WHAT IS SLEEP SHELF?

You've heard rumors, you've seen this image, you've wondered... what is this all about?

SleepyHeadCENTRAL has a "sekrit projekt" in the works which I hope to launch early in 2016: a lineup of sleep health publications, from small booklets to trade paperbacks to ebooks, which you will be able to purchase for yourself or for friends and loved ones, and which may also be included in future sleep consultation services which will be offered by SHC in the future.

Not such a "sekrit" anymore, so I may as well reveal that the first book is already being written and my intent is to make it useful to every single person who reads this website, whether they are a sleep health patient, a concerned loved one, a potential patient, or a healthcare provider or allied health professional. The topic remains undisclosed (I won't kiss and tell, yet!), but I remain excited by the possibilities this book could bring for the many thousands who struggle to achieve quality sleep.

Stay tuned, and thanks for supporting the efforts here at SleepyHeadCENTRAL.com.

~ The Curator ~ 

SleepyHeadCENTRAL celebrates 9 months of sleep health curation

In truth, work on SHC began in 2013, but it went live to the world 9 months ago today. Thank you for visiting, for sharing, for interacting, and for showing your support for sleep health awareness!

The Curator

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || October's Subscriber Giveaway THIS FRIDAY! Monster Cuff banishes the things that go bump in the night

The Snuggly Monster Cuff by BabyHoot, an adorable way to help kids feel safe so they can fall asleep.

SHC is proud to offer this fantastic solution for helping kids to fall asleep at night: 

THE SNUGGLY MONSTER CUFF! It scares away the monsters while you sleep! The cuff offered here is made from limited edition, blue and orange monster fabric!

From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby: "Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)

To see more sleep-promoting products from BabyHoot, click here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO QUALIFY TO WIN THIS ADORABLE SLEEP AID!

HOW TO WIN: Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS: The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || October's Subscriber Giveaway banishes the things that go bump in the night

The Snuggly Monster Cuff by BabyHoot, an adorable way to help kids feel safe so they can fall asleep.

SHC is proud to offer this fantastic solution for helping kids to fall asleep at night: 

THE SNUGGLY MONSTER CUFF! It scares away the monsters while you sleep! The cuff offered here is made from limited edition, blue and orange monster fabric!

From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby: "Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)

To see more sleep-promoting products from BabyHoot, click here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO QUALIFY TO WIN THIS ADORABLE SLEEP AID!

HOW TO WIN: Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS: The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

SLEEP HYGIENE TIP OF THE WEEK || MONSTERS OF SLEEP || Safe sleeping with PTSD

People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can experience continued psychological mayhem even while asleep. It can lead to anxiety, confusion, terror, even unintended violence to or by the sufferer.

Often forgotten in this are the loved ones who are the sleep partners of PTSD patients. They have additional challenges because they have to deal with safety issues, for both their loved one and themselves, every night.

The main thing that loved ones can do to help make nighttime sleep safer and sounder for everyone is to support the following sleep hygiene basics, which can really help the PTSD sufferer achieve more peaceful sleep. They include:

• Using the bedroom only for sleeping and sex. This means removing media from the room so as not to bring in stimulus-producing sources.
• Soundproofing your bedroom, or if you can't soundproof it, use white noise machines to help keep out external noise. If nothing else, encourage the use of earplugs.
• Keeping your bedroom dark in order to facilitate smooth transitions between sleep. Even nightlights and the tiny lights on electronics devices can interrupt sleep. Eye masks make good options.
• Turning down your thermostat. It is much better to have a cool room with multiple blankets that can be added and removed. Having too warm a room can mess with circadian rhythms.
• Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and make sure everyone in the household can honor it. 
• Avoiding stressful, energizing or stimulating activities before bed so that the body can properly relax when it needs to.
• Encouraging relaxing bedtime activities like warm baths, soft music, herbal tea or light reading to aid the brain in calming down for the night.
• Practicing meditation and/or yogic breathing to help induce relaxation. 
• Writing down worries and anxieties in a diary before bed so that your brain can "let them go" until the morning.
• Avoiding stimulating foods containing caffeine before bedtime (chocolate, cocoa, tea, coffee, soda)
• Avoiding alcohol at bedtime; despite its ability to relax the body, alcohol alters sleep architecture and can compromise quality deep sleep.
• Avoiding nicotine at bedtime as it can both stimulate and relax the brain.
• Asking your doctor and pharmacist to review your prescriptions to determine if any of them, by themselves or in interaction with others, may have a negative impact on sleep. 

