Sleep News – We Talk Sleep

Sleep apnea is linked to serious health issues

We Talk Sleep — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 14:57:08 +0000

The minute she sat down to watch television or climbed into the passenger seat of a car, Doreen Henry would nod off. Her husband, Michael, was much the same, heading for the couch and a nap as soon as he got home from work.

“I was always tired, I had memory loss and high blood pressure,” said Doreen, who is 51 and lives with Michael, 50.

Sleep studies with Doylestown (Pennsylvania) Health’s Sleep Center found each of the Henrys had sleep apnea, a potentially dangerous condition that restricts the airway and stops breathing for several seconds, sometimes hundreds of times throughout the night. The interrupted sleep can lead to an array of health problems, from severe daytime fatigue to heart and liver ailments, sexual dysfunction and sleep-deprived partners.

Dr. Les Szekely, the sleep center’s director, prescribed CPAP machines to the couple. (Doreen got hers several years ago; Michael, a few months ago.) “Within two days of using it, I felt so much better,” Doreen said. “I won’t go anywhere without it, no way.”

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Sleep apnea testing should be federally mandated to prevent more train derailments, Schumer says

We Talk Sleep — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:34:59 +0000

Following a report linking two recent train derailments in the New York region to sleep apnea, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday called for the federal government to regulate the testing of the disorder as it relates to commuter railroads.

Obstructive sleep apnea was identified last week as the probable cause of a January 2017 Long Island Rail Road derailment at Atlantic Terminal as well as a similar New Jersey Transit crash in the Hoboken Terminal several months earlier, according to a study from the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency in charge of public transportation accident investigations. One person died during the NJ Transit crash and more than 200 people were injured in both derailments combined.

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Investigators Blame Sleep Apnea For 2 Train Crashes, Push For Mandatory Screening

We Talk Sleep — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 15:45:56 +0000

The National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday that engineers falling asleep at the controls led to two recent New York City area commuter train crashes that killed one person and injured more than 200 others. The investigative agency has sharply criticized the Trump administration for scrapping a proposed regulation aimed at preventing such fatigue-related events.

NTSB investigators found that the engineers of both a New Jersey Transit train that crashed into the Hoboken terminal on September 29, 2016, and of a Long Island Rail Road train that crashed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn on January 4, 2017, suffered from undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that disrupts sleep repeatedly through the night and has been shown to cause daytime drowsiness. The NTSB says the common sleep disorder is likely what caused the train operators to nod off as they pulled into the stations.

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Sleep apnea linked to wide range of serious health issues

We Talk Sleep — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 14:44:11 +0000

“I was always tired, I had memory loss and high blood pressure,” said Doreen, who is 51 and lives in Buckingham, Pennsylvania with Michael, 50.

Sleep studies with Doylestown Health’s Sleep Center found each of the Henrys had sleep apnea, a potentially dangerous condition that restricts the airway and stops breathing for several seconds, sometimes hundreds of times throughout the night. The interrupted sleep can lead to an array of health problems, from severe daytime fatigue to heart and liver ailments, sexual dysfunction and sleep-deprived partners.

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The low-down on sleep apnea

We Talk Sleep — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:43:52 +0000

A look into sleep apnea, what causes it and how you can treat it.

Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. Experts say you may have sleep apnea if you snore loudly, and you feel tired even after a full night’s sleep.

There are three main types, explained here by Mayo Clinic:

Obstructive sleep apnea, the more common form that occurs when throat muscles relax.

Central sleep apnea, which occurs when your brain doesn’t send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing.

Complex sleep apnea syndrome, also known as treatment-emergent central sleep apnea, occurs when someone has both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.

See a doctor if you think you could be suffering from sleep apnea. There is treatment and the good news is, treatment will ease your symptoms and prevent heart problems or any other complications.

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New Device Reduces Sleep Apnea In Two-Thirds Of Patients Using It, Study Shows

We Talk Sleep — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:52:01 +0000

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — There’s a new treatment for patients who suffer from sleep apnea, a serious condition that causes people to stop breathing while asleep.

It can strike anyone, but the most at-risk are older, overweight, and generally male.

