Having Trouble Sleeping? We Can Help

Good sleep is a pillar of health. Unfortunately, a hectic lifestyle and nonstop digital distractions with light pollution make it harder to get the good night of deep, restorative sleep that your body and brain need.

Even though most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep to remove toxins, repair cellular damage, and rest, a third of women and men in the United States sleep for less than that each night. Almost half of workers say that they’re tired during the day, which suggests that even those who sleep more don’t sleep well.

Sleepiness isn’t just inconvenient. It’s dangerous; drowsy driving contributes to 6,000 fatal car crashes in the US every year. 

At Advanced Medical Care in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, our neurologists provide sleep medicine services to diagnose and treat sleep disorders. From sleep studies to customized treatment plans, we help you get the rest you really need.

Do you feel sleepy or groggy most days? Here’s how sleep medicine helps.

Why you need to sleep

Culture values productivity at the expense of rest and even sleep. Although there’s a mythology surrounding the supermen and superwomen entrepreneurs who sacrifice sleep in order to build success, that’s all it is: a myth.

In fact, many successful people prioritize sleep. An independent study of 748 entrepreneurs even found that those who were sleep-deprived couldn’t analyze opportunities as well as those who got at least seven hours of sleep.

Contrary to the notion that sleep is inactive and unproductive, it’s a highly productive and necessary state. When you sleep, your body:

• Repairs damaged cells
• Removes toxins from the brain
• Regulates hormone production
• Remembers and processes new information
• Allows nerve cells to communicate and reorganize 
• Produces and releases proteins

Cut down on your sleep, and you cut down on these activities that your body and brain need to function optimally. If your sleep is deep and long enough, you should wake up energized. If you don’t, it’s time for sleep medicine.

What sleep studies do 

If you don’t feel rested or energized, or if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, the first step toward a solution is a sleep study. At our Queens sleep center, we administer tests such as:

Nocturnal Polysomnography (NPSG)

During this overnight test, we measure your brain waves, blood oxygen level, and heart rate and breathing while you sleep. An NPSG also measures eye and leg movements. You may be able to do an NPSG at home, too.

Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT)

If you suffer from daytime sleepiness, we administer an MSLT to determine how quickly you fall asleep during normal waking hours. We give you 4-5 opportunities to sleep every two hours, and then evaluate how quickly you reach rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Continue Positive Airway Pressure Titration (CPAP)

A CPAP titration study is done overnight. We attach you to a CPAP machine and determine optimal settings to help you breathe continuously through the night to prevent sleep apneas — periods where you stop breathing.

Split night with CPAP Titration (NPSG/CPAP)

We can also do both the NPSG and the CPAP titration in one night. In the first half of the night, we administer NPSG. After getting those results, we then attach you to a CPAP machine and evaluate the settings. 

Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT)

This daytime polysomnographic test measures your ability to stay awake in soporific circumstances. During the test, you have a meal and then sit quietly in bed in a darkened room. We record and evaluate how quickly you fall asleep.

We customize solutions

Once we have the data from your tests, we customize a protocol to help you achieve better and deeper sleep. Treatments vary depending on your diagnosis, which could include:

• Obstructive, central, or mixed sleep apnea
• Insomnia
• Restless leg syndrome
• Central disorders of hypersomnolence
• Circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders
• Narcolepsy
• Shift work sleep disorder
• Delayed sleep phase syndrome
• REM sleep behavior disorder, such as sleepwalking

Solutions to help you sleep better could encompass everything from lifestyle changes to a CPAP machine to medications. And if you have trouble getting used to using CPAP, don’t worry: There’s a test for that, too. A PAP-Nap is a daytime study to help you adjust to your CPAP machine. 

Don’t drag yourself through your days because you can’t sleep well at night. Get the sleep medicine you need by contacting the Advanced Medical Care team by phone or online today.