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Millions of Americans will roll their clocks back one hour this weekend for the return to Standard Time. But as clocks move back and we wake on Sunday morning, after “gaining” an extra hour of the day, will Americans use that extra hour to catch up on their sleep? Probably not. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2009 Sleep in America™ poll, two out of every ten Americans sleep less than six hours a night. Even with an extra hour, that’s less than necessary for a full night’s rest. The National Sleep Foundation recommends the following tips to help ease the adjustment to standard time:
* Maintain your regular bedtime Saturday night, when clocks move back, and awaken at your regular time on Sunday morning. This can give you an “extra” hour of sleep the next morning and help reduce your sleep debt;
* Block out light and keep your sleeping area dark. Standard time causes the sun to rise about an hour earlier. This can impact sleep, especially for people accustomed to awakening before or around sunrise. The light itself can disturb sleep, so it is always best to sleep in a darkened room;
* Increase the light when you wake up. Light has an alerting affect that may help you wake up. It will also help adjust your biological clock to the “new” sleep schedule;
* Difficulty adjusting to the time change? Staying awake at night or sleeping until your desired wake-up time may be helped by gradually moving bedtime and awakening later by 15 minutes every one to two days.
Billy Mays may have used cocaine and pain killers, but I guarantee you that he died of sleep apnea. If you want to confirm this find out what the time of death was. People who die in their sleep during the latter half of the night (4 to 6 am) typically die of sleep apnea (other notables, Reggie White, John Candy and Divine (from John Waters fame)).
Sleep apnea is a condition marked by snoring. Snoring is caused when the tissue in a person’s neck area begins to collapse around their airway and the tissue in the upper airway begins to flap. To picture this, did you ever blow up a balloon and partially pinch the end of it while letting out the air? It makes a sound similar to snoring. This is the first sign that a person may have sleep apnea. If a person snores, there may be likelihood that they are experiencing pauses in their breathing due to their airway collapsing. This is apnea. To picture this, did you ever drink a thick shake and the straw kept collapsing? The same thing happens when someone experiences sleep apnea. The tissue around their neck (the shake) collapses around their airway (the straw) when they try to inhale during sleep. When the airway collapses, air does not get in, when air doesn’t get in oxygen doesn’t get in. Oxygen levels in the body will decrease and the heart slows down sending a signal to the brain to arouse the body out of sleep (or in a lighter stage of sleep) to open up the airway and begin breathing. This is equivalent to getting poked in the shoulder. This process repeats itself over and over again throughout the night. We have patients who literally stop breathing up to 100 times an hour. Imagine getting poked in the shoulder 100 times an hour 7 nights a week 365 nights a year. No matter how long you sleep, you are forever tired throughout the day.
Combine the prospect of sleep apnea with REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and you have the perfect recipe for dying in your sleep. When we sleep we go into different stages of sleep, some light some deep, and then there is the stage of sleep where we dream, REM sleep. REM sleep occurs in 90 minute cycles. Each night a person will go through 4 to 5 REM cycles. Each cycle will be longer than the last. The first REM period is typically 5 to 15 minutes with last cycle lasting 30 to 45 minutes. It is during this last REM cycle where the complications from sleep apnea can become deadly. During REM sleep the muscle tone in our bodies in our body drops off. (Some say this is an evolutionary process to keep us from acting out our dreams.) When the muscle tone drops off the airway becomes more compromised making it harder for the brain to arouse the body out of an apnea event. Typical 15 to 20 second pauses in breathing now become 30, 40, 60 second events. (I have seen as long as 1min 45 sec.). As a result of these longer events, oxygen levels can decrease to 60% (on a 100% scale) while the heart rate significantly decreases. The good new is that the brain will typically arouse the person out of sleep pulling them back from the brink of death every night. The ones that aren’t so fortunate typically experience an irregular heartbeat; if the brain does not catch it in time it will lead to a heart attack while they sleep.
Billy Mays had the perfect body type of a person who suffers from sleep apnea, short neck, big shoulders and extra weight around the midsection. If you combine sleep apnea with his hectic schedule you might understand his need for something to keep him going. Because of his celebrity he probably had access to remedies that the general population would not have. Further evidence is that he had untreated hypertension and an enlarged heart. These are byproducts of living with sleep apnea year after year. The constant variability in a person’s heart rate due to sleep apnea is a main factor contributing to this.