Following these instructions may be difficult for some PTSD sufferers, so support for them from their loved ones and sleep mates really makes a difference. Any or all of these suggestions may not only improve the sleeping experience for the PTSD sufferer but for their sleep partners as well.

---

Information for this post was compiled from the Sleep and PTSD page at the National Center for PSTD, US Department of Veterans Affairs website.

MONSTERS OF SLEEP || October's Subscriber Giveaway banishes the things that go bump in the night

The Snuggly Monster Cuff by BabyHoot, an adorable way to help kids feel safe so they can fall asleep.

SHC is proud to offer this fantastic solution for helping kids to fall asleep at night: 

THE SNUGGLY MONSTER CUFF! It scares away the monsters while you sleep! The cuff offered here is made from limited edition, blue and orange monster fabric!

From the maker, BabyHoot--Handmade Things for Baby: "Does your child have trouble sleeping with monsters under the bed? Or maybe they live in the closet...

These super comfy, monster cuff bracelets are designed to make bedtime a breeze. Wear them on your wrist while you sleep to keep those monsters under your bed away so your little one can sleep through the night! (and so can you!)

Cuffs are double snap closure, made from the softest cotton blends to make them extra snuggly to sleep in. We make them to fit most kids, ages 2-100! (**Most Monster Cuff's fit ages 1-10, we have two snaps on each bracelet to adjust to a comfy fit.)

To see more sleep-promoting products from BabyHoot, click here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO QUALIFY TO WIN THIS ADORABLE SLEEP AID!

HOW TO WIN: Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS: The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

Sleep Awareness Events in October (updated)

October 6 through 10 is Sleep Apnea Awareness Week™

The American Sleep Association is campaigning to educate the public about the ongoing risks of living with untreated sleep apnea. Complications include increased risks for motor vehicle accidents, heart attacks, risk of stroke or deadly heart rhythms, decreased physical and/or mental performance, and more difficulty managing diabetes and hypertension. Want to learn more about managing sleep apnea and using PAP equipment? Check out your local chapter of A.W.A.K.E., sponsored by the American Sleep Apnea Association.

October 6 through 10 is Sleep Technologist Appreciation Week

Sleep technologists are those nightwalkers who hook up overnight sleep study patients and record their study data over a 12-hour period, which is then reviewed and filed as a report for the sleep doctor to interpret. They are also a critical educational resource for those suffering from sleep apnea as they are typically the first people to introduce PAP and/or supplementary O2 to patients with severe sleep breathing problems.

October 19 through 25 is National Respiratory Care Week

Respiratory disorders constitute a major challenge in the field of sleep medicine. Professionals in respiratory care (including nurses, respiratory therapists and sleep technologists) who serve the needs of respiratory patients (people with COPD, asthma, musculoskeletal and neuromuscular diseases which impact breathing) also work in tandem with pre- and post-operative teams to ensure patients have unobstructed breathing and ample blood oxygen saturation during invasive surgical procedures.

October 21: Awake, Alert, Alive: Overcoming the Dangers of Drowsy Driving

This public forum will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Conference Center in Washington, D.C. Presenters will review risk factors associated with drowsy driving and address the challenges of driving drowsy among the general population of noncommercial drivers. This event is sponsored by the NTSB and is free and open to the public, with no preregistration is required.

October is SIDS Awareness Month

Part of the impulse of new parents staring at their slumbering infants is not only to adore their new family member but to make sure they are breathing while asleep. Perhaps one of the greatest fears of new parents is losing their newborn child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

According to reports from the CDC, nearly 4,000 infants die suddenly and unexpectedly each year in the US, half of them from SIDS. SIDS is the leading cause of infant death for children between one and twelve months of age.

It is difficult to differentiate SIDS from other Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID); autopsy alone cannot explain these losses without also putting the entire family through an investigative review. What are the differences, then, between the two?

SIDS is defined as "the sudden death of an infant less than 1 year of age that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation is conducted, including a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and a review of the clinical history."

SUID  may be the final determination of death if it arises as an "Ill Defined and Unknown Cause of Mortality;" that is, it could be "the sudden death of an infant less than 1 year of age that cannot be explained as a thorough investigation was not conducted and cause of death could not be determined."

