A third of the population suffers or has suffered from a sleep disorder at some point

16 March day dream world

-sleep apnea patients, untreated, are 10 times more risk of having a car accident

– sleep apnea is considered a cardiovascular risk

Seville, March 2012.- it is estimated that a third of the population suffers from, or has at some point, a sleep disorder that needs therapeutic guidance, says Dr. Juan Bautista Lorite, Chief of the service of Neurology and sleep unit of USP Sagrado Corazón. The most striking are the parasomnias (sleepwalking, night terrors, nightmares), insomnia is one of the best-known and others manifested more in the vigil that sleeping (narcolepsy and other Hypersomnia), but the most common disorder that affects more intensely the health of which suffers from, it is, without doubt, of sleep apneas.

Sleep is an essential necessity for good physical and mental health. The quality of sleep influences decisively the diurnal activity and the quality of sleep depends not only on the number of hours of sleep. Any incidence in the dream causes a not sleep ”, and therefore worsen the quality of sleep, cause at the same time disorders during wakefulness, attention deficit, headache, tendency to sleep, disorders of memory, labour and traffic accidents, apathy.

In the sleep unit of USP Sagrado Corazón (composed of neurologists, neurofisiologo, pulmonologist and ORL), are studied, they diagnose and treat disorders associated with sleep, being nocturnal polysomnography test that has higher value diagnosis for sleep disorders.

Apneas-Hipoapneas syndrome during sleep (SHAHS), a cardiovascular risk

This disease affects 4% of men, 2% of women. In the child population is most frequent between 2 and 5 years, with a 3% affected in this age group. In general, it is estimated that only 10% of patients are diagnosed.

Sleep apnea is considered a cardio-vascular risk (as it is high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, smoking), and direct cause of hypertension, cerebral and cardiac infarcts, continues Dr. Bautista Lorite. It affects daily activity, causing tiredness, apathy, drowsiness, lack of attention, decreased sexual desire, and above all road traffic accidents and labour (untreated patients are 10 times more risk of having a traffic accident).

A symptom clear of the apena is snoring, SHAHS patients are roncadores, not necessarily a heavy snoring, but it is an unstable snoring, with changes in the pace and in intensity, and occasionally heard them that they stop breathing, stops that end with a heavy snoring and even sudden movements and postural change, explains Dr. Bautista Lorite. Morning complain of not having slept well, headache, feeling of abotargamiento and some even think that they have insomnia because they wake up with a feeling of having not slept.

Of sleep apneas are corrected with proper treatment. Patients are able to improve the snoring and above all improve your quality of life significantly, concludes Dr. Bautista Lorite.

Nocturnal polysomnography, also known as sleep, as a definitive test for the diagnosis study.
La polysomnography (PSG) night is the only definitive test to reach the majority of sleep disorders diagnosis. In this test is recorded on a polygraph biological signals that we are interested in studying, it is a safe and painless test:

-brain activity
-muscle activity
-eye movements
-heart rate
-flow nasal and oral
-breathing movements of thorax and abdomen
-O2 saturation in blood
-body position

dream to study must be spontaneousexplains Dr. Bautista Lorite, why not it induces sleep with medication, and the duration of the test is 7-8 hours of record time, preparation and collection.

During the PSG is controlled recording the signals correctly and is corrected if any sensor not connected properly.
Signals are recorded in their entirety and are subsequently reviewed by a medical specialist in clinical neurophysiology which will issue a report with the results and conclusions of the trial.

The alterations of sleep that are diagnosed, or study more frequently in the PSG are:

-Apneas-Hipoapneas syndrome during the dream (SHAHS)
-insomnia
-syndrome of newspapers leg movements during sleep
-epilepsy
-delay in language acquisition
-night terrors, sleepwalking and nightmares
-narcolepsy

also Dr. Bautista Loriteexplains that they are multiple disorders of origins and varied symptoms, sometimes-induced illnesses and are often risk factors for other pathologies, in some serious cases, the correct diagnosis and subsequent treatment are fundamental.

The night PSG allows us to study the full dream of a patient, from the beginning until the awakening, analyzing all the possible physiological signals.

The sleep unit of USP Sagrado Corazón, carried out nearly 500 annual sleep studies. This unit has a global approach to patients with symptoms suggestive of sleep disorders, studying all possible associated pathologies, with all the personal and instrumental resources for a proper evaluation of the patient with a sleep disorder suspected, concludes Dr. Bautista Lorite.

About USP hospital

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Madrid, USP hospital is the first hospital private group in the Spanish market. Currently, USP hospital boasts a network of 12 hospitals and 23 health centres which assist 4,000 doctors annually serving more than two million patients.