Learn about your sleep

Learn about your sleep

Discover surprising facts about sleep, some lesser-known sleep disorders, a guide to sleep routines and hygiene, as well as a variety of content that can help you sleep better.

Sleep disorders screening test
Learn about your sleep

5 surprising facts about sleep

Do you have trouble sleeping well?
Sleep Hygiene

Sleep Hygiene

Our respiratory therapists can guide you toward better sleep through our sleep hygiene program. Our sleep experts will take the time to analyze your lifestyle habits and sleep hygiene to provide personalized advice and action plans for improved sleep. You'll also have the option to be referred to a program for insomnia or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I).

Download the guide

Other sleep disorders

Insomnia

Bruxism

Periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS)

Restless legs syndrome (RLS)

Idiopathic hypersomnia

Hormonal changes and sleep

Major disruptions

trouble-du-sommeil-adolescents
  • Hormonal changes that take place during adolescence lead to a delay in the biological clock. As a result, teenagers tend to stay up late and get up late.
    • There appears to be a clear link between success at school and the time when classes begin. The earlier classes begin, the higher the rate of students who drop out.
    • Some teenagers will remain night owls for their entire lives.
troubles-du-sommeil-ménopause
  • Among other things, the production of estrogen and progesterone helps maintain muscle tone in the airways. At menopause, with the decline of these hormones, this protection decreases, resulting in the prevalence of sleep apnea doubling for this age group. Another contributing factor is that women tend to gain weight after menopause, building up more fatty tissue in the neck, which can lead to obstruction of the airways.
  • Menopause also causes a major increase in sympathetic activity. This activation is accompanied by the release of cortisol (the stress hormone) which creates a state of hypervigilance, therefore interfering with sleep.
troubles-sommeil-vieille-femme-dort
  • As we get older, the signals that our biological clock sends to the brain to wake up or fall asleep diminish over time. Part of the problem is a drop in body temperature that happens earlier in the evening for elderly people. A lower body temperature is related to sleepiness. As a result, older people often go to bed very early and get up very early as well.
    • Sleeping continuously is no longer as easy, and afternoon naps are common among older adults.
  • Although we might think older people sleep less, they actually need the same number of hours of sleep per day, on average, as people in the prime of their lives.

Discover our advice for a complete sleep care program.