alarm signal that must be taken seriously.

What a sleep disorder means in psychiatric terms

Insomnia and a persistent inability to get restorative sleep are a symptom, not a disease in their own right. Sleep disturbance is accompanied by the release of inflammatory substances — including interleukins and other inflammatory factors — which may be understood as a risk to brain health. When sleep breaks down, it signals a serious disruption of homeostasis that needs to be addressed at its root cause.

How to recognise a warning sign

The key feature is persistence: a sleep problem that does not resolve on its own, cannot be explained by a single stressful event, and continues over time. Particular attention is warranted when disturbed sleep is the only symptom present. According to Dr. Saulitis, this is precisely how serious conditions can begin — including schizophrenia — where a chronic inability to sleep normally may be the first and, for a long time, the only manifestation.

"The absence of sleep is a sign of a developing psychiatric disorder."

What to do — and what to avoid

If sleep is disrupted, do not wait: seek a professional evaluation. Two common but fundamentally wrong approaches to "self-managing" the problem:

• Alcohol — not a sedative. Alcohol misuse itself causes insomnia and only makes the condition worse.
• Unsupervised use of sleeping pills — benzodiazepines, for example, alter the architecture of sleep; in people with dementia or organic brain lesions, they can trigger states of confusion that persist into the morning and daytime hours.

"You should not waste time — get examined, and self-treating with alcohol is absolutely not recommended."

Why monitoring sleep matters

Healthy, restorative sleep is one of the most reliable indicators of mental well-being. A sleep disturbance is among the earliest and most clear-cut markers that something has gone wrong. The sooner the symptom is noticed and correctly interpreted, the greater the opportunity to address its underlying cause.