Snoring Isn’t Sexy Members Achieve Dental Sleep Medicine Facility Accreditation from the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock:
It's been my honor to serve as the chairman of the Accreditation Committee for the last few years.

Tequesta, FL (PRWEB) February 27, 2014

Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea can cause serious medical problems. Obstructive sleep apnea can increase the risk for heart attack, stroke, diabetes and other serious illnesses. Choosing a sleep-disorders dentist who is qualified to work with your physician is essential to your health or the health of a loved one.

Many Snoring Isn’t Sexy dentists seek advanced education and accreditation through the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM). AADSM Dental Sleep Medicine Facility Accreditation is a voluntary process created to recognize competency and delivery of optimal care to dental sleep medicine patients. By achieving AADSM accreditation, a facility displays to patients, medical professionals and reimbursement decision-makers that it meets the high standards necessary to provide quality patient care.

“I am honored to have achieved site Accreditation by the AADSM,” said Nancy Addy, DDS, Diplomate and President Elect of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine and Snoring Isn’t Sexy member. “It is visible proof, to referring physicians and patients, of my commitment to delivering the best Dental Sleep Medicine care to those seeking help in treating their sleep disorders with oral appliance therapy.”

To earn accreditation through the AADSM, practices must meet the quality measures outlined in the Standards for Accreditation of Dental Sleep Medicine Facilities. These Standards aim to ensure that an accredited facility demonstrates Proficiency, Practice and Professionalism regarding the treatment of patients with sleep-related breathing disorders.

Six Snoring Isn’t Sexy members have achieved this high level of proficiency, professionalism and quality patient care: 

•     Nancy Addy, DDS        Leawood, KS
•     Sheri Katz, DDS            Decatur, GA
•     Norman Blumenstock, DDS    Monroe Township, NJ
•     Michael Simmons, DMD        Tarzana and Palmdale, CA
•     Kent Smith, DDS            Irving, TX
•     John H. Tucker, DMD        Erie, PA

For these six practices, the program represents an opportunity to distinguish their facility and increase local understanding and acceptance of dental sleep medicine.

About Snoring Isn’t Sexy
Snoring Isn't Sexy is a unique public awareness resource that patients can trust to find information about obstructive sleep apnea and the treatment options that are available. To ensure that patients visiting Snoring Isn’t Sexy find a trusted resource for snoring and obstructive sleep medicine, dentists who join must provide evidence of their competency in dental sleep medicine.

About the AADSM
The AADSM is the only nonprofit national professional society dedicated exclusively to the practice of dental sleep medicine. Dental sleep medicine focuses on the management of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea through the use of oral appliance therapy — an effective alternative treatment for patients who prefer it to CPAP. Once a patient is diagnosed with OSA by a board-certified sleep physician, a dentist trained in dental sleep medicine can provide treatment with oral appliance therapy.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1763155#ixzz2uda6UgXK

TWO SIGNIFICANT INDICATORS OF SLEEP APNEA- BMI and NECK CIRCUMFERENCE. Calculate them here:

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock:
Calculate your Sleep Apnea risks factors here:

The Body Mass Index (BMI) appraisal is one of the most widely used tools to measure healthy body weight. This ratio of height to weight will help assess whether you are underweight, normal weight or overweight.

 The higher the BMI, the greater the risk of some diseases, including:

Sleep Apnea, Stroke, High blood pressure, Coronary artery disease, Osteoarthritis, Some cancers,  Diabetes type 2.

Sleep Apnea awareness is “contagious”. As more and more people learn about SA, doctors are driven to get training and certification to be able to discover and treat this disease. Less than 1 % of doctors are trained in Sleep Medicine to help the 40 million people afflicted with SA.

Here is a BMI calculator, from the Mayo Clinic, that you can use to determine your (or a child’s) BMI. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bmi-calculator/NU00597

Take the assessment, then rate yourself (below).

CATEGORY	BMI RANGE – KG/M2	BMI PRIME
Very severely underweight	less than 15	less than 0.60
Severely underweight	from 15.0 to 16.0	from 0.60 to 0.64
Underweight	from 16.0 to 18.5	from 0.64 to 0.74
Normal (healthy weight)	from 18.5 to 25	from 0.74 to 1.0
Overweight	from 25 to 30	from 1.0 to 1.2
Obese Class I (Moderately obese)	from 30 to 35	from 1.2 to 1.4
Obese Class II (Severely obese)	from 35 to 40	from 1.4 to 1.6
Obese Class III (Very severely obese)	over 40	over 1.6

Each unit increase in BMI is associated with a 14% increased risk of developing sleep apnea, and a 10% weight gain increases the odds of developing moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea by six times. Compared to normal-weight adults, those who are obese have a sevenfold increased risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea.