CBS2 first reported about the battery powered nerve stimulator called Inspire when it was first approved. Now, a new study finds that it reduces sleep apnea in two-thirds of patients using it.

Patients like Peggy Siravo.

“I wasn’t breathing,” she recalls, telling CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez. “I wasn’t getting the correct amount of oxygen. My thought process was gone.”

Siravo says her memory got so bad, her family thought she had dementia. Exhausted, the 59-year-old could barely do her job as a nurse.

“I knew I was in trouble,” she said.

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8 myths about sleep you need to stop believing in right now

We Talk Sleep — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 14:35:54 +0000

Sleep deprivation is not pretty. From a beauty point of view, it gives you dark circles, and a red, inflamed, and dull complexion. But more than that, there’s nothing worse than tossing and turning all night waiting for sleep to come. Unfortunately sleep disorders are on the rise. “As a society, we are sleeping two to two-and-a-half hours lesser than we should,” says Dr Sanjay Manchanda, chairman, department of sleep medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. “The causes could be genetic, unknown reasons, obesity, snoring; in fact, there are about 80 sleep disorders in all.” Poor sleep makes you look less than fresh, but it also ruins your mood and the ability to focus on any task. “If you’re sleep deprived for five nights in a row, your performance at any task will be worse than a completely drunk person,” says Dr Manchanda.

But that’s not all. Sleep deprivation is also the number one reason behind road accidents. “A person can go from being wide awake to in a deep sleep in less than ten seconds—so driving while sleepy is risky even if you’ve fortified yourself with caffeine or loud music.” The main reasons behind this modern-day malaise include conditions such as sleep apnea, twitchy leg syndrome, late night parties, excessive alcohol and an unregulated sleep cycle. The following tweaks to your routine will help you get the sound sleep that you require. If, however, you have been deprived for more than a few months, it’s imperative to see a somnologist to find a permanent solution.

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Sleep Problems In Middle Age May Produce Future Cognitive Issues

We Talk Sleep — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 13:54:32 +0000

It’s pretty well known that getting a good night’s rest on a regular basis is very important for your health. It helps in the fight against weight gain and one’s health suffers without adequate sleep. Now we’re learning that overnight disruptions may have detrimental effects on cognitive health.

A new meta-analysis published in the journal Sleep Medicine found that middle-aged adults who suffered from insomnia, nightmares and regular bouts of broken sleep were more likely to face cognitive impairment in their later years.

The counterpoint to these findings, however, is that they were derived from self-reported data from four Scandinavian studies, so the data was not subjected to objective measurement by researchers. But given the large number of participants – two of the studies followed more than 3,300 subjects for over 20 years – the results carry some insight.

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Sleep apnea: Is there a cure?

We Talk Sleep — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 13:57:24 +0000

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is the most common form of sleep apnea. It is caused by blockages in the airway, especially when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses. However, not all types of sleep apnea present the same dangers. Abramskey said those with severe sleep apnea are two times more likely to suffer from a heart attack or a stroke than someone without it, and are three times more likely to get into a car accident.

While there is no cure for sleep apnea, there are several different kinds of effective treatments. The most popular and effective one is using Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices. Abramskey said CPAP devices are non-invasive, have no side effects, and can be used by anyone. “Millions of people use it worldwide,” Abramskey added. “It restores your energy levels, can reduce blood pressure and add years to your life.”

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Sleep apnea treatment uses ‘snake-like’ surgical robot

We Talk Sleep — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 16:46:03 +0000

Anthony Rinando, who was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in his teenage years, had to wait almost two decades to get a good night’s sleep.

“I tried everything. Snoring strips, sleeping with a tennis ball behind your back… I tried using different pillows,” Rinando, a 31-year-old New Yorker, told Fox News.

Sleep apnea is not just a snorer’s disorder, but a serious and sometimes fatal condition. It’s estimated that 22 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a disorder that causes your breathing to stop or get very shallow while you sleep.

It occurs when the muscles in the back of the throat relax and the airway narrows or closes as one breathes in.

“This may lower the level of oxygen in your blood,” Mayo Clinic explains in its website. “Your brain senses this inability to breathe and briefly rouses you from sleep so that you can reopen your airway. This awakening is usually so brief that you don’t remember it.”