Raffles Hospital offers new method to accurately test for sleep apnea.

SINGAPORE—If you snore when you sleep, you're certainly not alone.

Doctors say one in four snores in his sleep. And the older you get, the more likely you'll snore, due to diminished muscle tone.

Almost one in two older men and women aged 60 and above, snores in their sleep.

What's more disturbing is that snoring can sometimes be due to what's known as "obstructive sleep apnea"—that's when you stop breathing while you're asleep.

Raffles Hospital has introduced a new sleep test that is supposed to be more accurate in pinpointing where the obstruction is.

The test can even be done in the comfort of your home, so there's no need to go to hospital.

Doctors say if you stop breathing in your sleep more than five times an hour, you have mild sleep apnea. If it is more than 40 times an hour, then the condition is considered severe.

Those who have obstructive sleep apnea can be treated by wearing an air mask. Another method is surgery to remove the tissue that is blocking the airway.

Most hospitals that conduct sleep tests require patients to be strapped down to be monitored overnight.

This is uncomfortable and can only tell how often the patient stops breathing in his sleep.

It does not identify where the obstruction to breathing is or what exactly the obstruction is. This could be the tongue, tonsils or polyps in the nose.

But now patients have another option—the Apnea Graph test offered by Raffles Hospital.

A patient needs to drop in at the clinic, so that a doctor can insert a fine catheter down the airway.

He can then head home with the catheter, which is lined with four temperature and pressure sensors. These will track where and when the patient stops breathing as he sleeps.

Dr Stephen T S Lee, who is a consultant ear, nose & throat surgeon at Raffles Hospital, said, "Currently your doctor would generally use a telescope to access your airway, make an eyeball assessment and determine—based on his or her assessment—what's the level of obstruction.

"It has been the only real technique that we had to date to analyse the level of obstruction. That's what we've been using. However when you analyse the level of obstruction based on telescopic examination, you do suffer from a few weaknesses.

"Firstly it's subjective. You're not able to quantify your outcome. It's based on a snapshot, meaning that you take it at one point in time, and it is not being done of a patient who is sleeping but a person who is awake.

"Unfortunately we know that the dynamics of the airway movement in sleep are very different from a person who's awake."

He went on to explain the advantage of the Apnea Graph test offered by Raffles Hospital.

"The advantage of this technique is that your results are based on a continuous six hours of recording, and it's being done in actual sleep condition. And you're able to quantify the problem.

"In other words, the results can come like that—you can say that it might be 90% upper airway obstruction...and 10% in the lower. So a person who comes back with that kind of results would be a patient that's likely to do well in surgery.

"We have very effective surgeries for treating the palate and treating the nose. Such a patient would have his results improved...up to 80% (success rate). With this technique, we can save patients from unnecessary surgeries."

Raffles Hospital claims it is the only hospital in Singapore which has performed over a dozen Apnea Graph tests since May, putting it in the forefront of a sleep apnea treatment that is becoming the standard in Europe. - CNA/ir

This is a news article published by Channel NewsAsia on August 31st, 2007.

The 8 Mistakes Most Insomniacs Make

As a result of “Learned Insomnia”, people usually try to re-cooperate by taking actions to work around their Insomnia. All these actions actually make Insomnia worse, by drastically weakening the sleep system and perpetuating it instead of solving the problem, because they do not attack the “cause” of Insomnia, only its symptoms.

Here are some of these actions, you'll probably notice what you're doing right now falls somewhere on to this list. Being aware of these actions and their effects will give you a better perspective on your Insomnia:

1. Taking Sleeping Pills. As you will soon see in the next section, this is the death rattle, which in most cases turns Insomnia into a lifelong condition. We'll explore all the effects of pills on Insomnia in the next section.

2. Going to bed early, and sleeping late on weekends to “Make up Sleep”. This makes Insomnia even more likely to happen as you are putting your body temperature levels out of wack. Creating the same effect that jet lag produces. This weakens your body's natural sleep system. You will also limit your exposure to sunlight, which plays a key role in your melatonin hormone levels.

3. Trying to “make up” sleep with long naps during the day. This also weakens your body's natural sleep response, as you will be less likely to fall asleep later. Naps are okay, and actually part of a way to cure Insomnia, only if you take them properly, as I'll show you later on.

4. Eating large amounts of food, sugar, or candy before going to sleep to try to make yourself sleepy or tired. Doing this does not solve the “cause” of insomnia, which is a weakened sleep system and a non-responsive “natural sleep response”. You may feel sleepy, but you will still wake up un-rested. Nearly all the sugar you eat is turned into fat by your body, will in turn can create risk of Sleep Apnea.

5. Drinking alcohol before going to bed to induce sleep. Many people think that drinking a glass of wine before bed is a good idea. It might make you feel sleepy but the disadvantages are many. Alcohol dehydrates your body, making it more likely you will wake up during the night thirsty for water. You will also most likely feel un-rested, drowsy, and dis-oriented the next day (hang-over). Drinking alcohol before bed will also increase fat gain drastically.

CAUTION: Alcohol should NEVER be combined with sleeping pills, it is extremely dangerous, and it has caused death.

6. Not exercising, and using your “lack of sleep” as an excuse not to exercise. Lack of exercise plays a key-role in chronic Insomnia. Not exercising due to Insomnia only makes the Insomnia Cycle stronger; not exercising weakens the natural sleep response, as well as the sleep system. Not exercising weakens your metabolism, weakening your heart, creating respiratory problems, making you more likely to wake up during the night, or suffer from sleep apnea.

7. Trying to force sleep. This will only increase your anxiety and frustration, weakening the “natural sleep response”, and making the “SLEEP = PAIN” anchor stronger and more apparent for your mind.

8. Reading a book or watching TV in bed to induce sleepiness. Not only does watching TV or reading keep your “conscious” racing mind active, it also diminishes the “natural sleep response”. As this supports the negative anchor in your mind that the process of falling asleep is something you have to AVOID. The more awake time you spend in your bed, the more your mind associates that the BED = AWAKE, SLEEP = PAIN.

Kacper Postawski is an innovative sleep science researcher and the creator of the Sleep Wiz, your surefire natural remedy to end insomnia forever and enjoy energizing sleep in as little as 3 days! He can show you how to fall asleep effortlessly, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by optimizing your sleep system! He dispels the “8-hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know.