SUID could also be explained by Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed (ASSB), considered the leading cause of infant injury death. ASSB can be caused by obstructions to the infant's airway while asleep in the form of soft bedding (including pillows and waterbed mattresses); overlay (in which another person's body rolls on or over the body of the infant); wedging or entrapment between two objects (such as a mattress and wall, bed frame or furniture); or strangulation, in the event an infant's head and neck are trapped between crib railings.

The causes behind ASSB are clearly outlined, and SUID serves as the diagnosis when SIDS criteria are not met due to missing information about the loss of the child. In the case of SIDS, however, even when criteria are met, the condition and its causes still baffle researchers and healthcare professionals.

One main effort being made to prevent SIDS is the Safe to Sleep® Public Education Campaign (you may recognize its original campaign name, Back to Sleep®, which launched back in 1994), in which parents are instructed to place their newborns on their backs to sleep and keep crib clutter to a minimum. 

More info: 
Centers for Disease Control SIDS page
Safe to Sleep® Public Education Campaign
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

The Monsters of Sleep haunt October at SleepyHead CENTRAL

Think about it... many major sleep problems across the whole of humanity consist of some pretty monstrous symptoms...

People who are excessively sleepy during the day, even after a full night of sleep, may feel a bit like zombies as they sleepwalk from one task to the next... Insomniacs may eventually entertain the notion they are related to Count Dracula at around 2am every night, for nights on end... Children may fear the dark spaces under their bed or in the closet; meanwhile adults may have their own dark brand of haunted nightmares due to RBD or PTSD...

These are all serious sleep issues that need to be addressed, identified, diagnosed and treated.

To honor these sleep challenges, the emphasis of the posts at SHC in October will be on the following sleep problems:

• Hypersomnia
• Sleepwalking and REM Behavior Disorder
• Insomnia
• Nightmares and Night Terrors (including those caused by PTSD)

If you have problems with one or more of these disorders and have questions, please contact SHC here.

If you have a personal story you want to share regarding one or more of these disorders, please contact SHC here.

This month's giveaway will also cleave to this theme and will be announced later this week... stay tuned!

In the meantime, look for posts tagged "The Monsters of Sleep," including the graphic you see above, to navigate the posts which best address these serious, but treatable sleep challenges. 

The SleepyHeadCENTRAL Monthly giveaway happens tonight!!! Are you eligible? It's free! Don't miss out!

Subscribe to the SHC free opt-in monthly newsletter to become eligible to win monthly giveaways! The monthly newsletter offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. Also, this is an easy way to engage with the curator directly!

SHC is proud to offer this wonderfully insightful and creative look at human sleep through the eyes of fiction writers for its inaugural launch giveaway:

The Way We Sleep [Curbside Splendor Publishing, 2012 || Chicago].

The Way We Sleep is an anthology of short stories, interviews, and comics all dealing with the way we sleep. Beds are the most intimate of places, where you spend a third of your life. They are quiet places, they are rambunctious places.

The Way We Sleep combines prose, comics, illustrations and interviews into a fantastic book all about beds and sleep.

Praise for The Way We Sleep:

"At once a hybrid text and a compendium of tales related more or less loosely to the theme of sleep, this generously sized volume edited by C. James Bye and Jessica Bye offers flash-length tidbits and short stories by well-known and less well-known writers, interviews with movie and TV directors, and a healthy dose of comics." — Los Angeles Review  

"The Way We Sleep represents the very best of what a book can do that no other narrative medium can touch; it's part anthology, part art-book, part interview, part graphic novel, part confessional, part essay, part sociological study. The subject matter here ranges from sex to family to coming-of-age, all rendered with a delightful wit, brevity, and charm. From Mary Roach's study of insomnia to Tony Millionaire's depiction of epic torpor to the Resident's exploration of sleepwalking, The Way We Sleep is as intimate, poignant, and humorous as anything whispered beneath the sheets." —Joe Meno, author of Hairstyles of the Damned  

Publication Details || Paperback, 240 pages, $19.99, Curbside Splendor Publishing
ISBN: 978-0988480407, Cover Artwork: Steven Seighman

HOW THE MONTHLY GIVEAWAY WORKS

The winner will be selected randomly from the full subscription list as it exists as of 11:59pm on the last day of every month. One winner picked monthly. Each monthly winner will be contacted through email; winner must reply to email and provide mailing address in order to win. Each winner announced in the next month's newsletter.