NECK CIRCUMFERENCE

 

BMI isn’t the sole marker of obesity that’s important. Men with a neck circumference above 16.5 inches (43 centimeters) and women with a neck circumference above 15 inches (38 centimeters) also have a significantly increased risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea.  That is because a thick neck may narrow the airway.

MEN- What size shirt do you wear?

Should Obesity Be a ‘Disease’?

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock:
Please read what the NY Times has to say about obesity.

Gray Matter

By CRYSTAL L. HOYT and JENI L. BURNETTE

IN June 2013, millions of Americans contracted a disease. They developed it not because of some pathogen or illness, but thanks to the American Medical Association’s decision to label obesity a “multi-metabolic and hormonal disease state.”

On its surface, this seemed like a good move: Calling obesity a disease provides a clear warning of the significant health risks associated with excessive weight. And the obesity-is-a-disease message sparked attention, funding and research aimed at finding medically driven remedies.

We wondered, however, if there also might be psychological ramifications inherent in that message. Would it reduce or add to the burden of body-image concerns and shame? Would it empower people to fight back, or lead to a fatalistic acceptance of being overweight?

We suspected that, while there might be some benefits, the message that obesity is a disease might also have important psychological costs. In collaboration with our colleague Lisa Auster-Gussman from the University of Minnesota, we tested that hypothesis in three studies of more than 700 people, the results of which recently appeared in the journal Psychological Science.

We randomly assigned some participants to read a newspaper article that detailed the A.M.A.’s recent decision. As a control, we assigned the others to read either a standard public health message about weight-loss goals from Washington Family magazine, or an article specifically stating that obesity is not a disease, which combined news coverage from Forbes and the Fox News website. Finally, they all completed questionnaires related to their attitudes about weight loss and eating behavior.

Our findings confirmed our suspicions. On the positive side, we found that the obesity-as-disease message increased body satisfaction among obese individuals, probably because it removed the shame of obesity as a moral failing.

However, there was also a significant negative consequence. Suggesting that one’s weight is a fixed state — like a long-term disease — made attempts at weight management seem futile, and thus undermined the importance that obese individuals placed on health-focused dieting and concern for weight.

More important, these reduced concerns about weight predicted less healthy, higher-calorie food choices. We asked the participants in the study to look at a menu and select among sandwich options ranging from 230 to 980 calories. Obese participants in the obesity-is-a-disease condition group made choices that had 7 percent more calories than obese participants in the control condition group. For normal-weight participants, food choice did not differ between the control condition groups.

Obesity is a crucial public health issue with significant medical, psychological, economic and social consequences, and there is no simple response to it. Obviously, the prevention and management of obesity need to target its complex and multifaceted causes.

But knowing that fact doesn’t necessarily lead to the right policies. Indeed, this sort of nuanced approach was a goal of the A.M.A.’s decision to label obesity a disease. As Patrice Harris, an A.M.A. board member, noted, “Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue.”

However, our research suggests that in targeting this epidemic, it is misguided to paint the problem in the broad strokes of a single definition. Rather, an interdisciplinary perspective is needed. In addition to understanding the medical costs and benefits of public health care decisions and policies, we must examine the individual-level psychological ramifications. When medical fields make decisions without considering the psychological consequences, they do so at their own peril, or perhaps more accurately at the peril of the people they most seek to help.

To be fair, any decision that involves an issue that cuts across physiological and psychological conditions will involve complications and trade-offs. Our research highlights one of these: Calling obesity a disease may make people feel better about their bodies, but it also may contribute to the maintenance, rather than reduction, of obesity.

Ideally, we would have a public health message that leads to a decrease in self-blame and stigma while at the same time promoting adaptive self-regulation and weight loss — both equally important components of the fight against the obesity epidemic. We’ve yet to find an answer to this dilemma.

Dreaming of Sleep: Silencing snoring for restful nights.

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock:
This a decent article about snoring. Unfortunately it doesn't mention it's connection to obstructive sleep apnea.

POSTED BY LOUISE PYPER / FEBRUARY 19, 2014 /

As children we all used to tease our parents and grandparents for snoring. It is not just the ‘old folk’ who snores, some of us can start snoring in our late teens and early twenties.

