More than 100 million Americans have a hard time sleeping. Reasons vary, but the consequences can be life-altering. If you think you have a sleep disorder, consult one of our specialists. Get the diagnosis and treatment that will change your life for the better.

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea, a potentially life-threatening disorder, causes a person to stop breathing while sleeping. For some, breathing stops hundreds of times in a single night.

Snoring at night, headaches in the morning and daytime exhaustion characterize sleep apnea. Left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, impotence and death.

It can afflict all age groups, men and women alike, but it’s most common in men, especially those who are overweight. An estimated 18 million Americans have sleep apnea, and approximately 38,000 people die annually from complications caused by it.

If you think you might have sleep apnea, get evaluated.

Snoring

Why Do We Snore? Of the 88 million people in this country who snore, nearly half do so on a regular basis. And although one theory holds that snoring is a sleeping person's natural noisemaking defense against predators, it is, in fact, a symptom of overcrowding in the back of the throat.

When we are awake, the muscles of the throat hold the throat open, so that air passes in smoothly as we breathe. During sleep, these muscles relax and the throat sags inward. The tissue (including the soft palate, uvula and tonsils) relaxes and vibrates against the back of the throat during breathing, creating quite a bit of noise. Think of the noise a balloon makes when you let the air out of it. That noise is not unlike snoring, and it shows how soft structures can create noise when they flap against each other.

Is Snoring Dangerous? Yes! Snorers can sleep poorly and suffer reduced daytime alertness with a subsequent increase in traffic and workplace accidents. In its most severe form, it is an indicator of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where a person’s airway either partially or completely closes off during sleep.

Snoring is both a social and a medical problem. It can be disruptive to family life, frequently forcing partners to sleep separately.

Snorers become unwelcome roommates on vacations or business trips, and cause other family members sleepless nights, which often leads to resentment.

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Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is marked by obstruction of the upper airway during sleep. This causes pauses or breaks in a person’s breathing, preventing air from entering the lungs and forcing the person to wake briefly to start breathing again before falling back to sleep. The person with OSA is usually unaware of this. The interruption to breathing can happen hundreds of times a night, resulting in markedly fragmented sleep. As a result, people with OSA feel excessively sleepy during the day.

Individuals with excessive sleepiness suffer from drowsiness, reduced concentration and an overwhelming desire to sleep when they need to be awake. This leads to changes in mood and personality and a general reduction in quality of life. Approximately 2 percent to 4 percent of people suffer from OSA in the U.S. That’s about 18 million people, giving the condition a similar prevalence to Type 1 diabetes and double that of severe asthma. Being overweight is one of several major risk factors for OSA, in particular, fatty tissue within the neck, which can compress the upper airway.

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Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations in the legs and an uncontrollable urge to relieve those feelings through stretching and other leg movements. People describe RLS sensations as burning, creeping, tugging, or like insects crawling inside the legs. The most distinctive or unusual aspect of the condition is that lying down and trying to relax activates symptoms. As a result, most people with RLS have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Left untreated, the condition causes exhaustion and daytime fatigue, which adversely affects jobs, personal relations, and daily activities. The first step in treating RLS is to determine whether underlying causes contribute to these unpleasant sensations. With proper treatment, people with RLS can sleep soundly every night and lead normal lives.

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Pediatric Disorders

Sleep disorders among children are common and include difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up. Children present differently than adults. For example, pediatric patients tend to snore but not show outward signs of apnea. They are likely to exhibit hyperkinetic behavior during the day that can mimic ADHD. They have a harder time waking up in the morning and experience problems with school work. Because a child’s first few years of school set the pace for academics over the long term, early diagnosis of pediatric sleep disorders is important.

Sleep studies help determine diagnosis. Treatments range from behavioral adjustments to surgery, such as a tonsillectomy. Children with severe obstructive sleep apnea may need upper airway support like CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), prior to surgery.

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Insomnia

Insomnia is difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. People with insomnia often complain of inability to pay attention during the day, loss of memory or concentration, irritability and anxiety. They find it hard to function normally at work, at home or even at school.

If you’ve suffered sleepless nights, you may be all too familiar with the symptoms. As many as 25 percent of Americans endure an occasional bad night of sleep, and approximately 10 percent have a chronic problem with insomnia. Each year 70 million Americans spend approximately $148 million on a variety of remedies to either put them to sleep at night or keep them awake during the day.

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PLMD

Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD), is a condition in which a person's legs or arms twitch or move involuntarily and periodically during sleep. PLMD is not the same as night muscle spasms, or hypnic jerks, which are normal and occasionally occur when a person is falling asleep.

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Narcolepsy

The main characteristic of narcolepsy is excessive and overwhelming daytime sleepiness, even after adequate nighttime sleep. A person with narcolepsy is likely to become drowsy or fall asleep, often at inappropriate times and places. Daytime sleep attacks may occur with or without warning and may be irresistible. These attacks can occur repeatedly in a single day. Drowsiness may persist for prolonged periods of time. In addition, nighttime sleep may be fragmented with frequent awakenings.

Night Terrors

Night terrors are sleep disturbances in which children may suddenly bolt upright in bed, crying, screaming, moaning, mumbling, and thrashing about with their eyes wide open, but without being truly awake. Because they are caught in a sort of a twilight zone between being asleep and being awake, they are unaware of your presence and are not likely to respond to anything you say or do. In fact, researchers think of night terrors as mysterious glitches in the usually smooth transitions we make each night between sleep stages. As many as 15 percent of children have night terrors at some point, typically beginning in the toddler and preschool years and continuing up to age 7 or even adolescence. An episode can last anywhere from two to 40 minutes, and when it's over your child falls back to sleep abruptly with no memory of the incident.

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