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND WIN THIS FANTASTIC BOOK!

New Technologies || Inspire to stimulate your airway

So you've had a sleep study, determined you have OSA, tried CPAP, but couldn't tolerate it, maybe you've even tried an oral device and didn't stick with it. What else can you do?

The FDA recently approved a new implant that stimulates the nerves in the upper airway in order to keep the tissue "patent," or firm, so that it won't collapse while you sleep.

This could be a revolutionary new treatment for stubborn OSA for those people who cannot tolerate the CPAP and upper airway devices currently on the market.

University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Ohio and WellStar Paulding Hospital in Georgia are the only hospitals in the U.S. to offer this new procedure. They hope it can successfully address the needs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea patients who have not been able to adapt to traditional treatments such as CPAP.

Learn more:

From the FDA website: 
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DeviceApprovalsandClearances/Recently-ApprovedDevices/ucm398321.htm

From CBSNews.com: 
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/new-sleep-apnea-device-gets-fda-approval/

From Dr. Eric J. Kezirian, USC Otolaryngology
http://www.sleep-doctor.com/surgical-treatment-overview/upper-airway-stimulation/

From the manufacturer, Inspire Medical Systems
http://www.inspiresleep.com/inspire-therapy/how-it-works/

Mailbox: Your questions answered || Sleep Starts

Question: Why do I sometimes jerk myself awake just as I'm falling asleep? Is this something to worry about? -- C.E.

Answer: What you describe is commonly known as hypnic jerks or sleep starts. These are generally harmless physical processes that occur while your brain and body make the transition from wake to sleep.

Doctors don't actually know why they happen, though a common theory is that any residual electrical activity in the muscles during the wake/sleep transition may present like this as the body moves to a restful state.

According to the Mayo Clinic, at least 70 percent of people experience these sensations from time to time. They are considered normal.

If you struggle with this every night, however, you should discuss this with your doctor as regular twitching at bedtime might actually relate to the emergence of Restless Leg Syndrome or some other underlying neurological condition you may not be aware of.

Have a question about sleep? Please visit our contact page and fill out the form. Those with questions may request anonymity; otherwise we may publish your question with your initials. 

Announcing the formal launch of SleepyHeadCENTRAL!

Today is SleepyHeadCENTRAL's official opening day! Thank you so much for visiting and for checking out what this sleep health information clearinghouse has to offer!

If you are visiting SleepyHeadCENTRAL, it's probably because you have a sleep disorder, suspect you might have one, or know someone else who might have a sleep disorder or who has been recently diagnosed.

ABOUT SHC
I hope that I can help you. My name is Tamara Sellman and I'm the curator of this website.

Let me help you with your sleep health!

I have 25+ years experience in research, writing, journalism and publishing; I'm also a practicing registered polysomnographic technologist (RPSGT), which means I work directly with sleep patients in sleep clinics. In addition, I'm certified in Clinical Sleep Health (CCSH), which means I have been trained to help educate folks on matters of sleep health.

I entered this field after undergoing a sleep study myself and learned, at that time, just how difficult it is for people with sleep problems to educate themselves via the web about the importance of good sleep.

WHY SHC EXISTS
The key mission of SleepyHeadCENTRAL is to provide easy-to-understand, accurate, high-quality updated information about sleep health to you, the ordinary healthcare consumer, so that you can make educated decisions about your own health and well being.

In a perfect world, we would all
ask our doctors about sleep
health. But it's not a perfect
world now, is it?

Listen... lots of people with sleep problems do not ask their doctors for advice, at first. This may or may not be a good practice, but it is the reality. Many people will go online and ask their friends in social networks about their symptoms first, or they will turn to Google or other general medical sites.

Does this sound like you?