Snoring usually happens when something is partially obstructing your airways. The sound comes from you throat where air flows pass relaxed tissue and as you breathe the tissue starts for vibrate, causing the snoring sound. Snoring is not particularly dangerous, but can be depending on how your parter might ‘deal’ with the constant snoring.
There are different grades of snoring:

• Grade one – snoring is almost harmless, where snoring is infrequent and the sound is not very loud.
• Grade two – snoring is when a person snores on a regular basis (more than 3 times per week). They might also have mild breathing issues during sleep making them feel tired and sleepy the next day.
• Grade three – snoring is when a person snores very loudly each and every night. People suffering from Grade Three snoring may have obstructive sleep apnoea, which can lead to the airways being completely obstructed for up to 10 seconds. This can cause an individual to wake from a deep sleep during the night making them feel extremely tired the next day. This may effect your day-to-day life as you might experience poor memory, poor concentration, headaches, anxiety, depression, irritability and a short temper.

If you think you or your partner might be suffering from snoring you should try these methods:

1. Sleep on your side – lying on your back or stomach can be stressful on your neck.
2. Lose weight – excess body weight especially around the neck puts pressure on your airway.
3. Stay away from alcohol and sleeping pills – both of them can depress your central nervous system and relax the muscles in your throat.
4. Sort out your allergies – when your nose is partially blocked you will automatically start breathing through your mouth.
5. Get a mouthguard – to keep your teeth together when sleeping.
6. Stop smoking – as it damages your respiratory system.
7. Elevate your upper body – by raising the head of the bed or propping up your upper body to decrease the stress on your neck
8. Ozone therapy – might also improve your snoring and sleeping habits as Ozone Therapy increases oxygen levels in the blood, improves blood circulation, balances the body’s metabolism, relieves stress and anxiety and improves sleep. Ozone Therapy also combats allergy causing substances and will improve your overall health.

It is very important to keep a regular sleep schedule, by going to bed at a set time and waking up at a set time. This way you can insure you are getting your 7-8 hours of sleep. If you are pregnant and you start snoring all of a sudden it is best to go see your GP. It is no surprise that pregnant women start to snore as they have gained some extra body weight. When you snore your baby might get deprived of oxygen especially if you are a Grade Three snorer.

Snoring is not the end of the world. Try these steps and if none had worked visit your GP as something sinister might be going on.

Are you the culprit or the victim?

Police: Burglar found asleep on victim's couch holding knife

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock
Snoring and sleeping issues can get you arrested

Posted: 8:57 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — 

A Mount Dora woman said she woke up to find an alleged burglar asleep on her couch and holding one of her kitchen knives.

The burglary suspect, 26-year-old Duane Immich, was booked into the Lake County Jail. According to police, Immich burglarized several nearby businesses before making his way into the woman's home.

"I was in my kitchen going to make coffee and I heard snoring," victim Judith Smolinski said.

Smolinski said she was immediately startled by the snoring because she lives alone.

"I walked in the living room and there was a strange man on my couch curled up, covered up with my blanket," Smolinski said.

It was Immich on her couch and he had broke in during the night after going on a burglary spree, according to investigators. Smolinski said the man even took a beer from her refrigerator before going to sleep on the couch.

"He had one open beer on my coffee table," Smolinski said.

Immich has a criminal history that includes arrests for grand theft, drug possession and aggravated assault. Smolinski didn't know if the suspect was armed until a police officer woke him up by removing the blanket.

"She discovered he had my butcher knife on his chest and he was holding it with one of his hands," Smolinski said.

Police said they found evidence on Immich that linked him to three other burglaries and a car break-in. He's being held at the jail with no bond.

New Trucking Study Says Two Nights Sleep Safer than One

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released findings from what government officials are calling a “real world, third-party study” that shows two nights rest is better than one.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released findings from what government officials are calling a “real world, third-party study” that shows two nights rest is better than one.

The FMCSA news release says the latest study provides further scientific evidence that the restart provision in the current hours-of-service rule for truck drivers is more effective at combatting fatigue than the prior version.

“Safety is our top priority, and this new study shows more data-driven evidence that our safety standards help truckers stay well-rested, alert and focused on the road,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The hours-of-service rule is helping to reduce truck driver fatigue and making every traveler on our highways and roads safer.”

