Today's #Sleeptember FACT --- Shiftworkers as crimebusters?

#SLEEPTEMBER

There's a significant portion of our population at work between the hours of 10pm and 6am. It seems fitting that their alertness at these late hours can lead to the foiling of some overnight crimes.

Click here to check out the news article and video (above)
about sleep technologists foiling a pharmacy robbery. 

(And a personal shout out to sleep techs everywhere!)

Sleep and Technology: Ways to quiet your smartphone for sweet, uninterrupted sleep

"Byemobile" image courtesy GoPixPic.com

One of the common challenges that sleep technologists have while working with patients in the lab setting is the requirement that all technology be turned off at bedtime. No television, no tablet, no game device, no cell phone, no radio.

"How am I supposed to sleep?" is often the outcry when the television or radio is removed from the laboratory setting. They want to read their tablet or play that last round of digital Solitaire, which is actually going to keep them awake at night, thanks to the blue-light emissions.

On the one hand, it's a great opportunity for the sleep technologist to educate their patients on bedtime habits that can challenge a good night's sleep.

What is far more challenging, however, is to get patients to understand that having a cell phone that is turned on all night may be one of the biggest problems that person faces when trying to achieve quality sleep.

The argument for leaving the phone ring and vibrate tones on is often that the particular individual is "on call" for their job and can't turn it off. Or they have small children at home who may miss them, or a teenager at home by themselves, or a loved one in the hospital with a critical condition, and they need to be able to take incoming calls in order to be in touch at a moment's notice.

Fair enough. Life happens.

But you can do something about this. Most smartphones these days have features that allow you to create a "Do Not Disturb" distinction of some sort, which will silence and send all incoming calls to the voicemail except for those which you give a special exception. You really CAN turn your phone off to everyone at bedtime except for that teenager who is going to be out late and needs to phone in if they are going to be out even later. You can also specify for individual incoming calls or texts.

Also, a word about notifications. Some patients who don't turn their phones off will receive chimes all night long from text messages, often not from people directly (though this happens, too) but via social networks like Facebook and Linked In, where notifications have been enabled. This can be extremely intrusive to one's sleep patterns if the text chime is constantly going off.

You can silence these notifications through your smartphone settings as well so that your phone basically "holds your calls" until you are awake again and can page through your notifications during the light of day.

This is really helpful for people who have social connections crossing many time zones, as their contacts may be posting at what is a normal time for them without realizing that the notification for their message is actually pinging their followers much later in the evening or extremely early in the morning.

Give it a try! I know my sleep is much better now that I am in charge of my cell phone activity. You can easily do this for yourself and, trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Priority settings for Android || c|net.com
Do not disturb settings for iPhone || Houston Chronicle
Blocking mode for Samsung Galaxy || GottaBeMobile

If for some reason these options don't work for you, or you would prefer a "do not disturb" feature as an app, you can also check your cell phone app store for free options to help give you control over your incoming calls and texts.

Note from the Curator: This Week is Sleep Technologist Appreciation Week

I work as a registered polysomnographic (sleep) technologist (RPSGT), but my first encounter with sleep labs was as a patient several years ago. I had been suffering some amazing bouts of fatigue and waking up with a sore throat, headache and complaints from my husband that my breathing wasn't right while I slept. I gasped or snored loudly or, it seemed to him, I stopped breathing altogether.

So I went in for a sleep study, which ruled in some things, ruled out some things, and missed actually something else entirely (which is nobody's fault as I wasn't presenting other symptoms to encourage the docs to look in a different direction).

I won't share the sleep study experience itself here, but I will share this:

My sleep technologist was a very soft-spoken young man who gently and adequately answered my questions. I was super nervous going into the study, especially when I discovered I would be watched by video and audio all night by some guy (or guys?) I didn't even know in another room. That's creepy for any woman to ponder. But after interacting with him, I felt much more secure that he was a medical professional and I would be in good hands.

He was also very good about showing me how to use a CPAP mask in the event I needed to switch to it in the night (a common feature of a split night polysomnogram). In fact, I expected the mask to be unpleasant and was quite nicely surprised at how easy it was to wear. I ended up not using the mask, and still don't need to use CPAP, but I must credit this sleep tech with making my first trial with positive airway pressure a pleasant, stress-free experience. Often the first experience a patient has with any kind of medical device will be a key predictor in their ability to follow through in using it later. A good first impression really makes a difference.

Ultimately I fell asleep and they got the data they needed. I left the lab feeling cared for and not at all violated even with cameras in my room.

Thank you to all the sleep techs out there who give at least 12 hours a night and several days a week over to the task of conducting studies so that people like me can be observed, diagnosed and treated. I know first hand how hard it is to stay up all night, to deal with unruly patients, to work around equipment failures, and to ensure everything works out okay in the end.

--TKS, curator, SleepyHeadCENTRAL.com

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