|
SLEEP DISORDERS CENTER
Wake Up To A New You … at
Salina Regional’s Sleep Disorders Center
Sleep isn’t just “time out” from daily life. It is an
active state important for renewing our mental and physical health each
day. More than 100 million Americans of all ages, however, regularly fail
to get a good night’s sleep.
At least 84 disorders of sleeping and waking lead to a
lowered quality of life and reduced personal health. They endanger public
safety by contributing to traffic and industrial accidents. These disorders
can lead to problems falling asleep and staying asleep, difficulties staying
awake or staying with a regular sleep/wake cycle, sleepwalking, bedwetting,
nightmares, and other problems that interfere with sleep. Some sleep
disorders can be life-threatening.
 The Salina Regional Health Center Sleep Disorders
Center, located in the lower level of the Salina Medical Arts Building, can
help. Here, people come to find solutions to the sleep problems that plague
them – affecting their lives in a very real way.
Sleep center supervisor Jerry Houchin says patients who
come to the sleep disorders center are desperate for help. Sleep disorders
affect families and relationships. Often the person who suffers from a
sleep disorder is relegated to a spare bedroom or sofa at night. The person
might snore or thrash about during sleep.
There are three types of sleep disorders: insomnias,
disorders that keep us awake and deprive us of precious sleep; parasomnias,
disorders that occur within sleep, such as sleep walking or teeth grinding (bruxism);
and hypersomnias, disorders that cause the person to sleep too much.
Of the three, the most common disorders are the
hypersomnias, such as sleep apnea. If a person sleeps through the night –
gets seven to eight hours of sleep – yet is ready for a nap by 10 the next
morning, he or she may well be suffering from a hypersomnia. The person
appears to be getting lots of sleep, but it’s not restful sleep.
Patients arrive at the sleep center anywhere from 8:30
to 10:30 p.m. Lab technicians prepare each patient for the study. To
monitor the patient, 22 electrodes are attached to the body. The wires are
bundled so they can be unplugged with ease should the patient need to get up
in the night. Although it might seem like patients would have trouble
sleeping with all the electrodes, most of the time, they go right to sleep.
 While the patient sleeps, the lab equipment records
respiratory, brain and cardiac activity; eye movements; muscle tension in
the jaw; nasal and oral airflow; and blood oxygen levels. The study
generates lots of data, typically about 860 pages. The data are scored by
the sleep center staff and sent to the patient’s physician. The report
includes information on all areas of the study, as well as a report of the
patient’s sleep architecture.
For more information about Salina Regional Sleep
Disorders Center, call 785-452-7650.
|