Why don't any of us just ask our doctors about our sleep problems? Listed below are a handful of many countless reasons why this doesn't happen:

• "I don't have a primary care provider. I have nobody to ask." 
• "I have a primary care provider, but I don't feel adequately cared for by them nor do I trust them."
  Or, "If I saw my doctor, they would just put me on drugs when all I really want is advice and support."
  Or, "My doctor would probably just tell me my concerns are imagined."
  Or, "If I asked about my sleep problems, I would just become lost in the maze of the healthcare system like I've been in the past."
• "I do not want to deal with the high costs of testing and treatment."
• "I've heard the tests, labs and devices are scary." 
• "I don't have insurance."
• "My problems aren't related to sleep even if they interrupt my sleep."
• "I can educate myself better by looking up the information online."
• "I would prefer to learn more about my sleep problems by going online before visiting a doctor so I can feel more empowered and knowledgeable when I actually sit down with them."
• "I don't want to sit at a doctor's office all day long just to find out what I already know... that I have a sleep problem."
• "My life is too full of work and parenting and caregiving for me to make it to a doctor's appointment, even if I really wanted to go."
• "What's the big deal? I don't believe sleep is crucial to good overall health and, therefore, I don't feel the need to see a doctor about my problems."

If it were up to me, I would send everyone directly to a sleep specialist for their problems. 

However, I'm a realist... I recognize that this isn't actually the way many, if not most, people pursue their health issues. It's not always practical or affordable. While I may have a great team of doctors, not everybody is so blessed. I get it. 

So if people are more likely to head to the Internet to learn more about sleep, then why not build a great one-stop location on the web where they can do that? 

That's the aim at SleepyHeadCENTRAL: to serve as a crossroads where people can visit, time and again, to learn more about sleep health. 

WHAT MAKES SHC DIFFERENT 

As you likely already know, there are some great websites for basic information out there, but there are at least as many (and probably more) sites that offer bad information or mainly exist to sell products and have no interest in actually helping people with their sleep problems. Even the good ones can fall short because they are too complicated to navigate, the information they provide is too clinical for many to comprehend, or these sites are just plain impersonal.

The goal of SleepyHeadCENTRAL is to make it interesting, make it easy, make it personal. You are not the sum of your health problems, you are still a person, an individual with a brain and feelings and attitudes and ideas. That's the way I'd like to keep things around here. Casual, useful, friendly and service-oriented. A community where people can seek help knowing a real person is on the other end of the line, waiting to serve them.

• Maybe your aunt has a problem with legs that twitch all night, keeping her awake and making her cranky. 
• Or you could be worried about your 2-year-old, who snores loudly.... What to do? 
• Or perhaps you find your spouse roaming the halls in a trance twice weekly... scary...
• Or what about your brother, who keeps making jokes about falling asleep at the wheel?
• Or, suppose, you wake up in the middle of the night gasping... what then?

It matters that we care about each others' sleep habits and problems. Sleep may be a personal and intimate physiological process, but when individuals do not get sufficient quality sleep, the impact of that on the community can be dramatic--even tragic. 

This sign is no joke. It's posted alongside a
Utah highway to help prevent major accidents.

Poor sleep is a root cause for many public health and safety concerns, including motor vehicle accidents, bad falls, and poor judgment in crisis situations. People lose their jobs or fail in their marriages or have to drop out of school because of untreated sleep problems. And people who are sick with other chronic illnesses, like diabetes, cancer, heart disease and hypertension, will not process treatment adequately and to its maximum effect if they have problems sleeping. 

Sleep is the time and space in our lives when we are meant to heal and recharge, after all. 

WHAT SHC OFFERS 

The fact that you've read this far down the post means you care about sleep. Hurray! I hope I can serve you in your effort to become more informed. Here are some of the things I've set up at SleepyHeadCENTRAL which are already available to you as a visitor. 

• At the top of the page are tabs that will take you to solid information related to sleep health basics, special population interests, diagnostic and treatment questions, and the many different resources people can turn to for help. I regularly update these and am open to suggestions from site visitors who have recommendations.
  
• The blog, updated several days a week, addresses a myriad of common sleep related concerns: insomnia, sleepwalking, apnea, movement disorders, anxiety, jet leg, and more. You'll also find links to and discussion about sleep health legislation you can participate in, fun spotlights on sleep in culture, quotes from sleep medicine giants, and weekly sleep hygiene tips that just about everybody can act on to improve their sleep habits. Again, I take my cues from visitors: what is it you'd like to learn more about? Contact me and I'll make sure and build your ideas into the site in a way that helps everyone.
  
• In addition, you can find YouTube videos and channels, a feed of recent sleep news articles, links to other excellent online resources. While I cannot address specific problems and am not qualified to diagnose anyone, I can certainly point you in the right direction. Again, these resources are regularly updated.
  