Sleep apnea is easily treated by using a device called CPAP. CPAP is an acronym for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. The device is about the size of a toaster which is connected to a hose which attaches to a nasal mask. The machine delivers positive pressure that fights against the negative pressure that sucks in the airway. It is a wonderful device that helps people who have lived in a sleep deprived haze for 5 to 10 years and literally changes their lives around over night.
Sleep apnea affects approximately 18 million Americans (as many as diabetes) while only 2 to 3 million are diagnosed and treated. People treated for sleep apnea will also see their high blood pressure improve. Diabetics have seen better management in their blood glucose levels. I have also seen it save marriages, improve productivity and rescue people out of depression.
In conclusion, if you find out Billy Mays died in the early morning hours and he snored, I will guarantee you he met the same fate as those people I mentioned in the beginning of this post.
Mark Stoiber, President
The Sleep Wellness Institute
Over the last two years, the Sleep Wellness Institute has partnered with Kleen Test Products (KTP) to study the effect of screening, testing and treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) on a volunteer segment of their employee population. Through numerous benefits programs, Kleen Test rewards employees for healthy lifestyles and offers many programs to improve the well-being of all who work for them. This study offered a unique opportunity to learn about OSA, provide treatment to those employees affected and determine if OSA increased employee/employer healthcare costs.
KTP has a workforce of 585 employees. Our original recruitment target was to get sixty volunteer employees to come forward – with 20 in each group. After recruitment we were able to start with 65 employees (representing 11% of the company’s workforce.)
To cost-effectively determine which employees had OSA, we initially used an at-home portable ApneaLink screening device for one night. Those employees who showed potential OSA from the results of the ApneaLink screening were given an overnight sleep study. The results of each sleep study were interpreted by a board certified sleep physician to confirm if the employee had OSA. The results of the sleep studies demonstrated that 33 of the KTP employees showed no evidence of OSA, 27 showed evidence of OSA, and 5 subjects withdrew from the project.
We are still in the process of collecting data regarding healthcare usage during the 12 months each employee was in the study. Our targeted completion date is October 8, 2009. Once all data have been collected we will be able to make assertions and findings that are statistically significant. However, of the 65 employee volunteers there are 11 employees diagnosed with OSA using their CPAP devices for 4 or more hours per night, preliminary data shows a trend of reduction in healthcare spending. (To date, the reduction in spending in this group of employees is down from an average of approximately $3,900 per employee to $205 per employee.) The premise of the trial does appear to be valid – patients suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea use more healthcare than non-OSA sufferers. During the next year, we will continue to collect compliance and healthcare spending data to determine what effects CPAP set-up and screening have on healthcare costs of OSA patients.
Luke Goodpaster
Director of Research
Lance Allan of TODAY’S TMJ4, the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee, is one good sport! Not only does he do a great job of reporting sports news, he’s also a great sport, himself, for being willing to be “roasted” in a benefit for the Reggie White Sleep Disorders Research & Education Foundation on April 18 at the Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee.
The evening is sure to be great fun, and proceeds will benefit the Foundation’s mission of providing sleep apnea diagnosis and treatment to people whose socio-economic status makes it impossible for them to access the healthcare services they need.
For more information on the Roast, and how one lucky person can actually participate in roasting Lance, please visit the Foundation’s website.
More than 500 people died on Wisconsin roads last year.
“Some deaths were caused by speeding while others were a result of drunk driving, or not wearing a seat belt. Tragically, these deaths affect many lives and cause great pain to thousands of people throughout the state. Fortunately, you can help change that number.” So says the State of Wisconsin’s very well-intentioned web site.
But, in a very clear error, either of omission or of understanding, the State runs a television spot frequently about not wearing one’s seat belt. Again, a very noble thought. However, as you will be able to see from the advertisement that is called “Reality – Seat Belt,” they have missed a truly significant, even life saving point. Take a look at it and see if you can figure out what it is … www.zeroinwisconsin.gov/mediaspots.html
The driver in the spot is not only not wearing a seat belt … he is asleep at the wheel. He is, as too many people fail to realize, one of those ticking time bombs waiting to go off on our roads … the drowsy driver.
