The Sleep Disorders Toolkit

Sleep Review’s Sree Roy chats with circadian health fan Jay Pea about the science and politics of standard time and daylight saving time—and their impacted on sleep and overall health.

You can visit https://savestandardtime.com/ and follow @savestandard on Twitter and other social media for more information. You can also text “SST” to 50409 to remind lawmakers they can end Daylight Saving Time with permanent Standard Time.

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Adhering to CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure for sleep apnea is a challenge for some patients. But perhaps none moreso than commercial truck drivers, who sometimes face impossible scenarios in which using the device means that the truck won’t start in the morning—due to the truck batteries being dead after running the CPAP all night. Luckily technology now provides several solutions and fleet managers have become more accommodating in recent years. We spoke to truck drivers, truck makers, and fleet managers, who all gave us reasons to be optimistic about why it’s easier to power a CPAP in a Big Rig than ever before.

Clinicians typically ask patients for a prescription drug history but may not always delve into patients’ nonprescription or over-the-counter drug history. But when it comes to sleep aids, it’s crucial for professionals to be aware of what herbal remedies, hormones, and other compounds your patients are ingesting in their quest for better sleep. Unbeknownst to patients, many OTC sleep aids can cause side effects on their own and/or pharmacodynamic interactions when taken with other over-the-counter or prescription drugs.

Wallace B. Mendelson, MD, the author of the new book Understanding Sleeping Pills, shares 3 broad issues to be aware of with regard to nonprescription products.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) that is unresponsive to traditional therapies or in which the patients can’t tolerate traditional therapies—can be frustrating for clinicians and patients alike. Opioids can be a viable therapy for these patients—and a paper published in the January 2018 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings aims to illuminate this treatment pathway.

Oral appliance therapy (OAT) provides an alternative treatment option for those with upper airway resistance syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The patient’s treatment journey begins with the referring physician, who will have administered a sleep test, and, either due to the patient’s noncompliance with CPAP or the patient’s preference, sends the patient to a dental sleep medicine practitioner for an oral appliance.
The dentist’s job in properly treating a sleep apnea patient with an oral appliance involves a set of processes that are undertaken with the goal of identifying the patient’s specific needs, the condition of their mouth and throat, and their systemic health. Once the patient has been thoroughly evaluated, the appropriate device can be selected and fitted, allowing the patient to begin their treatment and follow-up.

Outlined in today’s episode is the standard process used in the office of Jeff Rodgers, DMD, DABDSM, to guide the patient from initial consultation to successful treatment.

The opportunity to pursue post-secondary education is fraught with challenges for some people with sleep disorders. From concerns about inadvertently keeping roomies awake with loud snoring, to being unable to wake for early morning classes, colleges and other places of higher education can feel a little intimidating for your patients. Luckily, there are people with sleep disorders who have walked the hallowed halls of college—and graduated. Today, we are specifically sharing strategies for people with narcolepsy to do well in college.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea who are prescribed a positive airway pressure machine, commonly known as CPAP, are instructed to use it every night. But that means lugging the device with them on every overnight trip—no small task given the shrinking space for airplane carry-on luggage.
 
For CPAP users who leave their device at home while they are on vacation, a survey by CPAP maker ResMed found that two-thirds of users cite size as the reason for leaving their CPAP at home.
 
Skipping therapy is a risky choice. In one study, patients who had heart attacks at night were 6 times more likely to also have obstructive sleep apnea than those whose heart attacks happened during the day. Anecdotally, skipping CPAP therapy has been linked to the sudden deaths of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia and football player Reggie White.
 
So what exactly is a travel-friendly CPAP device and how are they different from full-sized CPAPs?
 
Get the print articles this podcast is based on at www.sleepreviewmag.com/travel-cpaps-earn-wings and www.sleepreviewmag.com/sizing-up-heat-and-moisture-exchangers-travel-cpap

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Home sleep testing, also known by the abbreviation HST, can benefit patients and healthcare practices alike. When all goes smoothly, advantages include: less time to diagnosis, increased patient volumes, and convenience. But patients returning HST devices late (or not returning them at all) is a problem sleep disorders centers and other administrators of HST routinely encounter.
 
From signed agreements to returned mailers and patient education, this episode provides 6 real-world suggestions for how to get your HST devices back on time.
 
Get the Sleep Review print article this podcast is based on at www.sleepreviewmag.com/get-home-sleep-testing-devices-back-time.

Subscribe to the magazine and our enewsletters at www.sleepreviewmag.com/subscribe

Get in touch: [email protected]
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1alcrTDFDUS1yPfAr-2gNQ
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sleepreview
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sleepreview
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/4041400

For sponsorship inquiries, email [email protected]