• SleepyHeadCENTRAL also offers an opt-in monthly newsletter which offers subscribers free sleep product giveaways; the very latest in sleep news; links to monthly sleep health polls; connections to public sleep health opportunities; and access to sleep health awareness campaigns. This is an easy way to engage with me directly!
  
• Future opportunities to chat in Google+ hangouts, Twitter, local live gatherings or webinars are on the horizon as well. 

Reaching out creates a ripple effect, yes?

HOW TO CONNECT WITH SHC
Finally, it's super easy to interact with SleepyHeadCENTRAL. You have many options! You can:

• Subscribe to the free monthly email newsletter and enjoy member benefits!
• Follow the SleepyHeadCENTRAL feed in your favorite newsfeed aggregator
• Have new blog posts automatically sent to you directly in email
• Comment on blog posts that you can relate to; I love to hear from my visitors!
• Send in your sleep health questions to be addressed in the Mailbox section
• Search the entire website for information about your sleep health interests using the search bar
• Share your favorite posts in Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Blogger and/or LinkedIn
• Connect SHC with your friends by using utilities from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Google+
• Email helpful information to friends and family
• Visit SHC any time you like by bookmarking SleepyHeadCENTRAL in your browser

REMEMBER, SHC IS ME!
Maybe you've noticed... there is no advertising on this website because SleepyHeadCENTRAL exists to serve healthcare consumers--that means you! Sponsors, volunteers and donors make up the backbone of support needed to keep the site sustainable, but for you, this information is 100% free and in no way aligned with special interests.

It's just you and me and a whole lotta other people who care about sleep, all under one digital umbrella. How cool is that?

To learn more about the mission and background behind SleepyHeadCENTRAL, click here.

THANK YOU FOR VISITING!

I'm so glad you stopped by! Do come back again. 

And don't hesitate to contact me! Have questions? Comments? Insights? Feedback? Want to help? I can be reached directly at sleepyheadcentral@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. 

Please tell your friends about SleepyHeadCENTRAL; your word of mouth is gold, in my book.

Sleep well, and may all your dreams be sweet!

Tamara Sellman, curator

www.SleepyHeadCENTRAL.com

Curator Tamara Sellman, RPSGT, CCSH

INSOMNIA CENTRAL || Do you have insomnia... or do you have sleep apnea?

Today Barry Krakow MD pushed this question in an article at Baystreet. From the article:

"Researchers at the Sleep and Human Health Institute and Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences, Ltd investigated drug failure in 1210 chronic insomnia patients and found 91% of those who completed sleep studies actually suffered from previously undiagnosed sleep apnea, a critical factor likely to be aggravating their insomnia."

How does this happen?

Insomniacs often find many reasons to explain their sleep problems. Doctors can be misdirected by their insomniac patients' cues as well.

Generally, many patients believe they can't sleep because of stress and anxiety, or pain, or because they have to use the bathroom all night. And while these are all good indications that insomnia is present, there are a number of other things to consider.

Can you relate to this discussion?
Click the bar to share your story!

• Insomnia is often the sign of another underlying condition. It isn't often considered a stand-alone diagnosis (though it can be).
• When patients are getting out of bed frequently at night, it might not be because they have to use the restroom excessively. Sleep apnea forces arousal from sleep, and the body responds by sending out stress hormones, which in turn stimulate the bladder, leaving the woken person to believe they are using the restroom because their bladder is full. However, it isn't always full, but it could leave someone feeling that way because of the stress response following the apnea events they aren't aware they're having. This can lead to the bathroom urgency they experience, not necessarily caused by a full bladder itself.
• People really do not know how much they actually sleep at night. As a sleep technologist, I can tell you first hand that the vast majority of my patients sleep most of the night and yet they leave the lab feeling like they didn't sleep at all. Sleep state misperception, otherwise known as paradoxical insomnia, is a subjective sense of never having slept despite objective evidence to the contrary.
  
  From Psychology Today: "[S]leep studies have revealed that people sometimes have great difficulty accurately estimating how long it takes them to fall asleep and just how long they are awake during the night. People who misperceive the sleep state they are in just aren’t good at making these estimates. This is most likely due to high levels of arousal that keep the brain more active even during sleep and make judgments of wakefulness versus sleep difficult."
• Patients using multiple kinds of medications for multiple health issue, including for sleep, may still feel they can't sleep and, ultimately, the interactions of all these medications may truly be to blame. However, doctors aren't always in the know about what's in their patients' medicine cabinets, or they may not be aware of the side effects of additional nutraceuticals, vitamins or supplements their patients are taking because patients may not tell their doctors about these added treatments.
  