Taking a look at his thick neck and overweight body frame, it is likely that this driver has obstructive sleep apnea, which is just as likely to take his life … and the lives of others on the road … as not wearing his seatbelt or driving drunk.
One can only hope that the State of Wisconsin … and ALL states … will get the idea soon that drowsy drivers are a MAJOR threat to the health and lives of all people on the roads.
Steve Gardner
The Sleep Wellness Institute
A recent online article at MSNBC noted that the cost of diabetes in this country will rise to $200 billion per year. That point makes it more important than ever that medical professionals include asking questions about sleep while making their diagnosis, since it has now been shown that 58% of diabetics have some form of sleep disordered breathing.
At the same time, 40% of all obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients have diabetes.
In patients who have both, the most commonly prescribed treatment for OSA, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can help in the more effective management of diabetes, thereby reducing hospitalizations and healthcare costs related to diabetes.
If you or someone in your family has diabetes, snores at night and feels exhausted during the day, ask your physician about sleep apnea. It’s too important to ignore.
Steve Gardner
Sleep Wellness Institute
Here’s good news for all those who use CPAP therapy for sleep apnea and would like some tips on making things easier.
Mark Stoiber, President of the Sleep Wellness Institute, has published a book entitled “How to Guarantee Your Experience with CPAP is a Happy One.” Mark has 21 years of experience in the sleep disorders field and has seen literally thousands of people turn their lives around from the misery of terrible sleep to the joy and relief of refreshing, restorative sleep through CPAP therapy.
You can download Mark’s book for $3.75 through clicking here. You can also order a paperback copy for $7.97. If you buy the paperback version, $1.00 will automatically be donated to the Reggie White Sleep Disorders Research & Education Foundation.
Steve Gardner
The Sleep Wellness Institute will open CPAP2GO, a retail store specializing in continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, masks and supplies that are used to help many people with obstructive sleep apnea, on July 8. It will be the only store of its kind in Wisconsin operated by a sleep disorders center.
The store, at 7017 S. 27th Street, Franklin, will be open Monday through Saturday, with evening hours Monday through Friday. It will be staffed by specially trained employees, most of whom are on CPAP therapy, themselves, and will feature the “30/30 Advantage” – an in-stock supply of more than 30 masks and a free 30 night comfort and fit guarantee. Much of the equipment will be covered by most health insurance.
According to Sleep Wellness Institute President Mark Stoiber, the store is a natural development given the success of the Institute’s professional CPAP services. “Our approach to working with people on CPAP has yielded more than an 85% compliance rate with treatment, as opposed to about 55% nationwide,” he explained. “We believe we can successfully grow our business while helping more people by having a store located in a convenient, high traffic retail business area.”
People with sleep apnea are aroused briefly several times per hour every night as the tissues around their airway collapse and prevent them from breathing. Complications can include cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and even death. The CPAP equipment provides a continuous, gentle positive air flow that keeps the patient’s airway open and eliminates snoring. It is considered the “gold standard” in treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.
“Expert knowledge, wide selection and an unmatched dedication to customer service will be the hallmarks of CPAP2GO,” Stoiber said. “All too often we encounter people who have purchased CPAP equipment elsewhere, including from the internet, and then have been unable to get the follow-up service they need, at the times they need it. We intend to make a difference for those people.”
Stoiber said the store will offer the same CPAP products and service that are provided at the Sleep Wellness Institute, but in a second location that offers excellent freeway access and foot traffic. It is located in front of a Lowe’s Home Improvement center, he noted.
The store will be managed by Cody Glorioso, who is the director of the Sleep Wellness Institute’s durable medical equipment department. The store’s telephone number will be 414-761-CPAP (2727). A website, www.cpap2go.net provides more information.
NOTE: A second store has opened in Waukesha. See our blog post “New CPAP2GO Store Opens Today.”
The Sleep Wellness Institute is Wisconsin’s largest independent sleep disorders treatment center. It is fully accredited to diagnose and treat sleep disorders among adults and children by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