Scientists measured sleep, reaction time, sleepiness and driving performance in the study. They found that drivers who began their work week with just one nighttime period of rest, as compared to the two nights in the updated 34-hour restart break:

• exhibited more lapses of attention, especially at night;

• reported greater sleepiness, especially toward the end of their duty periods; and

• showed increased lane deviation in the morning, afternoon and at night.

“This new study confirms the science we used to make the hours-of-service rule more effective at preventing crashes that involve sleepy or drowsy truck drivers,” said Federal Motor Carrier Administrator Anne S. Ferro. “For the small percentage of truckers that average up to 70 hours of work a week, two nights of rest is better for their safety and the safety of everyone on the road.”

The study “Field Study on the Efficacy of the New Restart Provision for Hours of Service“ was conducted by the Washington State University, Spokane – Sleep and Performance Research Center and Philadelphia-based Pulsar Informatics, Inc. FMCSA officials claim it is one of the largest real-world studies ever conducted with commercial motor vehicle drivers, and included 106 participants, 1,260 days of data and nearly 415,000 miles of driving that were recorded by the truck-based data acquisition systems.

According to FMCSA, working long hours on a continuing basis is associated with chronic fatigue, a high risk of crashes, and a number of serious chronic health conditions in drivers. The updated 34-hour restart, includes two nighttime periods from 1 to 5 a.m., and is intended to provide sufficient time for a driver to recuperate from cumulative fatigue if they work beyond the weekly maximum on-duty limits.

Source: FMSCA

What Is It About Sleep Apnea That Seems To Predict Heart Risks?

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock

This is a serious issue.

Posted: 02/06/2014 9:01 am EST Updated: 02/06/2014 9:59 am EST

MORE:

Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular EventsSleep Apnea Cardiovascular RisksSleep Apnea Heart RisksSleep Apnea Cardiovascular DiseaseSleep Apnea HeartHealthy Living News

It's well-established that obstructive sleep apnea is linked with increased heart risks. But now, a new study teases apart what exactly it is about the sleep disorder, characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep leading to disrupted sleep, that seems to predict these cardiovascular events.

Obstructive sleep apnea is measured by the number of times a person stops breathing during sleep (the apnea-hypopnea index, or AHI). However, researchers found that there were a number of other elements of sleep apnea that seemed to be predictive of cardiovascular events. The biggest one: the amount of time spent sleeping when the oxygen saturation was below 90 percent.

Other elements associated with a cardiovascular event included heart rate, daytime sleepiness, number of awakenings during the night, sleep time and leg movements, the researchers found. While the apnea-hypopnea index was associated with cardiovascular events when it was looked at by itself, it was no longer considered a significant predictor once all the other elements were factored in.

The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, is based on 10,149 people with obstructive sleep apnea who underwent diagnostic polysomnography between 1994 and 2010; 1,172 of those people developed cardiovascular disease.

"We believe a revision of the operative definition of OSA [obstructive sleep apnea] may be necessary, to reflect not simply the frequency of apneas and hypopneas, but the actual physiologic consequences that result -- the severity of oxygen desaturation, sleep fragmentation, sleep deprivation and sympathetic activation," the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital researchers said in the study. "It is these 'downstream' phenomena that we have found to be more predictive of CV [cardiovascular] risk."

Snore Sensing Pillow Automatically Nudges You To Roll Over

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock

Too much nudging can make you exhausted in the morning.

Andrew Liszewski, Gawker Media

Feb 5, 2014, 08.10 PM IST

It seems like snoring has become more of an epidemic than any of us have realized. At CES,Sleep Number revealed its IQ bed that lets bedmates silence a snoring partner. But now there's a pillow that can stop a deafening snorer all by itself.

Using a built-in microphone with adjustable sensitivity, the pillow listens for loud or soft snorers and then automatically inflates an internal air bladder which increases the pillow's height by up to three inches. This in turn has the effect of gently waking the snorer so they roll over or simply move their head to clear their airways.

When activated just as you're ready to call it a night, the pillow has a 30-minute grace period giving you enough time to fall asleep without the bladder inflating. At $150 it's not cheap, it can't be flipped, and it has to be plugged in all night long. So if you're always on the hunt for the cool side of the pillow, this isn't for you. Unless your bedmate who hasn't slept for the past three or four days strongly insists. [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Connected clothing can tell how soundly your baby is sleeping

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock
Here is a device for parents to monitor their sleeping infants.

