A peaceful slumber is something everyone needs, but for many, sufficient, high-quality sleep is frustratingly elusive.
According to the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, anywhere between 50 and 70 million Americans live with sleep disorders, which include insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome — just to name a few.
If sleep problems have disrupted your rest — and life — you too might have a sleep disorder.
The good news is that the knowledgeable, experienced, and compassionate provider team at Houston Neurological Institute is ready to diagnose and expertly treat sleep disorders. There’s no substitute for sound sleep and consistent good rest. We can help you enjoy them again.
Lost rest costs you at home, at work, and at school.
If you’re exhausted and sleep-deprived, there’s no way you can perform at your best, and you’re at higher risk for serious health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
Aside from exhaustion at inopportune times, there are more subtle signs you may live with a sleep disorder, like:
The first four sleep disorders above can affect anyone, but people living with epilepsy have the last one: nocturnal seizures.
Here are some more subtle signs of sleep disorders to be on the lookout for.
If you’re challenged trying to concentrate during the day on work, home, or school tasks, don’t immediately chalk it up to a character fault or attention deficit disorder (ADD)!
This problem may be due to not getting enough sleep or deep rest.
Here again, feeling grumpy may not be linked to a negative event, but to exhaustion.
Besides a low threshold for minor annoyances, you might also have a hard time managing your emotions overall.
If you didn’t hand that paper in, RSVP to a social event, or complete a work assignment by the required date, it could be because you’re in a fog of fatigue.
You may not be a natural klutz — that unexpected fall you experienced, or bump or bruise you sustained, may result from simply being depleted.
Has your weight crept upward? If you’re living with a sleep disorder, appetite hormones get disrupted, which can cause you to eat more. Combine this with reduced physical activity because you’re tired, and you’ve got a recipe for weight gain.
Compromised sleep and subpar rest can affect your libido for the worse. Like with your appetite, hormones control your sex drive, and when they become dysregulated by insufficient or interrupted sleep, your romantic life suffers.
The stress hormone cortisol also increases with poor sleep, which drains your energy and measurably lowers your libido. Erectile dysfunction and fertility problems can also occur.
If you’re experiencing these symptoms, talk to your Houston Neurological Institute provider. They’re likely to recommend that you undergo a sleep study at our full-service sleep center.
When you spend the night here with us, our team of board-certified sleep experts can get to the root of your problem through tests like polysomnography, an exam administered overnight that monitors your heart rate, breathing, oxygen levels, brain waves, and eye and leg movements. It helps diagnose sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy.
We also offer studies using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device for sleep apnea and multiple sleep latency tests (MSLT), which calculate the time you take to fall asleep and how quickly you reach REM (rapid eye movement) sleep while napping during the day. You get this test after an overnight sleep study, and it can help diagnose conditions like narcolepsy.
We also perform maintenance of wakefulness tests (MWT), designed to reveal your daytime alertness.
Once your Houston Neurological Institute provider makes a sleep disorder diagnosis, they’ll create a treatment plan that may include:
Don’t lose another wink — or opportunity to enjoy life. Pursue treatment for your sleep issues; we’re here to help.
Contact our Pasadena or Pearland office to make an appointment, or schedule one online.
