Bigfork Valley offers Sleep Studies

New babies sleep an average of 16 hours each day. By age ten, this number has dropped to 10 hours, and by adulthood it is 8 hours.

But what happens when a person does not get enough sleep?

Although the negative consequences of not getting enough sleep have not been well enough studied, according to the National Sleep Disorders Research Plan developed in 2003, evidence does support consequences that might include viral illnesses, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and depression. New research also may include attention and memory problems of the elderly in this list.

In addition, there are other problems that can affect us, including about 100,000 automobile crashes each year from drivers falling asleep* or poor performance at school or on the job.

In fact, it's a serious problem, with health results that may surprise us.

Why don't we get enough sleep? Even after what should be a full night's sleep, we may feel that we did not get enough rest. There may be a reason. In fact there are as many as 70 different sleep disorders, according to educational material from the National Institutes of Health.

One of these is called obstructive sleep apnea, and is estimated to affect up to 12 million people in the country. It's a condition where breathing is interrupted during sleep, often because the airway itself is restricting air flow. Blood oxygen levels drop and blood carbon dioxide levels rise. Often others will notice chronic loud snoring.

Morning headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, stroke and daytime sleepiness may be the result of obstructive sleep apnea. But there is good news; there are treatments available to prevent the condition. They can range from changing lifestyles to using a device that provides a continual flow of air during the night, to surgery, depending on the cause.

To diagnose sleep disorders, a family doctor will order a sleep study. Sleep studies are now available without a long wait time at Bigfork Valley.

The first part of a sleep study is a survey of sleep habits, explained Lorna Pula, a registered nurse at Bigfork Valley who recently completed a study. Then sensors are attached to monitor different sleep indicators; for instance under the nose to sense snoring, on the skin at the outside edges of the eyes to sense eye movement. Breathing patterns, blood oxygen saturation, sleeping position also are monitored by sensors.

Then lights are shut off and the door to the private room is closed.

As the patient sleeps, a specialist monitors sleep patterns through the night from a computer outside the room. If indicated, the patient may be briefly roused to put on a machine to provide continuous positive airway pressure to see how he or she responds to the treatment. The CPAP machine provides humidified airflow through a partial face or nasal mask that maintains an open airway through the night.

"I felt so much better after a couple of hours of the machine," said Pula. "I'm not excited about the machine itself, but I'm excited about the results."

The results of the sleep study, including data and specialist physician interpretation is provided to the patient and the family doctor for followup.

"Quality of sleep can make all the difference in the quality of life," said Nancy Probst, Director of Patient Care Services at Bigfork Valley. "We felt it was important to offer a way to diagnose a sleep problem that was both close to home and available without a long wait time."

Bigfork Valley is associated with Winmar Diagnostics of Fargo, a company which specializes in sleep wellness using state of the art diagnostic equipment.

* National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 1998. Drowsy driving and automobile crashes.