Nick Barber                                                                                           February 4, 2014
@nickjb

Singing along to the Disney movie playing in the background, Dulcie Madden helped hand-package thousands of high-tech baby clothes from her start up in Boston’s Leather District. Madden is the CEO and co-founder of Rest Devices, which just last weekend started shipping its Mimo connected “onesie” to stores across the US. The $200 system aims to help anxious parents by monitoring a baby’s movement, respiration, position and skin temperature and delivering the information with audio to smartphones.

See TechHive’s profile of Mimo from CES 2014

 “The green stripes on the front of the onesie are the respiration sensors, which pick up the baby’s breathing throughout the night or as they’re playing,” Madden said. The green plastic turtle that attaches to the onesie has a temperature sensor, accelerometer and Bluetooth low-energy chip to deliver the information to the “lily pad,” which acts as a bridge between the onesie and the home’s WiFi network.

“We basically designed it because we had parents coming to us saying ‘I wake up over and over in the middle of the night because I’m wondering if everything is okay with my baby,’” Madden said. “It’s really there to be an extra tool for parents.”

Along with co-founder Thomas Lipoma, Madden leads a group of seven young employees, all but one of whom hail from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a loft style office that Rest Devices shared with a custom tailoring company, the group developed, prototyped and began manufacturing Mimo.

“Since we started working on the baby monitor, we had three competitors pop up,” said Madden, citing the ability to rapidly prototype as an advantage. Rest Devices has a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer and a desktop injection molder on site. Lipoma uses a suite of software from Autodesk to design the 3D models, which are then sent to the 3D printer.

“If we have a first concept, we’re going to immediately CAD it,” said Lipoma. “Within half and hour we can have something up. We can print it. We can feel it.”

In December Intel invited Rest Devices to join the chip maker on stage at its CES keynote in January 2014. The Mimo turtle will eventually use Edison, an Intel chip that is a computer the size of an SD card. Currently, the team uses a homemade version since Edison won’t be available until later this year.

http://www.pcworld.com/video/iframe/30442/iframe.html

With the exception of the onesie, which comes from India, all of the components of the system and the assembly is done in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. For durability testing, the team 3D-printed a contraption that used a small motor to restart a washer and dryer.

“If you think about washing a thousand onesies hundreds of times, that’s a lot of laundry. So we added servos to the washer and dryer so that they’ll automatically restart and run on self-cycled water.”

They also modified another 3D printer so the process of applying the silver paste, for use in the respiration sensor, can be automated.

The first few thousand units are being hand assembled by the team in the Boston office, after which manufacturing and assembly will move one state north to New Hampshire.

The company’s next project is a connected bottle warmer. The idea is that when a baby wakes up in the middle of the night, the Mimo onesie sends a signal to the bottle warmer to start warming the baby’s milk.

After that they’re looking to help parents with potty training.

Snoring alone: Sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome can make it hard for significant others to share same bed

CASSELTON, N.D. – Linda Wendel discovered distance was the key to dealing with her husband’s loud snoring.

By: Ryan Johnson, INFORUM

CASSELTON, N.D. – Linda Wendel discovered distance was the key to dealing with her husband’s loud snoring.

Dan Wendel snored even when they married eight years ago, she said. But when it got worse, and the self-described light sleeper couldn’t get the rest she needed, she used a move to a new house in Lisbon, N.D., years ago as a chance to do something about it.

“I told him, ‘You can just sleep in the basement. I don’t need this,’ ” she said.

The couple slept alone, Dan in the basement and Linda in an upstairs bedroom. Despite her complaints, nothing changed.

“There was just no way that you could sleep in the same room as him,” she said.

But that changed about five years ago, a combination of several things that Linda Wendel said were finally enough to get her husband to take it seriously and schedule an appointment that would diagnose him with obstructive sleep apnea.

“It was night and day,” she said about the change she witnessed in Dan, thanks to the help of a continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) machine after diagnosis.

Shaun Christenson, a neurologist and sleep disorder specialist at Essentia Health in Fargo, said cases like the Wendels’ are fairly common – and often only come to the attention of medical professionals after tough love from the bed partners who lose sleep to their loved one’s snoring, obstructive sleep apnea, nighttime kicking and nudging caused by restless legs syndrome or other sleep disorders.

“It’s their partner that’s telling them to go see the doctor, because the snoring is so loud and disturbing they’ll say they’ve got to see a doctor and there’s something wrong,” he said.

