Sleep Disorders

According to the National Institutes of Health, between 50 and 70 million Americans are affected by chronic sleep disorders and intermittent sleep problems that can significantly diminish health, alertness, and safety. Untreated sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. Sleep problems can take many forms and can involve too little sleep, too much sleep, or inadequate quality of sleep.

Sleep problems are often overlooked or ignored. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people with sleep disorders are undiagnosed and untreated. Doctors can diagnose and treat sleep disorders. Talk with your doctor if you snore regularly or feel very tired while at work or school most days of the week. You also may want to talk with your doctor if you often have trouble falling or staying asleep or if you wake up too early and aren’t able to go back to sleep. These are common signs of a sleep disorder.

What are sleep studies?

Sleep studies allow doctors to measure how much and how well you sleep. They also help show whether you have sleep problems and how severe they are. Doctors can diagnose some sleep disorders by asking questions about your sleep schedule and habits and by getting information from sleep partners or parents. To diagnose other sleep disorders, doctors also use the results from sleep studies and other medical tests.

Sleep studies can help doctors diagnose:

• Sleep-related breathing disorders (such as sleep apnea)
• Sleep-related seizure disorders
• Narcolepsy

Should your sleep be evaluated?

To determine whether you might benefit from a sleep evaluation, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you regularly have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep?
• Do people tell you that you snore? Has anyone ever told you that you have pauses in breathing or that you gasp for breath when you sleep?
• Are your legs “active” or restless at night? Do you experience tingling, creeping, itching, pulling, aching, or other strange feelings in your legs while sitting or lying down that cause a strong urge to move, walk, or kick your legs for relief?
• Are you so tired when you wake up in the morning that you cannot function normally during the day?
• Does sleepiness and fatigue persist for more than two to three weeks?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should discuss getting a complete sleep evaluation with your physician. Before your visit, it may be helpful to track your sleep patterns and medications.

St. Francis Sleep Lab

Sleep lab patients will find a comfortable, hotel-like space with a full-sized bed rather than the hospital bed that many might expect.

Our patients usually come to the sleep lab in the evening, and our staff prepares them for an overnight stay. Staff members monitor patients while they sleep and record patterns that may indicate a sleep disorder. This information is examined by a pulmonologist, who can diagnose a sleep disorder and recommend treatment if needed.