There are many different types of Sleep Disorders affecting both adults and children, often with quite similar symptoms. Many Sleep Disorders are characterized by non-refreshing sleep with constant tiredness and drowsiness, difficulty getting up in the morning, attention deficit, memory problems, and even episodic "fade-outs" and school problems. Other sleep disorders cause frequent awakenings during the night, disturbing dreams and nightmares, and kicking in sleep. Other types of sleep disorders result in frequent trips to the bathroom during the night, sleep-walking, sleep-eating and even the violent acting out of threatening dreams with injury to the person or their sleeping partner.
It may come as a surprise for you to know that many people get "used to" to feeling exhausted. As a result, in many cases, a life-threatening sleep disorder such as sleep apnea is only brought to medical attention because of loud snoring noticed by the spouse.
These sleep disorders are surprisingly common, often dangerous, and sometimes even fatal. Fortunately, all are quite treatable even curable, if accurately diagnosed.
Our practice features a confidential and empathetic evaluation of your sleep problem. When necessary, we are able to provide you with rapid state-of-the art sleep testing at any one of several certified sleep laboratories throughout central Indiana.
After the precise diagnosis is determined, we formulate and carry out a treatment plan customized to your specific condition.
Examples of treatments that we offer:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- Avoidance of medications/situations that can cause this problem
- Long-term weight loss
- Oral mandibular advancement devices
- Continuous or bi-level positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP of BiPAP). When positive airway therapy is your best choice, we and our experienced sleep technicians work with you to customize this powerful therapy. We ensure that you have the most comfortable pressure level that normalizes your breathing and oxygen levels, as well as the most comfortable mask style.
Narcolepsy
- Generally treated with medications.
- However, it is not widely known that this condition often co-exists with other sleep disorders. Therefore successful treatment requires the identification and treatment of all associated conditions causing drowsiness.
Restless Legs / Periodic Body Movements in Sleep
- Generally treated with medication
- However, it is also not widely known that this condition may be markedly exacerbated by iron deficiency and other conditions. In this case treatment of the underlying medical problem is essential for the best results.
- This condition may be due to an underlying nerve problem called peripheral neuropathy.
- For the reasons above, we make sure we know why you have this condition, and what other issues may be contributing to it.
Sleep-Walking / Sleep-Eating / Acting Out Dreams (REM Sleep Behavior Disorder) / Etc.
- These conditions may be "triggered" by another sleep disorder, and therefore sometimes can be cured by identifying the underlying condition.
- Medications are usually quite effective when no underlying triggering condition is present
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome
- Very common, particularly in school-aged children and young adults. Generally curable with "chronotherapy"
Various Types of Insomnias
- Often these are secondary to another condition. Frequent examples include light fragmented sleep with frequent brief arousals due to sleep apnea and periodic body movements in sleep, difficulty initiating sleep due to Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, and medication - caused insomnia, etc.
- Some types (eg Early Morning Awakening Insomnia) are readily treatable and may even be curable with certain types of medication therapy.
- For other types of insomnias, characterized by sleep onset problems not due to other conditions ("Primary" Insomnia), our long experience backed up by multiple research studies show that non-drug techniques provide the best long-term results for most people.
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