  Also important to consider: the most popular approach to treating insomnia is pharmaceutical, which might be part of the problem. Many prescribed sleep aids can actually worsen or lead to apnea. The good news is that some, though not all, sleep health professionals redirect insomnia patients to cognitive behavior therapists instead of, or in conjunction with, prescription sleep aids to see whether behavioral approaches might be more long-lasting and healthy for them. This is one way to avoid adding the complication of apnea.
• Patients with chronic disease may often blame all of their symptoms on their single diagnosis ("it's the MS," or "I have insomnia because of my chemo side effects," for instance). Again, this might be true, but it's just as likely that patients will have multiple conditions, including the presence of restless legs or sleep-disordered breathing, in tandem with other health problems. Doctors may accept this reasoning without looking into the problem further as they aren't often well-versed in sleep health (on average, MDs spend about 1 hour of their entire medical school training learning about sleep). 

If you factor in these pieces of the puzzle, the broader picture of insomnia as a primary condition becomes a little more murky.

Typically, complaints of insomnia do not automatically send patients to sleep labs for overnight studies. However, with the growing number of patients at higher risk for sleep apnea (due to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease or hypertension), it probably makes better sense to have an overnight sleep study to rule out apnea before tossing out insomnia as merely behavioral in origin. It is possible, of course, to have both, and for different reasons.

It's important to note that patients who are at higher risk for sleep apnea don't generally qualify for overnight home studies because of the general complexity of their health.

If you have insomnia, please open up this discussion with your doctor. The best way to isolate the root cause of any health problem is to sit down and work as a team, and that means insomniacs need to ask for help and demand answers, and doctors need to investigate all the possibilities until the root causes are discovered, and then initiate treatment.

This will mean more tests, more questions, and closer looks at all medications including over-the-counter supplements, but it will also mean getting to the root of your insomnia so you can best treat it.

Events: September 8-14, 2014 is Idiopathic Hypersomnia Awareness Week

From the Hypersomnia Foundation website:

"Hypersomnia is a debilitating neurological disorder where patients lose their cognitive ability, sleep excessively, yet still crave sleep above all else. ...This means they often struggle to work, operate a vehicle or live independently. In fact, often just waking up is an ordeal in and of itself with even sonic boom alarms, the help of family and powerful stimulants not being enough. While the onset of symptoms is generally in early adulthood it routinely takes up to a decade for new patients to be formally diagnosed…"

"Sleepy" 

The founder of SHC was diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnia (IH) several years ago after finding herself faceplanting into her laptop during engaging teleconferences with clients. At some point, the daytime sleepiness was so severe that she was afraid to drive more than an hour at a time without having to stop to nap. She finally realized that "being a working mother" was not a reasonable explanation for her otherwise unreasonable symptoms. She participated in both an overnight polysomnogram and a daytime multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) to uncover the source of her excesses daytime sleepiness. It turned out to be a combination of IH and Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS). Treating both conditions has made all the difference in the world. She can drive safely, manage online meetings with maximal alertness and get through the day without taking added naps, which impose on her already busy schedule.

If you feel excessively sleepy, day in and day out, and you want your energy and your hours back (!), please consult your physician about potential causes.

To Sleep Professionals attending the BRPT Symposium this weekend in Portland, OR...

If you're a sleep professional attending the BRPT Symposium this weekend in Portland, OR and you run into a yahoo who looks like this, do not be afraid! It's just me (maybe without the sunglasses while I'm indoors...) and I'm attending the conference not only as the founder of SleepyHeadCENTRAL, but also as a practicing  RPSGT and CCSH, and as a representative of the Washington State Sleep Society. I'll be here all day Saturday and Sunday.

Instead, be sure to stop me and ask about SleepyHeadCENTRAL! I'm happy to talk with you about SHC's mission and goals and would love to entertain collaborations with other healthcare professionals in the future; I'm always on the lookout for ideas for spreading the word about sleep health to the general public and handling requests for website content or your feedback about what SHC currently offers.

--Tamara Kaye Sellman