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A Good Night's Sleep
By REBECCA WATTS

The benefits of a good night’s sleep are well-known but often ignored in today’s fast paced society. Over seventy percent of Americans are not getting enough sleep and are searching for relief through over-the-counter sleeping aids or alcohol. Lisa Bonds, director of the St. Joseph Center for Sleep Medicine, said sleep problems are misunderstood and under-diagnosed and short-term solutions could create a bigger issue.

“People, especially here in America, want a pill to make everything better fast,” Bonds said. “But their lifestyles are counterproductive to sleep, and people will self-medicate when it is often a matter of changing a lifestyle habit.”

Missing out on daylight and nighttime darkness, performing daytime activities in the evening and nighttime activities during the day, daytime naps, and pulling an all-nighter all influence our sleeping patterns. About ten to fifteen percent of genes are regulated by circadian rhythms, including those that regulate sleeping, hormones, metabolism and behavior. Not responding to the signals these rhythms give causes a disruption in the system and increases the risk for depression, cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders.

Resolving sleep issues could be as simple as reducing the amount of caffeine consumed or reducing workload, but for more serious sleep problems, further treatment may be needed. In some cases patients do not have lifestyle factors that can be corrected and may have a family history of the disorder. Recently, a scientist at the University of California isolated the amino acid that activates the body’s circadian rhythms. This discovery opens the door for pharmaceutical companies to develop medication that specifically addresses this mechanism and could aid patients that suffer from these types of conditions.

However, the most common sleeping disorder in the United States is sleep apnea, a disorder that cannot be corrected with medication. Patients that suffer from this condition stop breathing for a period of 10 seconds or longer, and therefore the oxygen saturation in their blood drops to a dangerous level. When this happens, patients either awake fully or surface into a lower level of sleep.

Twelve million Americans suffer from sleep apnea with ten million more estimated to remain undiagnosed. Football player Reggie White’s death in 2004 brought the condition to the national stage when he died from a respiratory disorder that resulted from sleep apnea. Bonds said White’s tragic incident has brought more patients to the Center.

Bonds said, “Most people think of an overweight male when they think of sleep apnea, and think about Reggie White, but just as many women have sleep apnea as men.”

Although the field is a relatively new addition to the medical community, 84 sleep disorders have been identified. The College Station Medical Center, The Physician’s Centre and St. Joseph Hospital all have sleep study facilities which determine the type of disorder a patient is suffering from and helps prescribe the best course of treatment.

Testing facilities are designed to create an environment that supports normal sleep conditions. Rooms are sound-proof and the center staff only enters the room if absolutely necessary. The goal, Bonds said, is to provide an environment that is as far away from a hospital room as possible.

“We are off site so we have a very private setting with rooms that look like hotel rooms,” Bonds said. “It’s very quiet and nothing like a hospital with all the noise.”

The Center monitors brain activity, eye movements, breathing and breathing effort, heart rate, oxygen amounts, leg movement, and positions through sensors and video tape. The results are 900 pages of data the center staff go through by hand. This data determines the treatment options that are available for patients, which typically include medication.

“If you get enough sleep, everything about your mind functions better,” Bonds said. “The slow-wave sleep makes us feel good physically; the REM sleep helps us restore our cognitive functions.”