What is Sleep Medicine?
In its most basic form, Sleep Medicine is a medical sub specialty such as Cardiology. The Sleep Medicine physician must do a 2-3 year fellowship in sleep disorders where he/she is trained to identify and treat sleep disorders.
Being treated for a sleep condition can positively impact every aspect of your life! Getting enough high quality sleep each night is one of the most important things we can do to improve our overall health. One way to do this is make sure to seek medical help when we notice something is off with our regular sleep patterns.
Sleep disorders can wreak havoc on both your mental and physical health. Untreated sleep disorders can increase your risk of accidents, frequency of headaches, cause poor concentration throughout the day, and negatively impact pre-existing mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. It can also cause more tangible problems with your health, such as increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetic attacks, and even heart disease.
Seeking treatment from a qualified sleep disorder specialist can help you pinpoint where any sleep-related issues are coming from and develop a treatment plan to combat a variety of sleep disorders.
Common Sleep Disorders and Treatments
There are a few sleep disorders that are more common than the rest, and we have become experts in treating them. Each sleep disorder may manifest differently in different people, but there are the 5 most common sleep disorders and our basic treatment plan for each.
Insomnia
Insomnia is broken down into two categories: Primary and Secondary. Primary Insomnia is the more common condition for us to treat, and it just means that a patient is having trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep throughout the night. Secondary Insomnia has the same effect on the body, but it is caused by a pre-existing health condition.
Because Primary Insomnia can be caused by a number of external factors, each treatment plan must be tailored to the patient and whatever stressors seem to be causing their sleepless nights. Whether it is being caused by a hormonal imbalance or caffeine consumption, the trick is to neutralize the imbalance in a patient’s body to restore a healthy sleep pattern.
Sleep Apnea
Sleep Apnea is a condition in which patients experience abnormal breathing while they sleep. This is a dangerous sleep condition, if left untreated. Severe sleep apnea can lead to chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, heart problems, liver problems, metabolic syndrome, and even diabetes. This condition may affect patients of all different ages, but especially very young and elderly patients. Premature infants are especially likely to experience sleep apnea, because of undeveloped neuro pathways between the brain and the lungs. Children are also susceptible to this disorder because of oversized tonsils blocking airways. Many elderly patients have likely been unknowingly living with sleep apnea for years without complications, only for the condition to be exacerbated by a different medical condition or medication.
Sleep apnea is treated with a combination of tools to regulate a patients’ breathing while they sleep. Treatment might include a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine or a medical specialized mouth guard, both to be worn throughout the night. While they may take some time to grow accustomed to wearing, both are invaluable tools in the treatment of sleep apnea.
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a condition in which patients experience “sleep attacks” or extreme episodes of daytime drowsiness. In many cases, patients suffering from narcolepsy are unable to remain awake throughout these sleep attacks, regardless of the activity they are doing at the time. This could put the patient in a great deal of danger if they are doing any number of activities such as driving, operating heavy machinery, or even eating. Car accidents and choking is not an uncommon result in narcolepsy-related sleep attacks. For this reason, narcolepsy can be one of the most dangerous sleep disorders, if left untreated.
Iti is unclear what causes narcolepsy, and there is currently no cure, but there are many treatments that successfully manage the symptoms of this condition. When you receive a narcolepsy diagnosis, your sleep medicine specialist should immediately begin working with you to recommend some lifestyle changes that may improve irregular sleep patterns or even medications to manage daytime drowsiness.
Parasomnias
Parasomnias are a category of disruptive sleep disorders that includes some of the most disruptive sleep behaviors, such as sleep walking, sleep talking, night terrors, sleep paralysis, and abnormal movements. These different conditions are common in patients of all ages and can be extremely detrimental to their sleep patterns.
Parasomnias may be caused by external factors such as stress or an irregular sleep-wake schedule, but it may also be caused by medical factors such as infection, fever, new medication, or a different disruptive sleep disorder. Because of the wide array of causes, it is important to seek medical attention if disruptive sleep behaviors persist for more than a couple of nights as it might be a symptom of a much more serious problem.
Restless Legs Syndrome
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is a condition in which patients experience a chronic, uncontrollable urge to move their legs often because of “ghost” feelings of burning, crawling, itching, or throbbing. Patients report that the feeling persists until they move their legs around, often having to get up and walk around. Even if the patient’s sleep pattern is not broken entirely by the movement of their legs, the quality of sleep diminishes with the constant feeling of discomfort. This experience is called “sleep fragmentation” and can cause many harmful side effects such as anxiety, depressive episodes, and chronic fatigue.
There is no documented cause for RLS, but there seems to be a genetic factor, especially in patients who experience symptoms of the condition earlier in life. Regardless, RLS can often be treated with simple diet or lifestyle changes. IF the symptoms persist, the muscle movement itself can be treated with medication prescribed by your sleep medicine professional.
The Sleep Disorder Diagnosis Process
If you are experiencing disrupted sleep patterns, seeking proper medical attention is crucial. There are a wide variety of sleep conditions that can only be properly diagnosed and treated by a trained medical professional. Some of these sleep disorders are mildly inconvenient, while others pose a serious risk to your safety and well-being. Finding out which is causing your sleep problems is a serious matter. The best thing you can do for yourself or your loved one who may be experiencing trouble falling or staying asleep, daytime fatigue, loud snoring, consistent night terrors, sleep walking, or bedwetting is to contact a sleep medicine specialist and schedule an appointment as soon as possible.
The diagnosis process may span several appointments as different concerns are confirmed or eliminated. Your sleep medicine specialist will begin with a careful examination of your medical history, symptoms and complaints, and a thorough physical examination. They will likely ask you detailed questions about your current and past sleep habits to better understand the different factors that may be at play in your disrupted sleep patterns. They may even need to conduct a sleep study, a procedure in which they might study your vitals or brain activity while you sleep.
After a thorough examination, your sleep medicine professional should be able to provide you with a diagnosis and a treatment plan to get you back on track!
Sleep Disorder Diagnosis and Your Life
But, what happens after you get your diagnosis from a certified sleep specialist? The answer is simple: you start your journey of healing!
All the ways that sleep conditions can negatively affect your health can be mediated and often reversed when the condition itself is being treated. For example, a person suffering from sleep apnea who begins to use a CPAP machine and special mouthguard at night can expect many of the negative side effects of their sleep disorder to correct themselves practically overnight!
This same effect can be expected with most sleep disorders when you begin to receive treatment. Some side effects may linger more than others, and might require treatment by other specialists, but it’s all part of your healing journey towards a healthy mind and body!
Gingras Sleep Medicine is a state-of-the-art facility specializing in sleep disorders and related conditions for patients of all ages. Founder and Medical Director, Dr. Jeannine Gingras is a triple board-certified sleep medicine specialist located in Charlotte and Concord, North Carolina. Her years of experience in both patient care and pioneering research in the field of sleep medicine has given her a special insight into what keeps her patients up at night.
If you have any questions regarding sleep disorders or how a sleep medicine specialist can help you live a healthier life, please call us at Gingras Sleep Medicine in Charlotte and Concord, North Carolina at (704) 944-0562 or request an appointment online.