Without sleep, we die! When totally deprived of sleep, early rat studies found that rats died within 16 to 21 days, experiencing weight loss though eating all they desire. There are some human sleep dysfunctions that create intractable insomnia, with death occurring in several months. I know these are extreme examples, but to some extent many of us are either shortening our lives, needlessly experiencing diseases or just raising havoc with the quality of our lives and experiencing needless depression and/or mood disorders.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recognizes 78 different formal sleep disorders, with 50 to 70 million Americans suffering from long-term sleep and wakefulness disorders.
Why Do We Need Regular Sleep?
Sleep allows our body to conserve energy and apply this energy to growing new tissue and repairing existing tissue. Only during sleep can we produce new chemicals, supply more blood to our muscles and allow growth. The immune system repairs itself and important hormones are released. There are glial cells in our brain that are there to cushion and protect our neurons while awake, like styrofoam in a box of fine crystal.
Only in deep sleep are these cells able to shrink to one tenth their size, allowing the important fluid exchange of our brain, similar to flushing the toilet. Poor sleepers, having not allowed this cleansing, experience the “foggy” morning brain requiring coffee to get started. That is not all they experience. A large percentage of poor sleepers acquire dementia and Alzheimer’s as they grow older. Untreated OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) can result in a several hundred percent increase in heart disease and cancer, not to mention a sharp increase in fatal accidents. Oh, by the way, too much sleep can also have serious side effects.
It was only relatively recently that medicine has come to the realization of the importance of sleep and created specialties of Sleep Medicine and Dental Sleep Medicine. Sleep centers have sprouted up in most cities. I much prefer that a patient is tested in a sleep center rather than with an at home study because the brain waves are recorded in a center to inform the doctor that the rather important organ, your brain, is acquiring the proper stages of sleep. Many psychological problems, treated with dangerous drugs, can result from sleep dysfunction. To administer a drug without diagnosing the etiology of the problem is treating the symptom, not the patient. There are some simple written tests that can, with fair accuracy, indicate the need for a sleep test. Some dentists and physicians have these tests. At my office, Advanced Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Center, we administer these tests at no charge. We can even email you one.
Occasionally sleep disorders cause behavior problems in children. Early diagnosis and treatment can change not only the child’s life, but the parents stress level.
For more information about my practice, or to contact me, visit: www.aodtc.com.
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