LOSING SLEEP

More than half of middle-age and older adults snore, and many of those suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to Dr. Samy Karaz, a physician and medical director of Sanford Health’s Sleep Medicine Center in Fargo.

Men are the most frequent offenders, he said, though women tend to catch up after menopause because higher testosterone levels can result in more accumulation of fat and muscles in the neck, crowding the throat and putting extra pressure on the soft throat muscles.

But while related, sleep apnea is much more than the loud snoring that can be one of the most obvious symptoms.

Karaz said when people are awake, their throat muscles are always stretched open, which opens the airway – and keeps our daytime breathing quiet. But once we fall asleep, these muscles start to relax, narrowing the airway and causing snoring.

Apnea takes it one step further, closing the throat entirely during sleep – which is why sufferers will actually stop breathing for short periods of time, then usually snort or gasp for air.

The noise can be enough of a hassle for bed partners, Karaz said. But they also face high anxiety, he said, with some worrying their loved one won’t start breathing again unless they nudge them awake.

“Many of them really worry that the person who has the pausing might die, or wonder will he die if he quits breathing,” he said.

Though it’s “extremely rare” for someone to die from sleep apnea, he said it can lead to medical woes for those who suffer from it. If left untreated, it shortens a sufferer’s lifespan by an average of five years and drastically increases the risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, depression and obesity – and being overweight can make it worse, expanding the fat cells in the neck and further narrowing the airway.

“It becomes a vicious cycle,” he said. “They have apnea, they sleep poorly, they eat more, they get more obese, and they have more apnea.”

The apnea sufferer may not realize it, but their condition also makes it nearly impossible to get quality sleep – no matter how many hours they spend in bed each night.

A healthy person will spend 95 percent or more of their sleep in the deeper sleep stages to get proper rest, Karaz said. But apnea sufferers’ brains have to wake up from sleep tens, or even hundreds, of times each hour to open up the throat, meaning they rarely get deep sleep.

“It’s like a diver being pulled out of the water repeatedly, so they never have a chance to reach deep sleep and stay in deep sleep,” he said.

Many will end up with chronic daytime sleepiness, struggling to stay awake when they sit down and finding it hard to focus at work, he said – though many don’t realize what they’re missing out on because they’re so used to their condition.

PILLOW TALK

Dan Wendel had several warning signs, including waking up with a sore throat every morning and finding it difficult to get the energy to help his wife with their young kids or household chores. He was groggy at work, but said he figured he was just like everyone else.

The issue came to a boiling point about five years ago, when he went to a fishing tournament with relatives and shared a cabin for the overnight trip.

“That night, I kept up the entire cabin,” he said.

Dan Wendel’s uncle confronted him the next day, saying he was the loudest snorer he’d ever heard, and suggested he should go to a doctor.

That experience, along with his wife’s urging and suspicion that his symptoms could be caused by depression, finally got him to go for help – reluctantly.

“I thought I’d do it just to get people off my back,” he said.

With the referral of his primary-care physician, Wendel spent a night at Sanford’s sleep clinic, and specialists hooked him up to a CPAP machine to see if it would help.

“I woke up from my test, and I remembered the dream that I had just sleeping in the center,” he said. “I hadn’t dreamt and remembered a dream in three or four years.”

Now, Dan Wendel is a faithful user of the CPAP machine that uses a continuous stream of low air pressure to keep the airway open, helping him get good sleep – and putting an end to his snoring that had kept him apart from his wife at night.

“You didn’t get the pillow talk at night and stuff like that,” he said. “But every night now before we go to bed, we always talk through our days and talk about whatever happened. That’s kind of nice.”

Linda Wendel said she had learned to deal with the snoring before, but she appreciates having her husband alert and energetic again because he’s now able to help her with chores, caring for their three children or even just stay awake on long drives.

“It’s just nice to not have him basically only physically present,” she said. “Even though he was sitting there in a chair, to me it didn’t count when he wasn’t interacting.”

When sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, sleepwalking or other nighttime conditions prevent a bed partner from getting their sleep, too, Christenson said it can lead to frustration, anxiety and even embarrassment if the couple has to sleep in separate beds.

But rather than ignoring the warning signs and letting things get to a breaking point after years of restless nights, he said people should listen to their loved one’s concerns and consider talking with their physician to see if they could benefit from treatment.

“If it is to the point where your significant other or spouse is kicking you out of the bed, that means it’s a pretty significant problem,” he said.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Ryan Johnson at (701) 241-5587