Sleep medicine is a medical specialty or subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge and answered many questions about sleep-wake functioning.
What is a sleep disorder?
Changes in sleeping patterns or habits that can negatively affect health.
What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts.
It can occur when the upper airway becomes blocked repeatedly during sleep, reducing or completely stopping airflow. This is known as obstructive sleep apnea. If the brain does not send the signals needed to breathe, the condition may be called central sleep apnea.
Lack of sleep has serious risks that can drastically affect your quality of life and lead to, or worsen:
- Weight Gain
- Heart Disease
- Kidney Disease
- Diabetes
- Depression
- & More!
- Loud or Chronic Snoring
- Restless Sleep
- Morning Headaches
- Irritability
- Mood Changes
- Insomnia
- Sleepiness or lack of energy during the day
- Waking up with a dry mouth or sore throat
- Harmful lifestyle habits
- Genetics
- Smoking
- Being overweight
- Having a small upper airway or even a large tongue or tonsils
Here’s what to expect when visiting your sleep specialist for the first time! The specialist will want to know your sleep health history including: prevalence of snoring, your sleep habits, your work and lifestyle, your daytime alertness, and other medical conditions.
A full medical examination will be performed, checking everything from your weight, blood pressure, and heart rate, to your mouth, throat, tongue, nose, and neck size.
The sleep health provider may prescribe a sleep study at a sleep lab or a home sleep test. These tests collect data while you sleep and are essential for the sleep specialist to diagnose your sleep disorder and develop an effective treatment.
Several effective treatments for sleep apnea areavailable, including CPAP therapy (which provides airflow through a mask worn at night) and oral appliance therapy. Your sleep healthcare provider can help determine the best treatment for you. Effective treatment of sleep apnea will improve the quality of your sleep, your health and your life.
Sleep medicine providers can help identify the cause of your sleep disorder, make a full diagnosis of your sleep issue, and provide effective treatment.
Meet our Sleep Medicine providers!
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