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Lacamas Life Magazine
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Getting enough Sleep?
Technology may have the answers
Part 1 in a series This is part one in a series of articles about sleep disorders and sleep deprivation. This article will focus on identifying a sleep problem, and what the first steps are in finding a solution.
So, you’re sleeping eight hours a night and still waking up tired. Your spouse says your snoring keeps her up all night. It takes you hours to fall asleep only to wake up several times at night. The bags under your eyes keep getting darker and bigger. There isn’t enough coffee in the office to keep you awake until lunchtime. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?
They just might, because research indicates that millions of Americans suffer from some form of sleep disorder or sleep deprivation, says Christy Westpahl, RPSGT, the Lead Sleep Technologist at the Pacific Sleep Center at The Vancouver Clinic.
Westpahl, who has been monitoring patients with various sleep disorders for 12 years, is a walking encyclopedia of sleep information. The information she shares is captivating, riveting, and thorough. It’s clear she knows her stuff.
Sleep research is a relatively young science as data in past decades has been difficult to ascertain.
“A lot of data has been collected over the decades by different centers and doctors,” says Westpahl. “But it was only collected and not thoroughly analyzed for trends and now we’re changing that. We’re looking at the data and finding trends and solutions, but it’s still a young science.”
Westpahl and her colleagues at the Pacific Sleep Center work round the clock with patients to determine the cause of their various sleep disorders. The problem, she says, is that people aren’t fully aware they have a problem in the first place.
“Sometimes we go through life because we’re so busy and ignore what’s happening with ourselves.” Westpahl says.
So what types of people have sleep disorders? Mothers, fathers, children, the elderly?
“There’s really no one age group,” says Westpahl, “but we do see a lot of women with children, or women with husbands who snore at night.”
Apparently, many women are complaining their husband’s snoring (which could be sleep apnea – a problem itself) keeps them up at night. The women are coming in with their husbands because really the snoring is an indication of a problem, and because the snoring is keeping the spouse awake, it affects her sleeping patterns and creates another separate problem.
So, what happens once you come into the sleep center?
“They’ll listen,” says Ron Henderson, Business Development Manager for The Vancouver Clinic, “and get you on the road to recovery – they’re sharp people.”
The patient is introduced to the process and once he or she agrees to be analyzed, they’ll set up an overnight stay.
During that stay, the patient will arrive at approximately 8 pm and be escorted to his or her private, nicely decorated high-tech bedroom. The process of the testing will then be reviewed, and questions will be answered. The medical team will place 20 electrodes, or diagnostic channels at various places on the face and body in order to read certain brainwaves, breathing patterns, oxygen levels, muscle movements, EKG, etc.
Throughout the night the activities of the 20 channels are constantly recorded. The technicians are looking for changes in the sleep architecture, of which there are five stages:
• Stage One – lightest stage of sleep • Stage Two – a light stage of sleep • Stage Three – a good sleep that usually requires a person to be spoken to loudly in order to be awakened. • Stage Four – a good sleep that usually requires a person to be shaken in order to be awakened. • Rapid Eye Movement (REM) – this is dream sleep where the eye is moving rapidly.
Enough data has been collected over the years to know what good sleep patterns are and how to use them as a benchmark or standard for poor sleeping patterns.
At the end of the testing, which researchers say needs to be at least 6.5 hours of sleeping, a total of 800 electronic pages have been created. An experienced technician, who will take time to score the information, which will ultimately be presented to the patient, closely analyzes that data.
The patient usually returns within one week to review the data, after which the medical doctor will make a recommendation for either more testing, or a treatment program.
“It’s a good thing to be tested,” says Mary, who prefers her last name to be anonymous. “The Sleep Center does really good work, and they really saved my marriage. My husband’s buzz saw snoring kept my kids and me up at night. We discovered his problem became everyone’s problem. It was terrible, but now we’re making things better. Thank goodness.”
To learn more about the Pacific Sleep Center, call (360)397-3661.
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