Having Trouble Sleeping? on Orlando Medical News

Having Trouble Sleeping?

By: Rahul Dewan, MD

Posted: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 8:14 am

Sleep is an important part of your overall health.

Sleep disorders are usually easy to treat. However, if left untreated they can increase related health risks. You may recognize some of the symptoms of sleep disorders:

Snoring
Waking up feeling tired
Falling asleep during the day
High blood pressure
Stopped breathing or gasping for air during sleep
Neck size larger than 17 inches or being overweight

For proper diagnosis, most sleep disorder patients undergo a polysomnogram. This overnight sleep evaluation is a painless, non-evasive monitoring procedure performed in a sleep lab while the patient sleeps in a private, home-like setting.

A trained technician will record and monitor the patient's brain waves, eye movement, heart rate, muscle activity, breathing patterns, oxygen levels and body position during sleep. The information is then analyzed and interpreted by a physician specializing in sleep disorders.

The most common sleep disorder diagnosis is obstructive sleep apnea which is a pattern of breathing interruptions during sleep. In individual cases, it can occur as many as several hundred times a night, causing a shortage of oxygen and resulting in poor sleep quality. This common condition occurs in four out of every 100 men and two out of every 100 women and is often found in overweight patients due to the extra pressure on the airway.

Sleep apnea can result in more serious complications including:

Blood pressure fluctuations
Hypertension and other heart problems
Stroke
Fatigue-related automobile accidents
Decreased quality of life

Treatment for sleep apnea could be as simple as changing position, such as sleeping on your side instead of your back. One technique that has been effective is filling the pocket of a t-shirt with a tennis ball and wearing it backwards when you sleep. When you roll on your back, you will be prompted to change positions instantly.

Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea may be recommended for sleep masks and/or nasal prongs attached to a machine with a fan, mouthpieces, melatonin and other sleep aid pharmaceutical pills or, as a last resort, oral maxillary surgery to widen the wind pipe.

Talk to your physician if you are concerned that you or someone you know has trouble sleeping or staying asleep. Your doctor may refer the patient to a sleep lab or sleep specialist.

Sleep labs are also equipped to identify other sleep disorders including:

Narcolepsy ("sleep attacks") - an irresistible urge to fall asleep at any time of the day.
Nocturnal Myoclonus (Restless Leg Syndrome) - the twitching, sudden jerking movements or a "creepy crawly" feeling of the lower extremities during sleep. Sleep apnea may be a factor in the development of this condition.
Parasomnia - the medical term for sleepwalking but also includes sleep talking night terrors, recurrent nightmares and other related activities while sleeping.
Insomnia - a pattern of persistent difficulty falling asleep or waking earlier than normal.
Gastroesophageal reflux ("heartburn") - may result in insomnia or poor sleep quality.

Rahul Dewan, MD, is Board Certified in neurology and sleep medicine by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Dewan specializes in sleep medicine, Parkinson's, epilepsy, neuropathies and stroke at Health Central. He also performs electroencephalograms (EEGs) and electromyography (EMG) for diagnosing of various neurological disorders.

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