They found that more than half of the participants reported significant consequences from nighttime teeth grinding, such as muscular discomfort upon awakening and greater need for dental work. In the long run, sleep bruxism may damage the structure surrounding the teeth, cause inflammation of the gums and provoke premature loss of teeth. Researchers say that it is not clear why some people grind their teeth during sleep and others do not. Many factors have been proposed to explain it but no one is dominant. What is clear, however, is that high consumption of coffee, alcohol, and tobacco increases the risk of grinding teeth during sleep.
Stress also plays an important role in teeth grinding.
According to researchers, sleep bruxism is a real sleep disorder in the category of parasomnias. They include insomnia, hypersomnia, and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. They include sleep bruxism, sleep walking, sleep talking, nightmares, and sleep paralysis. David Rapoport, MD, an associate professor of clinical medicine and medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at New York University in New York City, says that the findings help raise the awareness of a common sleep disorder that was largely overlooked in the past. It may account for a significant amount of the sleep related complaints people report.