Page 48 - Demo

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
THE COMPLEMENTARY APPROACH
Complementary approaches to sleep disorders
BY DR LIZA OATES
Sleep disorders present in different ways for different people. At any given time between 5% and 15% of the population will experience insomnia,1 and around 85% of people will report some sleep disturbance over the course of a year.2 For many, the sleep disturbance will be transient and self-resolving. For some however, sleep disorders can become entrenched and have a substantial impact upon quality of life.
Insomnia is characterised by chronic dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality despite having adequate opportunity to sleep. It may be associated with difficulty falling asleep (sleep onset latency), frequent night-time awakenings with difficulty returning to sleep (sleep maintenance), and/or waking earlier than desired.1 For some sleep quantity is not impaired but they report feeling ‘unrefreshed’ on waking despite adequate sleep time (non-restorative sleep).
Insomnia is associated with worsened health-related quality of life and health outcomes in both adults and children.3 Insomnia may result in significant distress and/or impaired function including daytime sleepiness, impaired cognitive performance, and mood disturbances.1 Sleep disorders frequently present as a comorbid condition in depression, anxiety, and pain; and short sleep duration and poor sleep quality have been linked to increased risk of depression, cardiometabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular and coronary heart disease.1,4
Sleep disorders are particularly common among older people with as many
as 50% reporting difficulty falling and/or remaining asleep.5 Even in children insomnia is common, with 27% experiencing intermittent insomnia and
4% experiencing persistent sleep disturbance. The prevalence is higher in preschool children, affecting around 36% and influencing behaviour and mood. Approximately 20% of primary school aged children experience insomnia,
Liza Oates, PhD, GradCert Evid-based CompMed, BHSc (Naturopathy), is a naturopathic practitioner and mentor based in East Malvern, Victoria. She is the course co-ordinator for ‘Food as Medicine’ and ‘Wellness Practices & Perspectives’at RMIT University; and has taught ‘Nutrition’, ‘Complementary Medicine in Chronic Diseases’ and ‘Health Enhancement’ to naturopathic and medical students.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this article, pharmacists should be able to:
• Identify complementary approaches that may be recommended
to treat or prevent sleep disorders
• Identify contraindications and precautions associated with
complementary medicines used in sleep disorders
• Counsel consumers on the appropriate way of incorporating
complementary approaches to improve sleep disorders.
Competencies addressed: 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.4.1, 2.1.1, 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.2.1, 6.2.2, 6.2.3, 6.3.3, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.4, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.3.2.
Accreditation number: CAP1701C
46 Australian Pharmacist January 2017 I ©Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Ltd.
This article has been independently researched and peer reviewed.